Cato Cloud Adds Identity-based Routing

Citynet6

By: Michael Vizard
July 18, 2018


Cato Networks today announced it has injected an identity-based routing engine into its cloud-based software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN).

The goal of identity-based routing is to enable organizations to route traffic across a global Cato Cloud services based on either a specific user identity or the role they play within the organization. It can help make networks more secure as well as improve performance by tracking specific network users and applications on the WAN.

Cato Networks also today announced that it has updated Cato Cloud to add support for policy-based routing and optimizations across multiple wide area network (WAN) segments, real-time analytics, high-availability with the Cato networking appliance deployed on the customer premises.

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The Cato Cloud gives organizations a dedicated global virtual SD-WAN that can be accessed by a network appliance remotely managed by Cato Networks. Each organization is then provided with a console that provides access to tools to monitor and analyze traffic flows in real time as they move across the Cato Cloud network.

Collectively, those tools and the addition of identity-based routing engine provide organizations with more fine-grain control over the quality of service (QoS) on an SD-WAN than many of them could ever hope to achieve on their own, says Dave Greenfield, secure networking evangelist for Cato Networks.

The identity-based routing engine leverages integration with LDAP and Microsoft Active Directory (AD) to determine user names and their role within the organization. Cato dynamically correlates Microsoft Active Directory (AD) data, across distributed AD repositories, and real-time AD login events to associate a unique identity with every packet flow, says Greenfield. Organizational context, such as groups and business units, is derived from the AD hierarchy. Armed with that information, the routing engine can then prioritize network traffic to, for example, engineers working on a time-critical project, says Greenfield.

“It allows you to control routing the way you think about your business,” says Greenfield.

When it comes SD-WANs more than a few organizations are now standing at a crossroads. Historically, may organization have faced with deciding to build and manage their own WAN or rely on a service typically provided by a telecommunications carrier. With the rise of the cloud, however, the number of SD-WAN services options is steadily increasing as the cost of making available SD-WAN services at scale continue to decline.

Cato Network is one of the pioneering SD-WAN companies included in Futuriom's 2018 SD-WAN Growth Outlook. Learn about why this market will grow to billions of dollars in the next few years and which companies will benefit. 2018 SD-WAN Growth Outlook is now available to premium subscribers. Use "FOFU" code for a 10 percent discount.