Telco at the Edge: How Radware and SUSE Deliver Cloud-Native Security for Distributed Architectures

The telecommunications industry is undergoing a digital transformation, driven by the need to deliver a flawless customer experience, high availability, and operational efficiency. This transformation is marked by the strategic adoption of edge computing, which enables data processing closer to the source—whether in stores, warehouses, or distribution centers. This shift is critical for enabling ultra-low-latency applications such as AI-driven customer analytics, autonomous mobility, AR/VR, smart cities, and real-time analytics.

At the heart of this evolution are 5G networks, AI-RAN (Artificial Intelligence-enabled Radio Access Network), and MEC (Multi-access Edge Computing), which leverage distributed cloud-native architectures. The 5G core network, for instance, is built on a service-based architecture (SBA) where network elements communicate via APIs over HTTP/2, allowing core functions to be distributed closer to the edge. Similarly, Open RAN (O-RAN) and AI-RAN architectures decouple hardware and software in the radio access network, fostering openness, interoperability, and intelligence to support future network evolution.

The Unique Security Demands of Distributed Edge Environments

While edge computing offers immense benefits, it simultaneously introduces a complex cybersecurity landscape with unique challenges for telco and service providers.

• Decentralized Attack Surfaces: The distribution of infrastructure at the edge significantly expands the attack surface, with both core and edge networks now featuring internet-facing functions. This distributed nature increases the inherent risk of cyberattacks.
• Limited On-Site Personnel and Management Complexity: Edge sites often operate with resource constraints and limited technical staff. Managing thousands of distributed environments is a daunting task that requires a scalable and flexible architecture. Traditional security approaches often fall short in protecting these dynamic, containerized environments.
• Dynamic Orchestration: In Kubernetes environments, containers and pods can appear and disappear rapidly (in minutes or seconds), demanding security policies that can adapt instantly to evolving application behaviors and new network connections.
• API Vulnerabilities: APIs have become the backbone of modern applications and are prime targets for cybercriminals, especially in 5G service-based architectures where they enable crucial new services.
• Compliance and Regulatory Pressure: Ensuring compliance with stringent regulations like PCI DSS and GDPR, along with meeting data sovereignty concerns, becomes more complex in highly distributed edge environments.

SUSE Rancher Prime: Consistent Kubernetes Management at the Edge 

To address these challenges, the SUSE Rancher Prime platform provides a robust solution for deploying and managing edge applications and workloads.

• Centralized Management: SUSE Rancher Prime offers centralized management for multi-cluster Kubernetes environments, providing consistent control over access, policies, and infrastructure through a single pane of glass. This is particularly beneficial for managing large-scale Kubernetes deployments across cloud and edge locations.
• Lightweight Distributions for Edge: SUSE offers lightweight and scalable Kubernetes distributions like K3s, which are ideal for resource-constrained edge nodes. K3s is designed to run production workloads in unattended, remote locations or IoT appliances, packaged as a single, small binary (less than 50MB) that simplifies installation, running, and auto-updating.
• Security and Compliance Focused: RKE2 (Rancher Kubernetes Engine 2), a fully conformant and certified Kubernetes distribution, emphasizes security and compliance, including integrated Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) compliance. This makes it a strong option for security-focused organizations.
• Telco-Optimized Platform: SUSE Edge for Telco, an optimized edge computing platform, supports secure 5G and edge-native deployments. It enables automated zero-touch deployments and lifecycle management of Linux, Kubernetes, and Cloud-Native Network Functions (CNFs) using GitOps principles for repeatability across thousands of clusters.

Radware KWAAP: Behavioral-Based Protection for Edge Apps and APIs 

Complementing SUSE’s management capabilities, Radware’s security solutions add a critical layer of protection, ensuring secure delivery and high availability of low-latency applications while maintaining compliance.

• Kubernetes-Native Security: Radware Kubernetes Web Application and API Protection (KWAAP) integrates directly into Kubernetes environments via sidecar containers, providing advanced Web Application Firewall (WAF), Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection, and behavioral-based threat detection. Radware KWAAP is purpose-built for Kubernetes, providing advanced application and API security offering Kubernetes-native security inside the cluster.
• Comprehensive Threat Mitigation: KWAAP protects workloads with OWASP Top 10 coverage, rate limiting, token validation, and response anomaly detection. It also provides advanced API protection against business logic attacks, malicious bots, and zero-day attacks, using AI-powered engines to analyze API behavior and detect anomalies.
• DevSecOps Alignment: Radware KWAAP is designed to fit modern DevSecOps workflows, easily integrating with CI/CD pipelines to enforce security policies automatically at deployment without impacting agility.
• Edge-Optimized Protection: For resource-constrained edge nodes, Radware provides agentless DDoS protection and application-layer security. These capabilities operate autonomously, enabling zero-touch security operations in remote locations. It also offers RAN-aware security and traffic management for O-RAN and AI-RAN, meeting the latency and reliability demands of telco environments.

Conclusion 

The partnership between SUSE Rancher Prime and Radware KWAAP offers a powerful, Kubernetes-native management and security solution. It protects applications, APIs, and workloads from inside the cluster—across any environment. By combining SUSE’s robust Kubernetes lifecycle automation and edge infrastructure with Radware’s real-time application and API protection, telcos can confidently deploy, scale, and secure Kubernetes environments across on-premises, hybrid, multi-cloud, and edge locations. This integrated approach reduces risk, accelerates DevSecOps, and maintains control over rapidly growing Kubernetes workloads, all while minimizing operational overhead and fostering innovation.