The data center used to be the center of gravity. When applications resided there, it made sense to backhaul traffic from branch offices over a hub-and-spoke network. As traffic patterns shifted to the Internet, gateways were built with stacks of security appliances to allow secure Internet access. These gateways were also centralized to minimize the cost and complexity of securing multiple locations. However, as applications have moved to the cloud, the center of gravity has moved with it. User traffic often goes straight to the cloud, bypassing the security perimeter. Additionally, today’s complex threats have triggered an explosion of new security appliances, all finding their way into your overworked gateway. Administrators are in a constant battle to keep up with required security updates for their appliances. The complexity of deploying and managing all these appliances — and their associated costs — are out of control. Furthermore, it’s all associated with what is now an outdated architecture.