Secure by Design solutions to accelerate business cybersecurity with NTT LTD and Cisco

by Mayren Guico / November 6, 2020

Organizations today must continually adapt to new technology and innovate to remain competitive and relevant most especially during an unprecedented global pandemic. However, in the rush to modernize their systems and operations, multiple vulnerabilities are introduced across businesses, and are exposed to a growing number of risks.

Now into the expected recovery phase, organizations need to move quickly to ensure that their infrastructure, which was initially designed to support one way of working, can now keep a new remote and distributed workforce connected, productive and secure. This requires a Secure by Design approach to ensure agility, while at the same time not compromising the organization’s security posture.

NTT Ltd. recently announced the expansion of its existing security services portfolio and reference architectures with Cisco, to provide enhanced secure networking to organizations around the world.

“Secure by Design means being cybersecurity conscious at all levels of business and building security into the solution from the very start,” says Matthew Gyde, Chief Executive Officer and President for NTT Ltd.’s Security division. “Expansion of the existing relationship with our long-time partner, Cisco will strengthen our portfolio of solutions for our clients.”

NTT Ltd.’s managed security services incorporate a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture, which leverages the cloud-delivered firewall, now available with Cisco Umbrella, combined with Cisco’s SD-WAN (Software Defined Wide Area Network). NTT Ltd. will continue to support Cisco’s on-premise Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) product and Firepower series appliances, across three global security services platforms: Threat Detection, Enterprise Security Monitoring, and Device Management. 

Enhanced by Cisco’s latest technologies, NTT Ltd.’s managed security services provide additional protection by detecting unknown malicious activity through its unique threat intelligence and AI detection capabilities. This will support alert correlation activity, optimize security controls, and enable organizations to prioritize their vulnerabilities.

“NTT Ltd.’s Secure by Design approach delivers tangible outcomes to clients that want to extract the full value of Cisco’s suite of cybersecurity products and the software development, as well as the  integration with Cisco’s software-defined networking solution,” said John Maynard, Vice President, Global Security Sales at Cisco. “With the rise in SaaS adoption and number of remote offices and users, organizations are adopting SD-WAN* solutions to manage different types of traffic and enable direct-to-internet access. The addition of Cisco Umbrella will offer NTT clients the scale, security, and reliability needed to safely enable today’s remote workforce.”

According to Dominic Trott, IDC’s Research Director for Security and Privacy in Europe, Secure by Design concepts are a potent weapon in the security team’s armoury when seeking to link security with business outcomes.

“[Secure by Design] provides project owners and users the confidence to focus on innovation and supporting client needs, without having to worry about the security implications. NTT’s partnership with Cisco, which ‘bakes’ security into network and cloud infrastructures, can help customers turn the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity for security to demonstrate its transformational impact.”

Trott also stated that IDC’s research shows that, while ‘tactical’ use cases such as secure remote access dominated early responses to the crisis, sentiment is shifting towards more strategic use cases such as secure connectivity and data security, where the partnership can have an impact.

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