Cloud network software company Cradlepoint has released a ‘service package’ for Internet of Things (IoT) deployments, featuring Software-Defined Perimeter technology for device-to-cloud connectivity.
The firm has previously been known for its work in 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network topologies and technologies, but Cradlepoint is now focused on the engineering gateways – figuratively and technically – that will provide a pathway toward the 5G telecommunications standard.
Cradlepoint’s NetCloud Solution Packages model officially launched in January 2018, and under this banner sits the company’s Elastic Edge concept. Essentially a set of device and network deployment blueprints with both a hardware and software component, the services package includes physical routers, pervasive wireless connectivity, cloud management tools, and Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP) security.
Black Cloud, silver lining
Also sometimes known as Black Cloud, SDP is an approach to device authentication and identity-based access that champions the use of dynamically provisioned connectivity.
This means that any single IoT device’s ‘posture’ (configuration, registry address, data workload, and other core values that make up its identity) have to be cryptographically verified against an approved standard (or set of values) before access to application infrastructure is granted.
This use of SDP for device identity verification uses encrypted and perimeter-secured virtual overlays with private IP addressing, to isolate and cloak IoT devices from the internet itself.
“We’ve bundled cloud management and advanced, software-defined security with every NetCloud Solution Package for IoT we sell, so customers don’t have to,” said Todd Krautkremer, SVP of strategy and partnerships at Cradlepoint.
The company envisages IoT use cases for Elastic Edge in what it describes as even the most “cost-sensitive use cases”, including kiosks, vending machines, ATMs, digital signage, and remote sensors.
“Despite the huge growth in IoT deployments, security and management-related costs remain top concerns for IT organisations,” said James Brehm, founder of Brehm & Associates, a strategy and consulting firm focusing on Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and IoT technologies.
“Cradlepoint has taken a service-oriented approach to addressing these challenges by combining cloud management, routing and security features, along with purpose-built hardware, into a single cloud service with 24×7 vendor support.”
Internet of business says
As the growth of the IoT fuels the proliferation of devices empowered, to an increasing degree, with their own compute and analytics functions in the critical edge computing space, the need to lock down data routing pathways has become more pressing than ever.
The marriage of hardware and software engineering may be a trend to watch as we enter the ‘We never secured the IoT when we first built it’ era.