It may seem unbelievable, but we’re already about halfway through 2016. And that means that we’re about 6 months removed from the abundance of tech trends reports and predictions for this year and beyond. 

It’s almost impossible to keep pace with the rapid advancement of technologies such as firewalls, SDN and the cloud, but staying on top of emerging trends can help you ensure your network architecture doesn’t fall behind.

Let’s take a look into the crystal ball and see what industry pundits think we can look forward to with firewalls, SDN and cloud technology.

2016 Firewall Predictions from Around the Cyber Security Industry

The cyber security industry seems to change daily, but one thing remains the same—attackers are becoming increasingly capable of breaching companies of all sizes. Firewalls have changed a lot since the days of live-wire connectivity, and here’s how they’ll adapt to today’s threat landscape:

• According to our technology partner Palo Alto Networks, firewalls will focus on higher-level information to become situationally aware; they will become more dynamic to adapt to threat changes on the fly; and they will become more capable of segmenting the network without disrupting machine communication.

• Michael Kiefer of BrandProtect believes that while firewalls are essential in perimeter security, they must be supplemented by external threat monitoring. Instead of solely focusing on what’s inside the firewall, security teams will start to share the focus with security measures outside the perimeter. 

• Jonathan Sander, VP of product strategy at Lieberman Software, sees firewall implementation changing in the future. Human configuration has long been the only way to tune a firewall; but machine learning will enable firewalls to take on attackers more proactively.

These are just a few predictions for the immediate future of firewall technology, However, InformationWeek sums up the ultimate future of firewalls by stressing the importance of real-time anti-malware scanning without hindering network performance. 

Dan Pitt’s Thoughts on SDN’s Future

Every year, Dan Pitt, the Executive Director of the Open Networking Foundation, shares his predictions for the future of SDN. Even though there are many challenges to actually achieving the promise of SDN, these are the trends that Pitt highlighted for 2016:

• The industry has put so much effort into southbound interfaces that it’s time for northbound interfaces to take center stage. Use cases such as real-time media will gain northbound interfaces that convey abstract application intentions.

• SDN is often criticized for the hype it has received and its lack of commercialization. In 2016, Pitt believes we’ll see enterprise production applications start incorporating advancements in open source controllers. One vendor focused on helping companies achieve the openness and centralization of resources that SDN promises is our technology partner, Big Switch Networks®. With recent updates to the Big Cloud Fabric product, companies can take advantage of an advanced open networking switching fabric to push production applications into virtualization.

• As 5G mobile technology moves toward completion in 2020, SDN will play a role in supporting the advanced features the new network promises.

The future of SDN may seem murky as the industry tries to actualize the long-standing hype, but Pitt seems to think that 2016 will start to see actual SDN connectivity in a practical setting.

How Cloud Technology Will Change in 2016 

Cloud technology has reached maturity in the business world—but that doesn’t mean it’s not constantly changing. According to Bernard Golden at CIO, these are a few cloud trends that will come to fruition throughout the year:

• IT teams will stop struggling to keep pace with the speed and functionality of public cloud solutions such as AWS. Instead, the focus will shift to cloud applications as opposed to infrastructure concerns. The fastest infrastructure will prevail as IT teams balance the need for application uptime. 

• The common sentiment is that every company is a software company today. IT departments are more essential than ever and the cloud will become an integral part of their attempts to turn siloed infrastructure into agile design.

• Without getting too deep into the pros and cons, companies will realize that to support advanced cloud applications, they will need to supplement their virtual machines with containers. And in the future, containers will become the default means of execution. 

Connectivity Is the Common Thread for the Futures of Firewalls, SDN and the Cloud

While industry pundits discuss the features and functionality of firewalls, SDN innovation and cloud technology, there is an underlying theme that relates to all three—the need for guaranteed connectivity.

If your firewall can’t see every bit, byte and packet®, or your SDN production application is wreaking havoc on network performance, or you can’t scale your cloud infrastructure effectively, you have a bigger problem than keeping up with trends. As these predictions become reality, network TAPs will prove to be even more essential for network connectivity. 

If you want to learn more about the promises of SDN, NFV and the importance of maintaining 100% network visibility as you make the transition, download our free white paper, Architecting Data Centers for SDN and NFV - In 40G and 100G Environments