The world of cybersecurity is undergoing an incredible transformation birthed by the introduction of Secure Access Service Edge, more commonly known as “SASE”. The core of SASE is to offer a unified cybersecurity solution that caters to all the unique cloud and network security needs harbored by any company.
The arrival of SASE is already producing incredible benefits for organizations, businesses, and enterprises that are securing their networks or remote workforces with cutting-edge cloud technology. SASE was coined in Gartner in 2019 and by definition specializes in “simplifying WAN networking and security by delivering both, as-a-cloud-service directly to the source (user, device, office, edge location), rather than only the enterprise data center.”
But, when it comes to the realities of SASE, myths exist that can prevent organizations from tapping into its incredible power. Our Co-founder and CEO, Amit Bareket, spoke with Zeus Kerravala, Principal Analyst at ZK Research to debunk these myths in our most recent webinar.
The incredible benefit of SASE is that it does not require a business or organization to deploy the services all at once. Companies can choose to begin with Zero Trust services for remote access, then scale upwards as needed. Not only is this a simpler setup process, but it far more cost-effective for smaller and medium-sized operations. The shift to the cloud is wrought with potential for issues that prevent companies from maximizing security success, with SASE, greater flexibility exists when deploying solutions.
The power of SASE is now replacing traditional firewalls and networking, which sounds appealing but also frightening to business decision-makers. Where do they start? What about current hardware investments? Will this disrupt the bottom line? It is fair for businesses to be concerned over massive migrations to the cloud, eliminating the need for hardware that has already been invested in. The advantage of SASE is that it’s purely cloud-based and driven by software. This makes it exceptionally simple to integrate with existing infrastructure, allowing companies to slowly shift into the cloud from on-premise networking.
When it comes to massive data migration, big lifts and shifts are intensive and disruptive to existing operations. Decision-makers should be focused on developing a migration strategy and plan when approaching the transition to the cloud from the current hardware infrastructure. Luckily, SASE licensing is flexible, giving decision-makers the chance to make a smaller investment to get started small with an option to scale for growth.
There is no right answer to deploying the right security solution for a business. Before the arrival of COVID-19, decision-makers started with SD-WAN but were driven to SASE for its ease of deployment and its cost-effective nature. But today, many SD-WAN deployments are on hold as businesses are enabling SASE to secure their remote workforces. This is helping today’s business to secure the return for work for companies getting back to normal.
SD-WAN may be an excellent choice for some as it possesses a wide array of features, but it’s not always suitable for internet security and remote access. Traditionally, remote access agents and technology are too complex for the average user that simply needs to access corporate assets. It boils down to the specific needs of the company and reacting with the right solution for them.
Ultimately, it’s up to the decision-maker to decide on what to deploy first and how. There is no right or wrong way to deploy SASE. The most important thing is to develop and follow the pre-determined migration strategy.
The preliminary steps of deploying a new network security solution are always a challenging feat. However, for SASE services, setup is simpler, faster, and future-proofed to guarantee seamless service management. Traditional network security solutions have never been regarded as simple. They relied on expensive equipment to control traffic, but that opens to many blind spots that remain uncovered. SASE offers greater agility and options, which may seem complex at first. But, it truly forces IT professionals and decision-makers to re-think their approach to cybersecurity.
While SASE is software-based and centralized to make it easy to use and control, its benefits are still largely unknown. For the uninitiated that are unsure how to navigate the world of SASE and cybersecurity, companies like Perimeter 81 are sherpas of change, helping to guide customers along their unique journey. This lets companies feel comfortable embracing the new paradigm shift and opening the door to SASE solutions.
Companies are now understanding that the future requires security beyond the perimeter of an office, to wherever employees are accessing resources. For example, a medium-sized company needs to tunnel data to a branch office but with multiple firewalls in place, the complexity level of configuring policies and managing access is a burden. While implementation and configuration become less complex, so too is the user experience when interacting with a cutting-edge network security platform. Difficult to decipher dashboards with complex wireframes have been replaced by the modernized user interface for the modern workforce. Once deployed, SASE is controlled with a centralized console to manage every component of the network security stack, simplifying future management and support.
Most companies, corporate or otherwise, are unaware of the exceptional benefits available to them via SASE security services because they make assumptions that evolved into modern myths. It’s important to break down these myths and clarify misconceptions to ensure that decision-makers can learn which solutions are right for them and why. The future of network security will go hand in hand with SASE, making today ideal for businesses to get started.
Traditionally, most small or medium-sized businesses may neglect SASE as it may appear exclusive to large corporate companies and enterprises. The distributed nature of enterprises makes them an ideal use case for SASE solutions, but industry experts believe all companies can benefit from its power and agility. Legacy solutions were also previously unavailable (and unaffordable) to most businesses, but today, these organizations can activate enterprise-grade SASE in the same fashion as setting up a new Office 365 account. This allows SASE to be commoditized, consumable security in the same way that we subscribe to apps and subscription services.
The prevalence of SASE has expanded the potential and the availability of cyber services to easily offer comprehensive security coverage. This can be applied to corporate banks with dozens of branches, or small businesses with only a few devices in a local area network.
Moreover, Secure Access Service Edge can be for any type of business or organization, ranging from healthcare startups to financial institutions. Smaller operations now have an opportunity to tap into previously unobtainable security services at a cost that is fair for any business budget.
