The global trends of working from anywhere, hybrid working models, and surging cloud networking are here to stay. However, these trends have rendered the most common cloud accessibility and network security management paradigms grossly inadequate. Most organisations’ key digital transformation efforts are often stalled as a result.
Poor online user experiences, frequent disruptions in connectivity, and inconsistent cloud application access are the chief challenges of VPN-based networking and endpoint-based security management models. Network security is easily compromised as the extent of the network perimeter remains unknown or opaque to cybersecurity teams, even as it dynamically expands.
SASE: Complete Solution for Networking, Connectivity, and Security
The Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) framework solves these challenges by integrating network security and access control to provide a comprehensive security solution for the modern workplace. It combines multiple security services into a single platform, including firewalls, Secure Web Gateways (SWB), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), and Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB), among others. Based on a cloud-native architecture, it helps organisations leverage key cloud capabilities including elasticity, adaptability, self-healing, and self-maintenance in network security and accessibility management.
The SASE design is implemented as a globally distributed cloud platform. The cloud platform ensures that the full range of networking and security capabilities are available to support virtually all edges, wherever they might be in the network. A key advantage of SASE over endpoint-based security management is that SASE supports all enterprise edges equally.
SASE decouples common capabilities such as network optimisation and threat prevention from physical location edges. It then places these capabilities in the cloud to ensure higher levels of security and more penetrative coverage of the network perimeter.
The framework attaches an identity to each enterprise resource, be it a device, application, service, or person. Identity determines the resource’s access rights to everything, from data to systems throughout its network interaction lifecycle, to ensure more comprehensive network security. This model not only helps enable quality of access, but also enforcement of better, risk-based security controls and policies.
Seven Key Business Benefits of SASE
Here are seven key business benefits of SASE:Â
Improve security: One of the primary benefits of SASE is that it provides a comprehensive security solution that includes multiple security functions such as firewall, Virtual Private Network (VPN), and threat protection. By consolidating these security functions into a single solution, SASE reduces the attack surface and improves overall security. SASE also uses advanced security features such as Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) including Data Loss Protection (DLP), which provides granular access control to applications and protects data based on user identity and context.
Enhance performance: SASE combines Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD WAN) and Secure Service Edge (SSE) technology to optimize network performance by routing traffic over the most optimal path. When SD WAN and SSE are tightly integrated, they reduce the effort of setting policies and rules. This can improve application performance and reduce latency, resulting in a better user experience. Additionally, SASE can help businesses reduce bandwidth costs by dynamically selecting the most cost-effective path for traffic.
Supports business agility: The SASE architecture helps IT optimise networking while delivering robust security to all locations, applications, and users wherever they are. IT can then quickly and easily provide support for new resources, services, and capabilities. Introducing an edge client to the network is as easy as plugging into the SASE platform and enabling corporate policies to optimise the user experiences of the networking, cloud, and security infrastructures.
Accelerates digital transformation: With SASE, IT teams can use the convergence of networking and security to manage all features and policies in a single interface, using a common terminology. The result is deeper visibility into networking and security. Because the entire IT team is looking at the same information, SASE enhances cross-team collaboration.
Moreover, use of the SASE framework results in robust network performance with higher availability and comprehensive security, as seamless collaboration improves overall service delivery. All in all, SASE provides the elements to accelerate end-to-end digital transformation while adding analytics-driven intelligence to optimise the network and security management.
Optimises operations: IT teams do not have to go through the tedium of maintaining an on-premises infrastructure with a SASE deployment. SASE dramatically reduces the need for manually managing the redundancy, scaling, sizing, and upgrading of the network infrastructure. IT resources can instead be used to optimise and support innovation in the core business functions and operations, rather than tying them up in mundane infrastructure management chores.
Protects brand reputation: SASE provides deep visibility and agility of the cloud to dynamically protect the network perimeter even as it expands. The centralised, cloud-based management of network security that sweeps through all edges, wherever they are, ensures that IT teams can react faster and more easily to evolving malware and ransomware threats before they compromise sensitive data and business assets. Cloud-based analytics add predictive capabilities to pre-empt network and security vulnerabilities. The cloud platform also enables faster enforcement of corporate policies to protect critical resources and brand reputation.
Saves significant costs and reduces complexity: SASE helps organisations manage security and networking holistically while reducing the costs and complexity of network infrastructure management significantly with the consolidation of multiple endpoint solutions into one cloud solution.
Unlike traditional models, SASE ensures that all edges are always connected to networking and security capabilities through a comprehensive cloud platform. SASE helps in quickly and cost-effectively building and running a modern digital enterprise that is fit for today’s dynamic business environment, accelerating and simplifying the process of a complete digital transformation.
To find out how Epsilon’s SD WAN and SASE solutions can help your organisation, contact us.
