New Software-Defined Perimeter Glossary Sheds Light on Industry Terms

The Cloud Security Alliance's Software Defined Perimeter Working Group set out to author a comprehensive resource on the terms and definitions within software defined perimeter (SDP) architectures. SDP has changed since the working group's inception in 2014, so the Working Group went about creating a glossary to reflect this evolution, holding a series of regular meetings over the course of the last eight months to bring the new Software Defined Perimeter Glossary, a free industry resource, to fruition. Compiling the information in this document was meant to minimize misinterpretation about SDP and provide a succinct understanding of the architecture. A balance was struck between length of the definitions and clarity with reliance on the reference source as the final arbiter. The result is a common language to communicate, understand, debate, conclude, and present the results of the SDP framework. As a reference document, the Software Defined Perimeter Glossary brings together SDP-related terms and definitions from various professional resources. These terms, and the supporting information, cover a broad range of areas, including the components of SDP and common supporting technologies. The SDP Glossary was intended as a reference document to draw enterprises (and service providers) that are interested in learning more about the underlying technologies and protocols. Those that are new to SDP will notice many familiar technologies involved, expediting their awareness of SDP. Ultimately, we see this glossary as a tool to familiarize practitioners with the Software Defined Perimeter.

Awareness of the SDP toolkit is the first step to its adoption. Based on this glossary revision effort, we’re pleased to see this level of familiarity. The SDP Working Group is confident that SDP will continue to gain momentum, but realistic that we, as its proponents, have some work to do. Clearly organizations face challenges in making the case for using SDP instead of traditional security technologies.

CSA plans to fill this gap with further SDP resources and information. The glossary, along with the SDP Specification v2 (Read SDP Specification v1) and SDP Architecture Guide, are vital pieces of SDP adoption and deployments within the industry.

Download the Software Defined Perimeter Glossary.