Why Solution Providers Need Zero Trust Connectivity
In today’s hyper-connected world, solution providers, including product manufacturers, industrial and enterprise software vendors, and cybersecurity solution firms, face an increasing need to secure their connected products. As companies deploy these solutions in critical infrastructure and other high-security environments, they turn to zero trust connectivity, such as that offered by NetFoundry, to protect against cyber threats and ensure seamless, secure access. In fact, companies design-in and OEM the Netfoundry connectivity layer into the products they take to market in order to meet stringent security requirements while transforming how they operate.
The rise of IIoT (industrial Internet of Things) devices, smart connected products, IT-OT convergence and cloud-based applications has increased the risk of cyberattacks. Solution providers are tasked with ensuring that their products are not just functional but also secure in highly sensitive environments like energy grids, substations, factories, healthcare systems, and financial institutions.
Zero trust connectivity ensures that every user, device, and application is authenticated and authorized before granting access to a network. This security model reduces the risk of breaches by verifying every interaction—no entity is trusted by default. By embedding this level of security directly into their products, providers can offer solutions that are resilient against modern cyber threats.
Secure by Design
NetFoundry’s Zero Trust architecture provides secure, direct connections for companies OEMing our embeddable networking & connectivity.
Transform Business Processes with Secure Access to Connected Products
Use Cases and Business Processes Supported by Secure Access to Connected Products
With zero trust connectivity embedded into their products, solution providers can support a variety of use cases and secure business processes, such as:
- OT and Critical Infrastructure Management: Enabling secure control and monitoring of energy grids, transportation systems, and utilities, where breaches could have devastating consequences.
- Industrial Software & IIoT in Manufacturing: Connecting machines and devices in smart factories for real-time monitoring, remote service, predictive maintenance, and secure data sharing.
- Healthcare Device Connectivity: Ensuring that connected medical devices and systems maintain compliance with regulations (e.g., HIPAA) and secure patient data across hospital networks.
- On-premise Software Access: Securing remote access to enterprise applications, databases, and workflows for employees and partners while maintaining strong control over sensitive information.
- Cybersecurity Management: Allowing cybersecurity firms to securely configure, manage and update software in real-time across multiple customer environments.
- Connected Product Data Ingress and Egress: Accessing data from the products to support analytics, AI solutions, remote service, and innovative business solutions such as usage-based pricing and products-as-a service.
What is Embeddable Zero Trust Networking
NetFoundry’s embeddable zero trust networking & connectivity refers to a network solution that allows software developers to use SDKs and APIs to integrate secure, zero trust networking capabilities directly into their applications, services, or products. It is ideal for companies that want to design in zero trust connectivity and OEM NetFoundry’s zero trust connectivity into their products. The key concept of zero trust is that no entity—whether inside or outside the network—should be trusted by default, and every interaction must be verified to ensure security.
Key Aspects of NetFoundry’s Embeddable Zero Trust Connectivity
- Embedded into Applications: Unlike traditional networking solutions, NetFoundry’s platform allows developers to integrate zero trust security features natively within their software using SDKs, APIs and tunnelers. This “overlay networking as code” approach reduces the need for external security layers and streamlines secure connections between users, devices, and data.
- No VPNs or Traditional Network Infrastructure: NetFoundry eliminates the need for VPNs, firewalls, and other legacy perimeter security infrastructure by providing a secure, identity-based networking layer. This is critical for environments where perimeter-based security (such as firewalls) is insufficient, particularly in cloud and hybrid environments.
- Secure by Design: Security is built into the core of the solution, enforcing identity, context, and policy verification before granting access. This means that users and devices must authenticate and be authorized before they can access any resources.
- Scalability and Flexibility: NetFoundry’s solution is designed for easy scaling, allowing companies to secure communications between distributed services (e.g., microservices, IoT devices, or edge environments) in a flexible and automated way.
- Use Cases: It is particularly useful for industries like energy, manufacturing, healthcare, financial services and software that need to offer secure extranet or partner access. Manufacturers embedding connectivity into IoT or smart connected products use this approach to ensure secure, automated, and scalable network communication.
By offering embeddable zero trust connectivity, NetFoundry enables companies to build secure-by-design applications and products that inherently protect against cyber threats, ensuring robust security from within, rather than relying on traditional, external security measures.
Embeddable Zero Trust Networking: Security Built into Your Applications
NetFoundry’s embeddable zero trust networking allows developers to integrate secure, identity-based connectivity directly into applications, eliminating the need for traditional network security layers and ensuring scalable, secure-by-design communications across distributed environments.
Understanding Software-Defined Overlay Networks and NetFoundry’s Secure Connectivity
What is a Software Defined Overlay Network
A software-defined overlay network (SDN overlay) is a virtual network built on top of existing physical networks (underlay networks). It abstracts the underlying network infrastructure and allows for the creation of separate, logical networks that can be customized for specific use cases. These overlay networks are managed and controlled through software, allowing organizations to quickly configure and reconfigure the network without changing the underlying physical infrastructure.
Key Aspects of a Software-Defined Overlay Network
- Abstraction: The network is separated from the underlying hardware, creating virtual connections between devices or applications without the need for physical changes.
- Flexibility: Administrators can create and manage network segments, routes, and policies via software, allowing for more rapid, scalable network configurations.
- Security and Traffic Control: Overlay networks can apply encryption, traffic isolation, and other security features independently from the physical network, offering enhanced protection and control over data flows.
How It Relates to NetFoundry’s Embeddable Zero Trust Connectivity
NetFoundry’s embeddable zero trust connectivity is based on software-defined overlay networks, which provide the foundation for secure, agile networking. Here’s how they relate:
- Separation of Control and Data Planes: NetFoundry’s Software Defined Network Overlays allow companies to define network policies and manage access control separately from the physical network. This aligns with zero trust principles, where every action, connection, and data flow is continuously authenticated and authorized.
- Zero Trust Architecture: NetFoundry’s embeddable solution leverages SDN overlays to ensure secure connectivity between applications, users, and devices. The zero trust model embedded into the overlay means that every node in the network must be verified before data exchange, without trusting any inherent aspects of the underlying network.
- Agility and Scalability: By using software-defined overlays, NetFoundry provides a dynamic way to scale secure network connections. Enterprises can rapidly extend connectivity across cloud, edge, and hybrid environments, embedding secure, zero trust communications in distributed applications without worrying about the limitations of physical infrastructure.
- Encryption and Secure Tunnels: Like most overlay networks, NetFoundry’s solution encrypts data between virtual nodes. However, it builds on this with zero trust policies, ensuring that every connection through the overlay is authenticated, authorized, and encrypted to reduce attack surfaces.
In essence, NetFoundry’s embeddable zero trust connectivity uses software-defined overlay networks as the vehicle to deliver secure, policy-driven, and scalable connectivity that can be seamlessly embedded into applications and platforms. Companies requiring this increased level of zero trust security often OEM Netfoundry’s connectivity into their products and solutions.
What Is An Internet Overlay
An internet overlay refers to a virtual network that operates on top of the existing physical internet infrastructure. It is a software-defined network that provides customized networking services, such as secure communication, traffic routing, or enhanced performance, without altering the underlying internet. These overlays abstract the complexity of the underlying internet infrastructure and provide specific functionalities, such as encryption, traffic control, or application-level networking, tailored for various needs.
Key Characteristics of an Internet Overlay
- Virtual Network Layer: It operates independently of the physical layer, allowing users to create and control their own network on top of the internet.
- Secure and Isolated Traffic: Overlays often use encryption and other techniques to ensure secure communication between participants, making them ideal for secure networking over the public internet.
- Customization: Overlay networks enable organizations to define their own routing policies, traffic prioritization, and security measures, often without the need for physical changes to the infrastructure.
- Scalability: These networks can be expanded or contracted without affecting the underlying internet, making them agile for businesses that need to scale services quickly.
NetFoundry’s Internet Overlay
NetFoundry’s overlay networking can be applied to any underlay network including both internal corporate networks and the internet. The NetFoundry internet overlay capability is part of the NetFoundry Platform and allows companies to create a secure, software-defined overlay for secure business use that runs on top of the public internet. This overlay provides:
- Zero trust connectivity: Every device, user, and application is verified before being granted access to the network, ensuring that even when using the public internet, the network remains secure.
- End-to-end encryption: The overlay ensures secure communication, isolating data and traffic from potential threats on the underlying internet.
- Optimized routing: The NetFoundry platform routes traffic through its overlay in a way that optimizes performance, reliability, and security, without relying on traditional networking methods like VPNs.
- Global reach with cloud integration: NetFoundry’s internet overlay extends across the globe and integrates easily with cloud providers, allowing businesses to connect applications, devices, and users across multiple environments securely.
Understanding Internet Overlays and NetFoundry’s Secure Solution
Internet overlays create virtual networks on top of the existing internet, providing secure, customizable, and scalable connectivity. NetFoundry’s internet overlay offers zero trust security, end-to-end encryption, and optimized routing for seamless global integration.
NetFoundry Platform & Cloud
NetFoundry Platform is a comprehensive development environment for creating, embedding and managing networks. It can be deployed in a traditional on-premise model or as Networking as a Service model using NetFoundry Cloud. The platform enables secure, scalable, and programmable networking, specifically designed to build software-defined overlay networks and support zero trust principles. It is built to simplify the development, deployment, and management of secure, software-defined networks over any public or private network. The NetFoundry Cloud offering is cloud-native offering, hosted and managed by NetFoundry and allows companies to easily build, embed, connect and manage zero trust networks and connectivity without having to worry about managing the infrastructure. Both the NetFoundry Platform and NetFoundry Cloud provide the following four major capabilities:
Build
NetFoundry provides a developer-centric platform that allows businesses to build secure networking solutions without needing to manage or maintain traditional networking hardware or infrastructure. Using APIs and SDKs, developers can create customizable network configurations to suit their specific application needs. This ensures that security and network architecture are integrated right from the design phase, significantly reducing the complexity of implementing secure connectivity.
Embed
NetFoundry enables organizations to embed zero trust networking capabilities directly into their applications, devices, or services. This is made possible through the use of SDKs and libraries that allow developers to integrate NetFoundry’s secure, software-defined networking into their products. By embedding security natively, the need for external VPNs or traditional perimeter-based security models is eliminated. Applications can connect securely to cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments with minimal effort, enabling fast and secure deployments.
Connect
NetFoundry’s connectivity is based on a secure, software-defined overlay network that operates over the public internet or private networks. This allows applications, users, and devices to securely communicate regardless of location. NetFoundry’s platform uses zero trust principles, meaning every connection is authenticated, encrypted, and authorized before data is transmitted. This ensures a secure-by-design network without the need for complex network setup or expensive dedicated links like MPLS. Connections can span clouds, data centers, and edge locations, providing businesses with global, secure access.
Manage
NetFoundry provides a powerful management layer that allows organizations to manage and monitor their network from a single, centralized interface. This includes automated policy enforcement, identity-based access controls, and real-time traffic visibility. Businesses can manage their network infrastructure with fine-grained control over security policies, access control, and network performance, ensuring compliance and optimizing performance. The platform also allows for easy scaling, as organizations can add or remove endpoints, users, or services without manual configuration changes to the underlying network.
In summary, NetFoundry enables businesses to build secure networks, embed zero trust into their applications, connect securely across any network, and manage their infrastructure with ease, leveraging cloud-native principles and automation
Unlock Business Value with Embedded Zero Trust Connectivity
Business Benefits of the Most Secure Connectivity and Embedded Approach
By embedding zero trust connectivity directly into products, companies unlock significant business benefits:
- Enhanced Security: Embedding security directly into the products ensures that devices, applications, and systems are protected against unauthorized access, providing defense-in-depth against cyber threats.
- Faster Sales Cycles: By not requiring the customer to provide security or open up access to their networks, companies eliminate sales friction for IT, OT and Security teams.
- Competitive Differentiation: Solution providers who offer built-in, zero trust connectivity can differentiate themselves in the market by delivering more secure and robust products, giving them an edge over competitors.
- Operational Efficiency: Secure remote access to connected products streamlines management, monitoring, and updates, reducing the need for on-site interventions and minimizing downtime.
- Scalability: NetFoundry’s software-defined, zero trust architecture is designed to scale, allowing providers to expand their product’s secure connectivity footprint as needed without infrastructure changes.
- Compliance and Risk Reduction: Products embedded with zero trust solutions help organizations comply with stringent regulatory requirements, particularly in industries like healthcare and critical infrastructure, while reducing the risk of data breaches and cyberattacks.
NetFoundry’s OEM Offering
By OEMing and embedding NetFoundry’s zero trust connectivity, solution providers can ensure their products are not only innovative but also offer the highest levels of security required by today’s most sensitive environments. NetFoundry makes it easy to white label and use their connectivity as a native feature in their go-to-market products. It unlocks both product and business innovation and helps companies leapfrog their competition in providing the most leading edge and secure connected products.
