Has the time come for integrated network and security platforms?

Platformization isn’t a new trend, but there’s renewed focus from a number of vendors, including Fortinet, Palo Alto, HPE Aruba, and Cisco, as enterprises weigh the appeal of combining network and security features in a single overarching platform.

Palo Alto Networks created some buzz in February, when it announced a wholesale platformization of the company’s security products and services.

The goal of platformization “has been elusive in the past, with many large infrastructure companies and security-focused vendors failing to convince the market that the benefits of a consolidated solution outweighed the risks of using ‘good enough’ solutions. Palo Alto’s mission appears to be to provide the best of both worlds with a focus on maintaining innovation,” wrote research firm William Blair & Company in a brief about Palo Alto’s plans.

Interest in platformization is growing among enterprises, asserts Extreme Networks, which recently surveyed 200 CIOs and senior IT leaders for its research, CIO Insights Report: Priorities and Investment Plans in the Era of Platformization.

Some 88% of CIOs surveyed said platformization could help them integrate multiple embedded components, including networking, security and eventually AI, within a single, manageable package.

A platform that helps organizations transition their network to the cloud to streamline IT efficiency and lower total cost of ownership is important, respondents said. In addition, 55% of respondents emphasized the need to integrate from a broad ecosystem of networking and security offerings, indicating a clear demand for unified platforms, Extreme concluded.

“The message I got from the survey was that customers are operating in a world where there’s a massive proliferation of products, or applications, and that’s really translating into complexity. Complexity is equal to risk, and that complexity is happening in multiple places,” said Extreme Networks CTO Nabil Bukhari.

Complexity is an interesting topic because it changes, Bukhari said. The first Ford cars were basically just an engine with brakes, but they were complicated to start and drive. “Now, if you look at a car, they are like data centers on wheels. But driving and owning them is exponentially easier,” Bukhari said.

“Technology is progressively becoming more and more complex,” but platformization makes the process of buying it, running it, and experiencing it significantly easier, Bukhari said. “On one side, it’s much, much more complex technology, but it is bundled and built in such a way that, as a user, as a customer, it makes your life simpler.”

Extreme’s mantra is to make secure networking easy to achieve. “And platforms – at least the way we think about platforms – will massively help in that movement. They will become progressively simpler to buy, to operate, to manage, and there will not be this massive requirement to retrain people or get new skill sets,” Bukhari said.

Bukhari also believes platform-based systems will be what ultimately make AI-based technologies shine.

“The true unlocking of AI will happen when AI and platforms come together, and that is what will deliver the sustainable, escalating value,” Bukhari said. “The job of the vendor is not to AI wash everything, but simply apply AI to either accelerate experiences, replace experiences, or create new experiences.”

In the Extreme survey, 84% of respondents said they have started to integrate AI into their tech stack. In addition, 40% said their biggest concern with AI is keeping data secure. Nearly one-third of respondents (32%) said they had not yet seen significant ROI from AI investments nor efficiency improvements post-implementation.

Ultimately, there are three characteristics to look for in any platform offering, Bukhari said. “Does it simplify, unify your experience across capabilities, both at the buyer and the user journey? Does it give you capabilities that are integrated at workflow, common services and data layer? And does that platform deliver you escalating value as you add more and more capabilities on that platform? If the answer is yes, then that is the platform you should go towards,” Bukhari said.

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