How SASE Protects Your Business in The New Normal

Work from anywhere has become a norm – users need access to resources, applications and data. Their experience must be secure, fast and reliable. Getting SASE, right requires more than just replacing security boxes. Teams must adopt a new mindset and look to centralized, policy-driven security management.

1. Scalability

Businesses with employees across offices and geographies need secure applications to connect them to the data and resources they need. SASE delivers this capability by inspecting traffic at points of presence closest to the user’s geolocation and allowing or denying access based on security policies. It eliminates traffic backhauling, improves performance and reduces security risk. IT teams can use SASE in conjunction with their existing SD-WAN or replace it altogether. But as they consider their options, they must remember that not all SASE vendors offer complete solutions. 

Understand the product vs features vs capabilities

A solution integrating SD-WAN and security capabilities into a single service is likely more cost-effective than one focusing on WAN Edge or security services alone. Also, look for a provider that offers per-user pricing subscriptions rather than bandwidth-based licensing models. Choosing a vendor like SASE Fortinet that can deliver networking and security as a single service will simplify your business’s management and reduce its overall risk. A cloud-native architecture is ideal, as it does not depend on specialized hardware and can be deployed rapidly for quick service expansion. It enables a multi-tenant model that can provide significant cost savings and scalability.

2. Flexibility

With SASE, enterprises can eliminate the need for costly hardware and infrastructure by deploying a fully managed service that provides networking and security capabilities. It enables IT teams to reduce capex, opex and transport costs while simplifying deployment, troubleshooting and upgrading network systems. The right SASE provider will provide a global footprint, distributed inspection and policy enforcement, a cloud-native platform and identity awareness. The result is a consistent application experience across all devices and locations and a more manageable security posture without the risk of single points of failure or exposure.

SASE also offers better performance by avoiding costly backhauling and delivering latency-optimized routing across their PoPs worldwide. It provides security by inspecting content – not device or location and enabling policies based on identity (zero trust network access, or ZTNA) for secure remote working. Several suppliers have made strides in building SASE capabilities.

3. Security

Digital transformation, remote working, and cybersecurity threats are driving the need for enterprises to implement SASE. The architecture provides a platform to accelerate digital business scenarios, enhance security, and aligns enterprise solutions and IT teams. A key aspect of SASE architecture is the delivery of networking and security functions as a single service. It removes silos and improves operational agility. In addition, it increases visibility across the enterprise network for easier identification of suspicious behavior and more rapid response to incidents. This approach is also better at addressing compliance issues and meeting regulatory requirements. It is simpler to guarantee that policies are enforced uniformly across apps and services using SASE since all traffic travels via a single platform for authentication and authorization. Additionally, SASE providers can avoid inspecting sensitive data packets when required by regulations such as GDPR in the EU and HIPAA in the US.

Choosing a SASE solution with best-in-breed capabilities is important for optimal performance. The platform should have a cloud-native architecture with microservices and deliver a global SD-WAN service that bypasses latency problems caused by the internet and connects to multiple points of presence (PoPs) for a fast, consistent experience. It should also support the delivery of various SASE capabilities, including FWaaS, CASB, SWG, and more.

4. Performance

The popularity of SASE jumped during the Covid-19 pandemic due to its ability to provide secure remote access for a distributed workforce. Technology has become an essential part of a unified architecture for agile and optimized application access, which will be even more important as the workplace evolves into a highly distributed environment. SASE integrates multiple networking and security services — including SD-WAN, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and firewall — into one scalable, cloud-delivered solution. It enables a centralized approach to security policy enforcement across the entire network, eliminating the need for best-of-breed tools and costly infrastructure. It also delivers higher performance than legacy connectivity methods by avoiding the bottlenecks of legacy connections and enabling a reliable application experience across multiple sites and devices. And because it eliminates traffic backhauling and tunnels traffic directly to points of presence near a user’s geo-location, it reduces network latency.

Conclusion

In addition to these benefits, SASE lowers operating overhead, which results in a reduced total cost of ownership. By centrally managing security and enabling ZTNA without hardware upgrades, IT staff can shift their focus to strategic projects that can improve business performance and growth. Find a SASE provider offering per-offering subscriptions to ensure no next.