For the last twenty years, the relationship between Network Operations (NetOps) and Security Operations (SecOps) has been… let’s call it “tense.”

The Network guy’s job is to get the train moving out of the station as fast as possible. The Security guy’s job is to throw boulders on the tracks to make sure nobody hijacks the train.

Historically, Security has been the “Department of No.” They’re the ones who make the VPN slow. They’re the ones who block the site you need for research. They add friction.

But here is the reality check I often give to peers: In a world where your users are everywhere, latency is the new downtime. If your security stack makes Zoom freeze every 30 seconds, your users will find a way around it. And let me tell you, shadow IT is way less secure than a fast, sanctioned network.

The “Peanut Butter and Chocolate” Moment. We have to stop treating performance and protection as enemies. This is the whole point of convergence—bringing network and security together into one conversation.

Think of it like a modern passport control at the airport.

• Old Way: Everyone stands in a massive line for two hours (backhauling traffic to a central data centre for inspection). It’s secure, but everyone misses their flight.
• New Way (SASE): You have TSA PreCheck kiosks at every single gate (security at the Edge). You check the ID right where the user is.

Security as a User Experience Feature When you move security to the edge—closer to the user—you actually make things faster. You aren’t hair-pinning traffic halfway across the country just to scrub it for malware.

We need to flip the script. Security shouldn’t be a tax on performance. It should be the thing that enables your employees to work from a hotel room in London just as fast as they work from the office in New York. If you can bridge that gap, you stop being the “Department of No” and start being the team that made work suck less.