Choosing an integrated SASE security solution allows organizations to reduce costs, improve performance, and increase flexibility. But there are some things to keep in mind before making a decision. Firstly, look for a platform that supports all your security services under one umbrella. This will help eliminate the need for point solutions and their associated purchase, implementation, and support costs.
The Flexibility Model
What is SASE security? SASE combines network and security capabilities (including Firewall NG, Secure Web Gateway, CASB, and Zero Trust Network Access) as a service rather than in separate siloes. This offers the flexibility to centrally manage and scale security policies and ensure that the system is constantly adapted to changing business needs without compromising on the advanced protection offered by SASE.
Unlike existing security models, SASE doesn’t rely on the idea that an internal network is more secure than external networks. Instead, it treats all connections as potentially malicious and requires tighter security controls to protect users, devices, data, and infrastructure from threats originating anywhere. A comprehensive implementation roadmap with timelines, milestones, and clear responsibilities is essential for SASE adoption.
Conducting a pilot test in a controlled environment before rolling out SASE to your entire organization is also recommended. This will help you identify and address potential issues before they become more significant problems. It will also enable you to learn and optimize the technology before implementing it in your business.
The Zero Trust Model
The service edge must be as close to users, applications, and infrastructure as possible. This requires a scalable, intelligent platform that is fully programmable and automated to allow deployment and configuration through APIs and tools. It must also be fast, and the underlying network must be interconnected with multiple providers. Zero trust enables granular access control and a new level of security for the service edge. Its tenets include:
- Verification before trust.
- Granting users the bare minimum of access rights and increasing them only if necessary to perform their duties.
- Monitoring devices over time for risk levels that can trigger adaptive policies.
Zero trust works best when built into a single, cloud-native network platform that combines NGFW, SWG, and security services with SD-WAN, WAN optimization, and bandwidth aggregation to provide a simple solution to manage. A single state-of-the-art security system allows businesses to scale and secure their distributed workforces, multi-cloud applications, and on-premise data centers. This results in more vital cybersecurity by closing security gaps, controlling lateral movement, and increasing productivity with faster and more secure mobile and remote workers applications.
The Edge Computing Model
With hackers using stolen credentials and weaponized APIs to infiltrate networks, granular visibility and control of users and devices accessing corporate applications is critical. The security framework built into SASE enables enterprises to adopt Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) measures without rerouting traffic through the data center.
SASE also combines networking and security functions into a single platform, making it easier for IT teams to manage their networks and improve security posture. For example, the ability to run comprehensive behavior analytics identifies threats and anomalies more quickly than would be possible with siloed tools. When considering SASE solutions, look for a vendor that offers a full range of integrated security capabilities, including SD-WAN, SWG, ZTNA, and CASB.
A unified platform provides simpler management and fewer points of failure, resulting in lower operational costs. In addition, choose a provider that offers global service level agreements backing a private backbone to reduce latency and ensure excellent performance across all locations. Also, seek a vendor with extensive experience evaluating user contexts to enable contextually aware policies.
The Scalability Model
Unlike VPNs, a single point of failure that can prevent remote workers from accessing critical apps and data, SASE security provides redundancy and performance across distributed points-of-presence (PoPs) to support work-from-anywhere agility. IT staff can focus on other priorities, such as ensuring a positive user experience and keeping up with the ever-changing nature of cyber threats.
SASE combines cloud-native security technologies like SWG, CASB, and ZTNA into a unified platform, simplifying network security and reducing complexity. The solution also leverages edge computing, with security services processed close to where users and applications need them. This reduces costs while providing a flexible solution for managing policies based on identity rather than where the user is located or what device they use.
SASE security provides a broad range of functionality, including malware scanning, sandboxing, and DNS protection. It can also include network firewall capabilities and an advanced, zero-trust security approach that can help protect against attacks from inside and outside the perimeter, including DDoS attacks and vulnerability exploits.
The Automation Model
Combining multiple security solutions into one SASE architecture can simplify implementation and management. With centralized control of the entire network and security stack, enterprises will have fewer vendors to deal with and less time and internal resources spent configuring physical infrastructure. It can also be much easier to run holistic behavior analytics and spot threats that wouldn’t have been obvious in siloed systems.
As organizations shift to a work-from-anywhere environment, scalability and agility are critical for modern networks. SASE helps achieve this by providing a framework that scales with the business and allows users to securely access data from any location, device, or application. To maximize the benefits of SASE, choose a solution that offers a converged cloud-native software stack that addresses both on-site and remote edge network environments.
A SASE platform should include a next-generation firewall, intrusion prevention system (IPS), cloud access security broker (CASB), and Zero Trust network access (ZTNA). This convergence will ensure that all connections are verified against threat intelligence. Security policies can be based on identity, not merely the source network or location of the connecting user, branch office, IoT device, or application.