SASE is still a reasonably new cloud-delivery network security architecture. However, with more and more organizations moving their data to the cloud, they distribute critical network and security functions from the cloud close to the user, devices, and applications. And eliminate the pressure instilled on data centers and accelerate network response times.

 

The SASE model is largely structured over software-defined WAN (SD-WAN). It is represented by the components that make up its cloud architecture and the capacity to distribute packet inspection, support identity-driven access, and enforce the policy.

SASE is a relatively new framework that addresses a common dilemma: handling the network and security demands of external traffic without routing it through the data center. In the past few years, enterprises have shifted more traffic to the cloud, creating significant congestion and latency in the data center.

What Is SASE?

SASE is an acronym for Secure Access Service Edge and is a cloud architecture made up of different network and security capabilities combined in a single cloud service. SASE adoption has been driven by Cloud-based applications, IoT sensor traffic, and an expanded remote workforce.

The architecture’s unified and consolidated policy management makes it possible for enterprises to speedily and efficiently secure traffic regardless of its location or origins of corporate resources, making it worth considering by several organizations. Some of the immense benefits of SASE include improved security architecture, cost-effectiveness, latency reduction on a network, and so on.

 

SASE integrates different network and security functions in its single cloud-delivery solution, such as Firewall as a Service (FWaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), Secure Web Gateways (SWG), Malware Protection, Data Loss Protection (DLP), Intrusion Detection and Intrusion Prevention (IDIP), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs), and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA).

The COVID-19 Pandemic Affected SASE Adoption, and Here’s How.

In the wake of the pandemic, when most societies were on compulsory lockdown, many organizations struggled around migrate their network and security functions from an inside-to-inside strategy that has workers and their resources only operating within the organizational structure to an outside-to-outside where workers work from remote locations and have their traffic needs to be addressed while carrying out their tasks.

 

SASE deals with critical network and security functions, including policy enforcement and authentication. The heightened demand for SASE services propelled Gartner’s projection of at least 40% adoption by companies worldwide by 2024 — a major forward dive from 1% in 2018. They also add that organizations are not likely to return to the old method since adopting SASE offers them a better median total time to contain a security breach.

 

Two key lessons from the 2020 pandemic era have been that companies should become more resilient and agile than ever, which is used to express lines such as “security resiliency” and “agile security.” The SASE mod makes both achievable.

 

Also, there was a concentrated effort on renewed continuity. While organizations often needed to plan business continuity from the perspective of risk management, most of the anticipated plans were implemented with disasters such as power outages or floods in view. However, the pandemic took the world by storm, hitting every industry — positively and negatively.

 

SASE became a solution for supporting the digital aspects of a business since it is cloud-based and can be deployed to benefit users from diverse locations. Furthermore, as a cloud-delivery architecture, SASE is much more effective than traditional and on-premise network security equipment.

In aiding business continuity, SASE contributes to combating insecurity issues against cloud resources by offering behavioral monitoring, malware detection, and intrusion prevention to reduce the likelihood of business disruptions resulting from threats and attacks. 

What Are The Top SASE Benefits?

There are countless benefits of adopting the SASE framework in an organization structure. One of the foremost is 

It supports cloud-based enterprise and its ability to infuse network functions into the security of resources.

 

A cloud-native framework helps enterprises save costs while integrating effective and high-performing security features.

 

Here are the key SASE Benefits you need to know.

 

1. SASE is a Simple Security Framework

 

Unlike legacy network solutions that require regular updates to meet the dynamic security demands of the most modern organization. In most cases, they fall short of meeting the security capabilities of their cloud-based solutions.

It functions as a simple solution such as Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS), anti-malware, Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), and firewalling built into its infrastructure. FWaaS aims to detect and prevent unauthorized activities in a network. It also reinforces, monitors and filters every traffic coming in and out of a network.

2. SASE Offers Data Security with Ease

Every company worldwide collects data, stores it, and transfers it from different points. However, unauthorized users’ access to this data can become highly detrimental to a company or individual. Hence, it is necessary to secure data and avoid breaches. Here is why Data Loss Prevention (DLP) becomes an essential feature in protecting data. SASE deploys DLP to eliminate the need to integrate diverse network security tools

 

SASE DLP also needs security measures such as authorization and authentication processes to secure access to resources. In addition, it helps deploy protection policies on a company network.

3. SASE Promotes Network Performance

SASE solutions will oversee data flow to analyze the network’s performance in real-time. So, as organizations expand to incorporate remote, hybrid, and on-premise employees, companies can connect to the network safely by utilizing the SASE model from anywhere around the world.

4. Enhanced Network Visibility

 Moving to a SASE framework with Zero Trust capabilities at its center facilitates granular visibility, providing transparency and network access control. Absolute visibility of network activity helps to uncover every potential vulnerability in resources.

 With SASE, ZTNA organizations can mitigate risks by examining interactions between applications, devices, resources, and users.

Factors to Consider When Choosing a SASE Solution for Your Company

Consider a partner delivering universal support. You need this to curb potential issues that may arise and truncate your business’s productivity, security, user experience, availability, and brand reputation.

 Utilize standardized hardware. Businesses should consider employing verified hardware platforms to ensure consistent procedures across platforms that require hardware and provide scalability, resiliency, and improved performance.

 Utilize flexible architectures and help choose the best solutions for particular business needs. For example, with the improvements and development in the SASE framework, there are benefits you’d get by being able to select the best solutions for your environment instead of being restricted to solutions on the site alone.

Consider accessible capabilities. The network solution must possibly integrate with every existing security capability. As many organizations have solutions, it is essential to leverage those resources as more are added to help fill out the framework. With this, you’d be able to cut down on the need to rip and replace existing solutions.

 

By joemack

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