You open up your laptop, connect to the company VPN, and start going through your morning routine – email, messages, calendar. As you click and scroll, have you ever stopped to think about how much of your work relies on network security? That video call, the cloud software you use everyday, accessing internal servers and documents – all of that data flows through systems keeping it safe from intruders.
And the expectation is that your security strategy can flex and scale at Internet speed while keeping both your core systems and remote workers protected. Not exactly the simplest task in the world. And this landscape of hybrid work and distributed apps is only expanding, putting more pressure on security infrastructure.
Many IT teams are feeling the strain of trying to force-fit outdated security models into the new work environment. Tactical stacks of hardware appliances for the data center paired with VPNs for remote users leaves gaps attackers happily jump through. There has to be a better approach.
Enter SASE
SASE (pronounced “sassy”) stands for Secure Access Service Edge, and has quickly become one of the hottest network security topics. But what is SASE exactly, and how does this architecture provide better protection for today’s distributed organizations?
Simply put, SASE is an emerging network security framework that combines comprehensive WAN capabilities with cloud-delivered security services. The goal of SASE is to support the modern distributed enterprise in a flexible and scalable architecture.
The key pillars of SASE are:
- Software-defined networking – Get rid of rigid hardware dependencies with a software-based infrastructure delivered from points of presence at the network edge. Gain agility to scale capacity up or down dynamically.
- Consolidated security services – Unify all security – NGFWs, secure web gateways, CASBs, ZTNAs – into a seamless cloud platform protecting devices, data centers, remote users.
- Single-pass architecture – Run all network and security processing in one cloud delivery pipeline to reduce latency, complexity, and costs. Apply consistent policies across the entire distributed network.
- Zero trust framework – Never trust users or devices implicitly. Instead, verify identity and validate access permissions continuously before granting least-privileged access.
Why is SASE Gaining So Much Attention?
Several IT and workforce trends over the past decade have set the stage for the rise of SASE:
- Work from anywhere – The shift to hybrid work along with BYOD policies means more users, devices, and apps outside the network core. VPNs alone don’t cut it anymore.
- Cloud adoption – Migrating business apps to SaaS and IaaS cloud platforms circumvents legacy data center security. Fragmented tools lead to gaps.
- Perimeter dissolution – With more Internet traffic going directly from branch sites to cloud, the notion of a single security perimeter has disappeared.
- Proliferation of threats – Both the volume and sophistication of malware, ransomware, phishing, and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks have exploded.
SASE aims to address all of the above by transforming legacy hub-and-spoke architectures into a globally distributed, identity-based network and security mesh. This next-gen approach is the adaptation needed to protect today’s work anywhere environment.
What Are The Main Benefits Driving SASE Adoption?
You could argue that SASE delivers precisely the set of capabilities – flexible access, scalability, ubiquitous security – demanded by the new way we work. That agility is indispensable given business today is digital business – always on, always changing. Some of the main benefits include:
- Better user experience – SASE minimizes latency by distributing services to the edge, ensuring fast and reliable application access no matter where users are located.
- Operational simplicity – Converging networking and security into a unified cloud platform reduces complexity of managing fragmented tools and troubleshooting across domains.
- Cost efficiency – Software consolidation and automation of tasks like provisioning and scaleup/down controls costs.
- Superior scalability – Cloud-native infrastructure allows capacity to spin up or down dynamically based on real-time conditions – a key capability in today’s work landscape where rapid changes are the norm.
- Consistent security – Uniform policy controls eliminate gaps so users, devices, and apps get the same protection treatment whether on campus or cloud or remote.
Implementing a SASE Architecture
Transitioning from legacy network architectures to SASE can be a challenge as it requires a shift in the way you think about network security. You need to move from a perimeter-based approach focused on protecting the data center to a cloud-delivered model built on identity and access. This paradigm change reaches across networks, security tools, policies, and workflows within an organization.
Where do you start when implementing such an expansive new architecture? Here are some steps you can follow:
Gather Requirements
You need to begin by thoroughly documenting your existing infrastructure including hubs, branches, clouds, as well as mapping out all critical applications and data flows. Additionally, get clarity on user profiles and access methods along with security and compliance requirements. This becomes the foundation for modeling your SASE architecture.
Design the Architecture
With requirements established, you can start designing the architecture. First determine whether to go with a single SASE platform or integrate best-of-breed networking and security tools. Next, model the right mix of on-prem and cloud elements based on traffic patterns and data gravity. Develop access and security policies aligned to a zero trust framework.
Test and Validate
Before rolling out SASE more broadly, pilot capabilities with a small group of users to test performance and work out any integration or policy issues. The goal is to validate benchmarks for metrics like latency, scalability and security efficacy.
Expand Deployment
With a successful pilot in place, start gradually expanding SASE deployment across broader segments of infrastructure, applications and users. Continue testing cycles against benchmarks as scale increases. Begin redistributing networking and security services from branches into the SASE cloud.
Manage and Optimize
As the implementation expands, stay on top of management and optimization. Collect ongoing data on utilization, latency, security events. Tune policies and capacity models accordingly. Also look to automate tasks like scaling capacity up or down based on demand or new application rollouts.
Adopting SASE requires coordination across network operations, security, cloud infrastructure, and application teams. Make sure to clearly map out objectives, stakeholder roles, implementation stages, verification metrics, and ongoing management. While alignment at the organizational level is critical, SASE convergence also calls for new skillsets integrating both networking and security. Cross-training or hiring bridge staff can smooth the transition to operating a blended environment.
Final Word
As more enterprises make the shift to SASE over the next several years, convenient and secure access will become the norm for users regardless of application, device, or location.
Just as cloud and mobility have transformed business, SASE promises to transform networking and security – the foundations which everything else is built on. So while users get back to business as usual, IT now has an architecture capable of supporting their work, anywhere and everywhere business happens.
