In today’s globally connected business landscape, having a reliable and secure network backbone is essential. Traditional networks often rely on the public internet, which can introduce latency, downtime, and security vulnerabilities. Cato Networks offers a powerful alternative through its global backbone—a dedicated network infrastructure that serves as the engine behind Cato’s Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution. This backbone enables seamless, low-latency connectivity across regions while ensuring a secure and resilient network for organizations worldwide.

Global Reach and Local Security

Cato’s global backbone is designed to offer consistent, high-speed connectivity across continents. Here’s how this global network helps organizations achieve local security with global reach:

1. Points of PresenceAcross the Globe

Cato’s global backbone is built with multiple secure Points of Presence (PoPs) for global connectivity. These PoPs are interconnected through high-performance links, creating a private network that routes traffic along the fastest and most secure paths. This infrastructure reduces latency for remote users and provides a consistent experience regardless of location.

2. Low-Latency Connectivity for Distributed Teams

By bypassing the unpredictable nature of the public internet, Cato’s backbone ensures reliable and low-latency connectivity. This is especially valuable for organizations with a distributed workforce, as employees can access cloud resources, applications, and internal systems with minimal delay.

3. Built-in Redundancy for Resilience

Cato’s backbone is engineered with redundancy and failover capabilities, ensuring continuous uptime. If one PoP or link encounters an issue, traffic is automatically rerouted to avoid disruption, minimizing downtime and improving reliability.

Building a Resilient Network with Cato’s Global Backbone

Resilience is at the core of Cato’s backbone design. Here’s how Cato achieves a resilient network architecture:

1. MPLS Alternative with Improved Flexibility

Unlike traditional Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks, which can be costly and inflexible, Cato’s backbone provides an alternative that’s agile, scalable, and cost-effective. Businesses can benefit from MPLS-level reliability and performance without the high costs, while still being able to scale their network infrastructure as needed.

2. Real-Time Threat Prevention Across the Backbone

Cato’s backbone doesn’t just focus on performance—it’s also equipped with security features. Traffic traversing the backbone is continuously monitored for potential threats, and real-time threat prevention tools, such as Firewall as a Service (FWaaS) and Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), help safeguard data.

3. Integrated Security Features for Data Protection

Every PoP on Cato’s backbone includes integrated security features, including Secure Web Gateway (SWG), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). This ensures that data remains protected as it moves across the network, providing end-to-end security from the user to the application.

How Cato’s Global Backbone Powers SASE Efficiency

The global backbone is more than just a network infrastructure; it’s the foundation that enables the full capabilities of Cato’s SASE solution. Here’s how it supports SASE efficiency:

• Unified Management: Cato’s backbone allows organizations to manage their network and security from a centralized platform, reducing complexity and improving efficiency.
• Enhanced User Experience: By minimizing latency, Cato’s backbone enhances user experience, allowing remote teams to work as seamlessly as those in office locations.
• Optimized Cloud Access: With optimized paths to cloud service providers, the backbone reduces the latency typically associated with cloud access, making it ideal for organizations that rely on multi-cloud environments.

Core Components of Cato’s Backbone and Their Roles

The architecture of Cato’s backbone consists of various components that work together to create a resilient, secure, and high-performance network.

• PoPsNetwork: Each PoP on the Cato backbone is a fully integrated node, equipped with security and networking capabilities. These PoPs act as traffic hubs, ensuring that data flows through secure, optimized paths rather than taking the unpredictable routes of the public internet.
• Advanced Routing Algorithms: Cato’s backbone uses intelligent routing algorithms to evaluate the best path for each data packet. These algorithms consider factors such as network congestion, latency, and security requirements, ensuring that data takes the fastest and most secure route.
• Real-Time Threat Intelligence: Every PoP on the Cato backbone is continuously updated with the latest threat intelligence. This enables Cato to detect and respond to potential threats in real-time, ensuring that data remains secure as it traverses the network.
• Cato SPACE (Single Pass Cloud Engine):is the core component of Cato Network’s SASE architecture, designed to optimize network and security processing.

Cato SPACE Declassified

The Cato SPACE Engine is a core component of Cato Networks’ SASE architecture, designed to optimize network and security processing. Here’s an overview of its key functions:

1. Unified Security Processing: The SPACE Engine consolidates multiple security functions, such as firewall, secure web gateway, intrusion prevention, and data loss prevention, into a single, cloud-native engine. This integration allows it to handle all security processing in a streamlined, efficient manner.
2. Single-Pass Processing: The engine processes traffic through all security checks in a single pass, reducing latency and improving network performance. By inspecting traffic once instead of multiple times, it minimizes delays and optimizes the user experience.
3. Cloud-Distributed Architecture: Cato SPACE is distributed across Cato’s global network of PoPs, providing high availability and low-latency security enforcement close to the user or branch location.
4. Real-Time Threat Detection and Response: Leveraging advanced machine learning and AI, the Cato SPACE Engine detects and responds to threats in real-time, identifying potential security risks and automating threat prevention.
5. Comprehensive Visibility and Control: With SPACE, IT teams gain real-time visibility into network and security events across the entire network, allowing for more effective monitoring, troubleshooting, and policy management.

The SPACE Engine essentially enables Cato’s SASE platform to deliver scalable, efficient, and robust security processing, meeting the demands of modern, cloud-centric networks while reducing complexity and improving performance.

Comparing Cato’s Backbone with Traditional Network Models

Traditional networks often rely on MPLS and VPNs, which can introduce limitations in terms of scalability, cost, and flexibility. Here’s a comparison of Cato’s global backbone with traditional models:

Cato’s backbone offers a unified solution that reduces latency, improves security, and lowers costs, making it a superior alternative for modern organizations.

Real-World Benefits of Cato’s Global Backbone

Implementing Cato’s global backbone provides several tangible benefits for businesses:

1. Enhanced User Experience: With low-latency connectivity and reliable access to applications, users experience faster load times and fewer disruptions, leading to improved productivity.
2. Reduced Costs: Cato’s backbone eliminates the need for expensive MPLS circuits and reduces the dependency on multiple network providers.
3. Scalability: As a cloud-native solution, the backbone can scale to accommodate additional users, locations, or data without the need for hardware upgrades.

Conclusion

Cato’s global backbone stands as a powerful and reliable solution for modern organizations, offering low-latency, secure, and scalable connectivity across continents. Furthermore, Cato’s backbone not only enhances user experience and reduces costs but also provides a unified, centralized management platform, making it a superior alternative to traditional network models.
 

FAQs About Cato’s Global Backbone

1. What is the primary purpose of Cato’s global backbone?
   The global backbone provides secure, high-performance connectivity across regions, enabling low-latency access to applications and cloud services.

2. How does Cato’s backbone enhance security?
   Cato’s backbone includes integrated security features, such as FWaaS, Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and CASB, ensuring that data remains secure as it travels across the network.

3. Is Cato’s global backbone suitable for multi-cloud environments?
   Yes, Cato’s backbone optimizes connectivity to major cloud service providers, providing consistent performance across multi-cloud environments.

4. What is Cato’s Global Backbone?
   Cato’s Global Backbone is a private, cloud-native network infrastructure composed of strategically located Points of Presence (PoPs) worldwide. It offers optimized, low-latency, and secure connectivity for enterprise traffic, providing reliable access to on-premises, cloud, and internet resources.

5. How does the Global Backbone differ from the public internet?
   Unlike the public internet, Cato’s Global Backbone is a private network with managed connections that reduce latency and packet loss. The backbone optimizes performance, ensuring secure and consistent connectivity, especially for mission-critical applications.

6. Why does Cato’s Global Backbone use PoPs?
   Cato deploys PoPs worldwide to bring security and network services closer to users. Each PoP performs local processing for network traffic, reducing latency and providing faster, more reliable connections.

Performance and Reliability

7. How does Cato’s Global Backbone improve network performance?
   The Global Backbone routes traffic over the most efficient paths using dynamic routing, bypassing public internet congestion. This results in lower latency, faster data transfer, and an improved user experience for applications, especially those hosted in the cloud.

8. Can Cato’s Global Backbone support high availability and redundancy?
   Yes, Cato’s backbone is designed for high availability and redundancy. The PoPs are interconnected with multiple tier-1 providers, ensuring automatic failover and rerouting of traffic in case of a network disruption, maintaining seamless connectivity.

9. How does Cato ensure consistent application performance over its backbone?
   Cato’s backbone includes application-aware routing that prioritizes traffic based on application requirements. It allocates bandwidth dynamically, optimizing performance for real-time applications like VoIP and video conferencing.

Security and Compliance

10. What security features are built into Cato’s Global Backbone?
    Cato’s backbone includes security services such as firewall, SWG, and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) within each PoP, providing secure access and threat prevention for all traffic passing through the backbone.

11. Is data encrypted while traversing Cato’s Global Backbone?
    Yes, all data transmitted across Cato’s Global Backbone is encrypted end-to-end, ensuring data privacy and protection against interception. This encryption meets enterprise security standards and compliance requirements.

Scalability and Flexibility

12. Can Cato’s Global Backbone scale with my business?
    Absolutely. Cato’s backbone is cloud-native, allowing it to scale easily as your business grows. Whether adding new locations, increasing users, or integrating new applications, the backbone provides scalable connectivity without requiring physical upgrades.

13. How does Cato’s Global Backbone support remote workers and distributed teams?
    With PoPs globally, Cato’s backbone offers secure, optimized access for remote workers by connecting them to the nearest PoP. This reduces latency and improves performance for distributed teams accessing centralized resources.