North-South Traffic

North-south traffic refers to network traffic that enters or exits an organization’s internal network, as opposed to traffic that occurs within the network (referred to as “east-west” traffic). The terms “north-south” and “south-north” are used to describe the direction of traffic flow in relation to an organization’s network perimeter.

North-south traffic typically refers to communication between devices inside an organization and devices or services outside of the organization, such as the internet or cloud-based services. This type of traffic often involves the exchange of sensitive information, such as user credentials, and is critical to the functioning of an organization’s IT systems. Examples of north-south traffic include web browsing, email, and cloud-based applications.

In a modern, cloud-based infrastructure, north-south traffic is becoming increasingly important as more and more applications are deployed across multiple data centers and cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. Proper management of north-south traffic is crucial for ensuring the performance and security of these applications. To achieve this, organizations may use firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and VPNs to secure and control the flow of north-south traffic.

For organizations, establishing north-south TLS is critical for helping internal services validate the authenticity of external client requests.