What is coffee shop networking?

What is coffee shop networking?

Coffee shop networking is one of several terms used to describe the modern business approach to connecting users, devices, and applications across wide-ranging locations. It contrasts with older networking models that made assumptions about where users and applications were located — most often on premises managed directly by the business.

Most users today are familiar with the concept of walking into a coffee shop, opening a laptop, connecting to the WiFi network, and working. Coffee shop networking aims to replicate the ease and simplicity of that experience, while maintaining high levels of security.

Actual coffee shop WiFi networks can vary in their security measures and are not managed by the organizations to which remote workers belong, but coffee shop networking builds in advanced security and lets internal teams fully manage device access.

Coffee shop networking helps organizations meet their needs for branch networking. It can connect main campuses to branch offices, franchise locations, workspaces, home WiFi networks — even coffee shops. This allows employees and contractors to work securely from anywhere, while keeping internal data and intellectual property safe.

How did coffee shop networking develop?

Corporate networks were originally designed to serve on-premises workstations and localized data centers. This model has been disrupted, mainly by three developments:

• The adoption of cloud-native infrastructure and applications
• The use of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies
• The transition to hybrid work, which was accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic but had been in progress for some time previously

Coffee shop networking is an approach that is more well-suited to the way businesses work today following these developments. It also aims to eliminate some of the challenges associated with awkward adaptations of legacy networks to these developments: challenges that include network bottlenecks, latency caused by backhauling traffic, slow VPN connections, and security holes introduced by attempting to integrate incompatible platforms.

How does coffee shop networking work?

Coffee shop networking relies on a combination of flexible networking techniques and Zero Trust security policies. Network paths are dynamic and defined by software, instead of being static, relying on MPLS or leased lines. As a result, network traffic does not have to be backhauled to a centralized location. The corporate network can be reached over the Internet, enabling users to reach it from anywhere. Identity, device security posture, and access control policies dictate authorization, rather than network access.

Such a deployment is known as "SASE" — secure access service edge — a model that combines cloud-friendly, flexible networking and natively integrated security in order to simplify modern network architectures.

Coffee shop networking security

Perhaps most crucially, in coffee shop networking (and in SASE), security is integrated directly into network connectivity. This ensures that network connections are secure, no matter which devices or users are connecting. Encryption in transit is employed as a matter of course using Transport Layer Security (TLS), rather than sometimes-clunky VPN connections.

What are the benefits of coffee shop networking?

• Simplified cloud, on-premises, and hybrid connectivity: A "coffee shop" approach to networking prioritizes ensuring that network traffic can flow equally well to public clouds, internal data centers, and SaaS apps.
• More secure: A castle-and-moat approach to network security fails because threats are likely inside the network already, and because thanks to cloud usage, the network perimeter is not a good indicator of where company data is hosted. Coffee shop networking incorporates Zero Trust security that can slow or mitigate threats anywhere, compartmentalizing corporate resources and the users that access them.
• Easier branch networking: Any LAN will do for coffee shop networking — any on-ramp to the Internet. Because the secure network routes run over publicly available Internet infrastructure, no dedicated connections need to be set up in order to bring a branch location online.
• Lower costs: Organizations using this approach do not need to invest in extra hardware, custom network configurations, or private circuits.

What are some of the use cases for coffee shop networking?

Many large businesses have adapted this approach for these and other use cases:

• Connecting branch offices and satellite campuses: Corporate locations that are removed from headquarters can spin up network connectivity quickly through a coffee shop networking model.
• Connecting franchise locations: Retail stores, restaurants, and other chains can use coffee shop networking to rapidly onboard new locations and efficiently connect existing locations.
• Supporting remote and hybrid work: Coffee shop networking makes it easier and faster for employees to get onto the corporate network from anywhere, with little to no setup on the client side.

Coffee shop networking vs. network modernization

Network modernization is the process of updating networks, most often by moving hardware functions into software or into the cloud. Coffee shop networking is one possible output of a network modernization process.

How to implement coffee shop networking

Most businesses aiming to follow this model adopt a SASE solution, rather than constructing a rearchitected network themselves. This enables them to lower their TCO and maintain flexibility as they grow.

Cloudflare enables businesses to activate any-to-any connectivity, with Zero Trust networking automatically applied. Learn how Cloudflare supports coffee shop networking with the connectivity cloud.