January 7, 2025

In this series, we’re covering key insights into the four digital infrastructure foundations: Compute, Network, Data, and Security. This blog will explore the importance of developing a new security infrastructure architecture that allows enterprises to secure controls and infrastructure in a distributed manner to unlock seamless global security.

With a strong foundation, it’s possible to safeguard even the most complex architectures against shifting, emerging, and increasingly more sophisticated threat landscapes.

Complicating the challenges IT leaders face even further, bad actors leverage artificial intelligence (AI) at an alarming rate to test networks. Now, cyberattackers modify their phishing tactics through AI to customise and automate attacks, which can lead to skyrocketing cybersecurity costs — both for mitigating attacks proactively and implementing remedial protocols reactively.

By 2025, the cost of cybercrime will reach $20 trillion globally¹. In turn, 87% of CIOs will increase their spend on cyber and overall information security. In fact, this is the top spending category for CIOs, who plan to increase their budget for cybersecurity by 30%. ²

In this climate, traditional network security efforts simply won’t work. Enterprises need a sharp and agile architecture to address existing threats and provide security against emerging ones.

In this article we’ll take a look at:

Why it’s important to develop a new IT infrastructure security strategy
What the emerging challenges in the enterprise network security space include
What the key elements of a modern IT network infrastructure security consist of
How colocation can set the stage for enterprise infrastructure security success

The case for a new approach to IT network security

At Digital Realty, we hear of new developments in AI every day. Yet, the sum of these advancements reveals trends affecting enterprise cybersecurity.

To make the case for expanded resources to secure, control, and protect your company’s digital assets, consider that traditional security architectures leave businesses exposed to five emerging threats:

AI agents: Bad actors from external sources and disgruntled workers within the enterprise reengineer systems to execute specific tasks within a network without human intervention.
Confidential data leaks using third-party AI systems: Employees who use today’s most popular AI platforms to become more efficient may inadvertently expose the company to privacy violations and open the door to data breaches.
Enterprise disinformation campaigns: Disinformation originates from a number of sources, competitors, former workers, and countries, all of which can create an enterprise threat.
Network hardware compromise: Spotty network equipment tracking, patching, maintenance (such as not updating or using strong passwords), and decommissioning have made it even easier for attackers to open a social engineering pathway to breaching enterprise network infrastructure.
AI-powered phishing threats: Automated phishing has overwhelmed existing social-engineering training programs and malware filters for enterprises. This is because the systems learn from their unsuccessful attempts and multiply their effective ones in a matter of minutes, not weeks or months, as in the past.

These threats, except for network hardware compromise, create an invisible threat landscape. However, IT leaders can adapt their legacy architecture, implement new IT infrastructure security strategies to protect it, and iterate as threats arise and become more complex. Partnering with a trusted global data centre provider adept at navigating the aforementioned threats in a global landscape is how to build a security infrastructure for now and the future.

Top 5 enterprise network security threats

IT leaders face a myriad of challenges in the digital economy. Yet, a handful of them have given rise to the current critical infrastructure threat landscape.

Network complexity and scale

Each office, region, and department may have its own cache of tools, systems, Service-as-a-Software platforms, and acronyms. Centralising information about these branches of IT usage gives IT leaders valuable insights into just how big their enterprise’s attack surface is.

Visibility and control

This challenge goes hand in hand with network complexity and scale. How can you protect what you cannot see?

That’s the question many IT leaders ask themselves, and rightfully so. In 2022, 41% of employees deployed digital assets outside the purview of their IT department. That number will jump to 75% by the year 2027, according to Gartner’s predictions.³ Shadow data (data stored in systems outside of IT) breaches cost on average $5.27 million per enterprise.⁴

Resource limitations

The more complex the network, the more head count needed to manage it all. Some companies look to AI to address the IT skills shortage. By 2028, leading enterprises will use Agentic AI to automate at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions, which is up from 0% in 2024, according to Gartner’s latest research.⁵

Fragmented network security protection

Multiple firewall deployments lead to fractured security for many enterprises, and the trend may continue. By 2026, 60% of enterprises will run several firewalls to protect their networks.⁶

However, there’s a way to mitigate these vulnerabilities and future-proof your IT infrastructure for what lies ahead. Network architectures that leverage colocation partners with large global footprints are better positioned to control and manage data in their organisations.

Key elements of a secure, modern IT network infrastructure

With an agile IT infrastructure, enterprises can protect assets worldwide and tailor security measures to each region in which they do business. The elements of an agile network infrastructure security system can be complex, but with the right data centre partner, they’re manageable.

Adaptation

It’s clear that enterprises must adapt and secure complex networks to manage the increasing amounts of data in the digital transformation. With a strong security foundation, it’s possible. Fast, secure interconnection to clouds and testing and scaling use cases before committing to an option are just two of the advantages to leveraging ServiceFabric™ Connect.

Interconnection-enabled data protection

This term relates to opportunities within global colocation data centres like PlatformDIGITAL® to connect with security partners. It enables internal network performance, reliability, and efficiency. However, it’s crucial to note that we do not provide data protection services but rather connections within our data centres to organisations that do.

Consider SumUp, for example. SumUp is a mobile payment platform based in Europe. It needed enhanced security for its distributed card transactions in a low-latency solution that complied with local data sovereignty laws. With PlatformDIGITAL®, SumUp opened a cross connect with a security provider in Europe.This allowed the financial services firm to secure transactions and remain compliant with European Union data privacy laws. ⁷

Cloud security and management

Private cloud connections remain a smart play for enterprise IT leaders looking to create an agile and secure IT architecture. Yet, we’ve learned that 30% of cloud deployments fail.

Choosing the right partner to interconnect with cloud providers remains a key imperative for the modern and secure AI-ready infrastructure.⁸

AI-based cybersecurity operations

IT leaders can bolster enterprise cybersecurity by embracing AI-based operations and infrastructure. AI-driven anomaly detection and threat intelligence empower proactive threat management, while AI-assisted code scanning and vulnerability discovery automation fortify software security. By harnessing AI, enterprises can mitigate AI-augmented cybersecurity risks, ensuring robust protection against evolving cyberthreats.

However, it’s crucial to note that adaptation, interconnection-enabled data protection, cloud security and management, and AI-based cybersecurity operations merely cover the basics. In addition to the above, IT leaders looking to future-proof their IT infrastructure and mitigate their architecture against current (and future) AI threats should also include the following elements in their IT infrastructure security strategy:

Network microsegmentation
Central security management platform
Identity and access management
Security automation and deployment
Proactive vulnerability management
Encrypted communications

Mandate for a new security infrastructure architecture

IT leaders now have a mandate to forge ahead with colocation-enabled secure network architecture. The Digital Realty approach features three parts: secure, control, and protect.

Secure

Enable agility with a secure and open data meeting place and orchestration fabric. In turn, an architecture that simplifies network management leads to greater network security and efficiency. IT leaders can deploy enterprise innovation with an agile IT infrastructure while managing complexity in a single configurable domain.

Control

Maintain control over compliance while moving data across a Hybrid IT environment with a data centre platform equipped to handle company data in diverse environments during global expansion. PlatformDIGITAL® is a global data centre platform that can help enterprises reduce complexity and control their data to adhere to local data sovereignty regulations.

Protect

Protect critical data from unauthorised access using Data Loss Protection (DLP) deployed in colocation. PlatformDIGITAL® ensures secure, private connectivity, enabling effective DLP strategies across your entire organisation. Our colocation facilities and zero-trust environments also bolster data security policies, ensuring regulatory compliance. The benefits include secure high-speed, reliable connectivity, off-site private storage, and compute capabilities to reduce latency and increase reliability.

Security Foundation: Modern IT infrastructure security solutions for an emerging threat landscape