With a SASE architecture, security tools can be deployed directly on the network’s edge to protect remote workers and deliver a superior user experience. This new networking model provides a better way to adapt to the cloud, embrace mobility, and address rising cybersecurity threats. This approach converges networking services, often based on SD-WAN, with security technologies such as Zero Trust Network Access and Secure Service Edge. Combined with consistent policy enforcement, it makes migration from legacy perimeter and hardware-based solutions easier.
Cloud-Native Architecture
The unified SASE architecture merges traditional wide-area networking (WAN) and network security functions into a cloud-native, globally distributed platform. This allows you to scale your business without the heavy infrastructure hardware many businesses need to maintain on-premises, which may be prone to cybersecurity breaches or performance issues. SASE uses a zero-trust architecture to verify identity, protecting the enterprise from cyber threats. This model distributes policy enforcement closer to users, where they are located before their data traffic enters the corporate network. This makes it easier to enforce consistent security policies across the entire organization. Network and security services like SD-WAN, CASB, Secure Web Gateways (SWG), and Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS) are integrated into the same SASE platform to provide a seamless user experience for remote and mobile employees. This architecture also protects global points of presence (PoPs) and optimizes network performance by providing dynamic traffic routing, QoS capabilities, and caching mechanisms. The unified architecture of SASE reduces complexity and helps IT teams streamline management, easing the burden of maintaining a complex collection of disparate point solutions. IT staff can refocus on critical tasks and break down department siloes to achieve more significant operational and cybersecurity efficiency. SASE offers a variety of features that make it easier to meet your organization’s unique security needs, including encryption, multifactor authentication, threat detection, data loss prevention, and more.
Zero Trust Network Access
Today’s digital organizations demand uninterrupted access to applications from various locations. They want to move data to and from public clouds, edge computing sites, branch offices, and remote workers without being subject to network downtime. And they need to protect data from cyberattacks in the cloud, at the network edge, or between these locations. These requirements create a need for a new network security model. A Zero Trust network provides access to enterprise resources based on user identity and continuous risk evaluation in real-time. This approach eliminates deploying and managing multiple-point products at the network edge or remote sites. By consolidating network and security functions into a single platform, businesses reduce the number of devices they must track, patch, and update. Lastly, SASE allows IT teams to deliver advanced network and security services like secure web gateways (SWGs), CASBs, and firewalls via a provider-managed platform instead of deploying them in the network edge or on-premises. This makes delivering consistent policies easier, improving performance and agility and reducing management complexity.
Identity-Based Access Control
In the modern world of work-from-anywhere employees, networks need to support mobility and connectivity for remote workers and their devices. SASE architecture combines networking services—typically based on SD-WAN—with security technologies, including Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and Secure Service Edge (SSE). These components shift the focus of security from data center servers to end-users and their devices. With SASE, IT teams set policies centrally via a cloud management platform, enforced at distributed points of presence close to users. This enables granular, consistent policy enforcement and eliminates the need for security appliances that require physical installation on-site. SASE architecture also enables centralized visibility into user and device behavior, making it easier to correlate information from multiple systems quickly, gain insight into security events, and help troubleshoot issues. It reduces network complexity and hardware costs and offers a more scalable solution without significant capital expenditures. In addition, SASE reduces the need for physical firewalls at branch offices. This simplifies deployment and cuts the time to get new branches online. And, because it combines networking and security technologies in one stack of software, SASE architecture can be managed from the same console, reducing the time IT teams spend on managing these disparate solutions. This helps drive down opex, capex, transport, and asset costs while making managing the network from anywhere in the world easier.
Security Analytics
While WAN and security are often considered distinct domains of expertise, digital transformation demands the full power of both. Security constantly evolves to keep pace with new cyber threats, while WANs require fast, robust, and flexible connections. A unified SASE architecture that combines advanced WAN edge capabilities with comprehensive security services provides the best of both worlds. This architecture converges networking and security into a cloud-native global network fabric that shifts security’s focus from traffic flow to identity. This approach enables teams to control network performance and user experience from anywhere in the world, regardless of which combination of transport technologies connects an enterprise to its applications and data. In addition to transforming network performance, SASE solutions enable enterprises to strengthen security and compliance with regulatory requirements. Advanced SASE architectures deliver integrated threat prevention tools like next-generation firewalls and secure web gateways. These tools help organizations encrypt and protect data in transit, at rest, and on remote devices. This data protection bolsters privacy and security policies, including GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS. A unified SASE solution cuts complexity and cost by removing multiple appliances and on-prem infrastructure in favor of a single software stack. It also delivers improved visibility and control through a centralized management console.
