In my previous two videos and blog posts, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about SASE – but were Afraid to Ask!,” and “SASE vs. SD-WAN,” I described the secure access service edge (SASE) as the combination of advanced WAN edge network functions at the branch integrated with a rich suite of cloud-delivered security services as defined in the Gartner report, “The Future of Network Security is in the Cloud” [1]. I described how SD-WAN is a foundational component and an integral part of a SASE architecture. The key is to start the SASE journey. An enterprise can start with SD-WAN or with cloud-security but ultimately, both must be transformed to realize the maximum benefits of the cloud.
However, most enterprises prefer best of breed WAN technology and best of breed cloud-delivered security solutions – without compromising either. In a recent Ponemon Institute security best practices study [2] of 1800 networking and security IT professionals, more than 70% of respondents favored multi-vendor integrations that simplify deployment and ongoing operations without compromising networking or security capabilities.
But how can an enterprise make a multi-vendor solution easy to deploy and easy to update? Can it be as seamless as a single vendor SASE solution? The answer is “yes” with integrated orchestration.
Integrated Orchestration Makes it Easy
To implement cloud-delivered security and deliver the best cloud app performance to end users, IT must configure secure IPsec tunnels between branch locations and cloud security enforcement points. While this can be accomplished with traditional routers, it typically means correlating geo-location information and then manually programming the addresses of two or more tunnels for every branch location in the network. This would typically take 30 to 60 minutes per branch.
By integrating the orchestration between a best of breed SD-WAN solution and the cloud security vendor via application programming interfaces (API), the configuration of these tunnels can be fully automated for hundreds or even thousands of sites. With integrated orchestration, the Day 0 onboarding of hundreds or even thousands of sites can be accomplished in literally minutes. And because the process is automated, the probability of mis-typing a command is significantly minimized.
To learn more about SASE and the benefits it delivers, tune in to our video series. To learn more about integrated orchestration between the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN platform and cloud-delivered security services, watch our third episode, “Automate Best-of-Breed SASE Deployments with Integrated Orchestration. ”
Related Resources
- What is SASE?
- What is Zero Trust?
- Integrated Orchestration between Aruba EdgeConnect and Zscaler
- Integrated Orchestration between Aruba EdgeConnect and Netskope
[1] “The Future of Network Security is in the Cloud,” Gartner ID G00441737, August 30, 2019
[2] “The State of SD-WAN, SASE and Zero Trust Security Architectures,” Ponemon Institute, April 2021
