Yesterday Microsoft announced they are establishing a public cloud region in New Zealand.
With leading cloud security provider Zscaler also launching a local node here only 12 months ago, it cements NZ as a place for major cloud providers to invest; bringing world-class technology and innovation at a scale we can’t replicate.
While cloud services were historically only associated with advanced computing and data analytics capabilities, the cloud ecosystem has expanded to include connectivity and collaboration tools; transforming services that hadn’t changed much for the last 30 years. Did you know Microsoft offers a service called Azure Virtual WAN?
While this is great news for consumers, it heralds a new type of competition for local telco and data centre operators
The impact of this is immediate. Rather than using your telco to provide a WAN, network security, voice and video conferencing, you can already get these from a cloud provider. Whether that is Microsoft Teams for video and voice calling or Zscaler for secure access to your apps, your ISP is really left just delivering a fast and reliable internet connection, unable to compete against the scale and innovation being brought to the table by major global players.
A key enabler of this transformation is “Secure Access Service Edge” or “SASE.” A term originally coined by Gartner who described it as the combination of “network security functions with WAN capabilities to support the dynamic secure access needs of organizations. These capabilities are delivered primarily ‘as-a-Service’ and based upon the identity of the entity, real-time context and security/compliance policies.” Long story short, it’s cloud provided, zero-trust secure access to your apps, whether they’re SaaS apps or your own private apps.
With Gartner predicting that 40% of companies will adopt SASE by 2024. The arrival of major cloud providers on NZ shores will make this uptake a reality for kiwi companies and sees the day fast approaching where our cloud provider becomes our telecommunications and security provider.
