Cisco announced this week the launch of Umbrella, a cloud-based Secure Internet Gateway (SIG) solution designed to provide visibility and protection for devices on and outside the corporate network.
Organizations are increasingly relying on software-as-a-service (SaaS) products, such as WebEx, Office 365, Google Docs, Salesforce and Box. While these applications can significantly improve productivity, they are often used over untrusted Internet connections without being protected by a VPN.
Cisco wants to address this problem with the launch of Umbrella. The new cloud service aims to provide safe and secure access from anywhere, even if a VPN is not used.
The networking giant obtained the Umbrella technology when it acquired OpenDNS in 2015. The company said the new product combines the original technology with machine learning models designed for uncovering threats and blocking malicious connections on the DNS and IP layers, Cisco Talos threat intelligence, and Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) technology for detecting and blocking malicious files in the cloud.
With Umbrella, Cisco promises enhanced visibility and control, including for sensitive data in SaaS applications via Cloudlock technology, and intelligence from the more than 100 billion requests resolved every day.
Cisco said the cloud-based SIG provides reliable and fast connectivity, and it can be easily integrated with existing appliances, intelligence platforms and custom tools.
“Umbrella was built upon the OpenDNS platform, a platform that has been delivered from the cloud since its inception. Then we integrated technology from across the Cisco security portfolio, including capabilities from the Cloud Web Security proxy, and the Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) file inspection,” said Brian Roddy, who oversees Cisco’s Cloud Security Business. “These technologies haven’t just been stitched together, but re-engineered to be delivered within Umbrella, so that they’re easy to use and able to deliver even more effective security.”
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