Today’s businesses must secure their on-premises systems, cloud applications, and remote users. SASE delivers a consolidated network and security solution as a service. IT teams get better performance and simplified management without requiring more hardware. Enterprises also have the advantage of centralized policy control and threat analysis through a single portal. This enables them to spot anomalies and threats quickly.
Improved Security
Rather than rely on multiple-point security solutions like firewalls and antivirus, SASE networking solutions are designed to integrate all necessary network functions into one. What is SASE for enterprises could mean that they can benefit from low-latency and reliable connections optimized for security with a zero-trust access network (ZTNA). SASE provides enhanced visibility, security, and performance. It also consolidates the need to work with multiple security vendors and creates a more leisurely, faster path to security compliance. When used with SD-WAN, it enables the centralized management of all networking and security capabilities from a single platform. This is a crucial aspect of SASE networking because it eliminates the need for separate hardware devices, which may be vulnerable to security breaches and cause maintenance issues over time. Helping executives understand the security threats that SASE helps prevent can go a long way in encouraging them to adopt it. But they’ll also want to understand what SASE will look like in their organization. For example, they’ll want to know how SASE will simplify third-party contractor onboarding by replacing VPNs with an authentication service that uses existing accounts or one-time passwords. They’ll also want to understand how SASE will reduce overhead costs by eliminating extra hardware purchases and ongoing operating expenses. The transition to SASE will also reduce capital expenditures by shifting from an on-premises networking infrastructure to a cloud-based subscription model.
Faster Deployment
While traditional networking and security solutions require multiple technologies to be deployed, configured, and managed an authentic SASE architecture can provide everything in one place. This simplifies deployment and management, allowing IT teams to access sites faster. Ultimately, this improves efficiencies and can drive actual cost savings for enterprises. Additionally, a SASE solution that combines SD-WAN and NGFW with network and security capabilities can deliver a single-pane-of-glass management console for the entire service. This reduces complexity and overhead and frees IT resources to focus on high-priority projects. This unified solution also helps businesses scale their operations without adding staff, resulting in significant cost savings. Finally, a SASE solution that delivers distributed intelligence to the network’s edge can prevent threats at the source. This allows remote workers to access company resources safely, regardless of the connection used to reach them, reducing data breaches and ransomware attacks. As enterprises evaluate SASE and its potential benefits, they should take a pragmatic approach and consider their current technology stack. A gap analysis can help them gauge the maturity of their current technology and define a roadmap for implementing SASE. This can include reviewing human resource needs to ensure cross-functional competencies are in good shape as the organization moves forward with SASE.
Scalability
With SASE, enterprises can consolidate multiple single-point solutions into one unified solution that delivers security services as a cloud-based service. This reduces operational overhead by freeing enterprise IT teams from interacting with multiple vendors and spending valuable internal resources configuring hardware infrastructure. In addition, SASE offers scalability and flexibility for network and security operations. Enterprises can set policy controls via a central management console and have those policies enforced by distributed PoPs close to the end user. The result is a consistent user access experience regardless of location, device, or applications. Zero Trust networking (ZTNA) within SASE enables enterprises to get granular visibility and fine control over users, devices, and systems connecting to corporate applications and services. SASE’s scalability also helps enterprises avoid overpaying for bandwidth or network responsiveness. By delivering security services over the Internet, SASE can provide the necessary bandwidth to meet network and application performance requirements without requiring the purchase of expensive dedicated circuits. The scalability and flexibility offered by SASE can help organizations overcome the challenges of an increasingly mobile workforce that demands a reliable and secure experience on any device. When coupled with a Services PoP architecture, SASE delivers a cost-effective solution that reduces IT costs by eliminating the need for expensive appliances and enabling businesses to right-size their circuit capacity as needed.
Flexibility
The ability to scale up and down on demand is critical for work-from-anywhere solutions. SASE allows organizations to do that without buying and operating more hardware. That can make an immediate difference in the bottom line. SASE also enables network and security functions to be converged so that IT teams don’t have to deal with multiple tools, platforms, or environments. That can help reduce IT support costs and speed up problem resolution for end users. As the need for digital business transformation accelerates, many organizations want to break down tech siloes and eliminate outdated technologies, such as VPNs, that can be vulnerable to breaches and other issues. But they must find new technology that can scale with them, offer better security, and lower costs. SASE may be the solution. SASE is a cloud-based service that brings security and access controls closer to users than relying on a secure perimeter, as with traditional WAN security architectures. Using edge computing – processing information close to where it is needed – SASE services can analyze user connections in real time and determine whether they are allowed or denied access according to an organization’s security policies. It eliminates the need for additional hardware devices in remote sites and reduces the number of software agents that need to be installed on end-user devices.
