One of the hottest topics – and buzzwords – in networking today is “SASE” or the secure access service edge. But SASE has been defined differently by different SD-WAN vendors and security vendors. Even industry analysts don’t agree on a precise definition of SASE. As a result, there are a lot of opinions, misconceptions and questions about SASE.
- Is it a replacement for SD-WAN?
- What are the various network and security functions that make up a SASE architecture?
- Do I need to migrate to SASE all at once or can I do it in stages?
- Does SASE have to be delivered by one vendor and why or why not?
- Why do I even need a new network and security architecture?
In a new educational video series, we’ll take a closer look at SASE and answer these questions and more.
What is SASE?
In the Fall of 2019, Gartner published a report, “The Future of Network Security is in the Cloud,” where they defined the secure access service edge or SASE as a thin WAN edge supporting the required wide area network functions at the branch such as SD-WAN, a stateful zone-based firewall, segmentation, routing and WAN optimization, integrated with comprehensive cloud-delivered security services including FWaaS, SGW, CASB, ZTNA, IDS/IPS, A/V and more, all managed centrally from the cloud.[1]
Our first video will define and describe SASE and discuss why we need to transform WAN and security architectures. By transforming both WAN and security architectures with SASE, enterprises can ensure direct AND secure access to applications and services across multi-cloud environments, regardless of location or the devices used to access them. Ultimately, the goal of SASE is to deliver the best end user quality of experience for cloud-hosted applications.
SASE Business Outcomes
Technology for technology sake alone never makes sense. But after hundreds of SASE deployments, our customers continue to report tangible business value from transforming WAN and security architectures including:
- Improved business productivity and customer satisfaction
- Enhanced, consistent security policy enforcement across the enterprise
- Reduced risk and brand image protection
- Increased IT efficiency and lower overall WAN and security costs through centralized management
- Ability to evaluate and easily adopt new security technologies as they emerge
To learn more about SASE and the benefits it delivers, tune in to our video series. Click here to watch our first installment, “What is SASE?”
Related Resources
[1] “The Future of Network Security is in the Cloud,” Gartner ID G00441737, August 30, 2019
