Where the Wind Blows - 5 Signals for Network Platforms

Core Insight: Network technologies are experiencing a fundamental shift: HTTP/3/QUIC are becoming the standard, MASQUE has matured to production, SASE is growing at double-digit rates, VPN remains a huge but problematic market, and PQC is already standardized. CloudBridge Relay as “thin transport” perfectly aligns with these trends.

1. HTTP/3/QUIC - De Facto Standard

HTTP/3 (RFC 9114) and QUIC (RFC 9000) close the “experimental” question and open doors to the enterprise landscape.

What this means:

Fast connection establishment (0-RTT)
Resilience to network anomalies
Built-in multiplexing
Path migration without connection breaks

Practical effect: Traditional VPN tunnels give way to application-level access through modern protocols. Networks become “web-oriented” - access to resources, not subnets.

2. MASQUE Has Matured to Production

Core building blocks are already standardized:

CONNECT-UDP (RFC 9298) - UDP proxying through HTTP
HTTP Datagrams/Capsule (RFC 9297) - data transmission over HTTP
CONNECT-IP (RFC 9484) - IP traffic proxying

Real implementations:

iCloud Private Relay uses MASQUE-WG technologies
Cloudflare WARP migrated clients to MASQUE

What this delivers: Proxying any traffic through familiar HTTPS, bypassing CGNAT and middleboxes, privacy at the protocol level.

3. SASE/Zero Trust Growing at Double-Digit Rates

Market data:

SASE revenue in Q1 2025 grew by 17% (to $2.6 billion)
Single-vendor share by 2029 may exceed 90%
Demand for “thin transport” within SASE packages will only grow

Convergence trend: Network and security functions unite in unified cloud platforms. Users get access to applications, not networks.

4. VPN Remains Huge but “Creaky” Market

Market paradox:

Business still relies on VPN due to inertia and compatibility
Yet complains about latency and excessive access rights
Recent surveys show real risks of classic VPN models

Traditional VPN problems:

Management complexity in hybrid environments
Excessive access rights (“all or nothing”)
High latency for remote users
Scaling difficulties

5. PQC Already Standardized

NIST finalized:

FIPS 203 (ML-KEM) - for key establishment
FIPS 204 (ML-DSA) - for digital signatures
FIPS 205 (SLH-DSA) - for hash-based signatures

Practical significance: Serious argument for 2025–2027 tenders and crypto-agility plans. Organizations must prepare for phased migration to post-quantum algorithms.

CloudBridge Relay as “Thin Transport”

Why CloudBridge perfectly aligns with these trends:

QUIC/MASQUE-first Architecture

Modern protocols as foundation
WireGuard fallback for compatibility
P2P mesh through ICE/STUN/TURN

Smart Routing by Real Metrics

Dynamic path selection
Adaptation to network conditions
Latency and throughput optimization

Solving Classic VPN Problems

Application access instead of network access
Fine-grained access control
Latency reduction through route optimization

Where the Market is Heading

Technology convergence:

Network and security functions in unified platforms
Application access instead of network access
Cloud services instead of hardware boxes

New requirements:

Crypto-agility for post-quantum readiness
Zero Trust as baseline security model
Observability and telemetry by default

CloudBridge’s role:

Unified network control point
Modern protocols out of the box
Readiness for future standards

Conclusion

Network technologies are experiencing a fundamental shift. HTTP/3/QUIC are becoming the standard, MASQUE opens new proxying possibilities, SASE is growing, VPN faces problems, and PQC is ready for deployment.

CloudBridge Relay as “thin transport” over the internet perfectly aligns with these trends, solving problems that classic VPNs and “heavy” SASE solutions face today.

The time for “thin transport” has come—and CloudBridge is ready for this future.

Search