SASE stands for Secure Access Service Edge. It’s a concept introduced by Joe Skorupa and Neal MacDonald of the Gartner research firm last year. It’s a cloud-based approach to securing the Wide Area Network (WAN).
How Secure Access Service Edge Works
Providers like Zscaler offer Secure Access Service Edge for customers. Secure Access Service Edge is a software-defined approach that combines the various security capabilities of a wide area network with those of a cloud-based security platform.
For inspection and verification, legacy approaches rely on forwarding traffic to the data center. However, with the increasing number of users in remote locations, this practice can cause issues and reduce productivity. It can also hurt the end-user experience.
Reasons Secure Access Service Edge is the Future
With the rise of the cloud and the increasing number of devices and users, organizations are looking for ways to manage their security and access controls while still taking advantage of the various benefits of digital transformation. SASE can help them meet these requirements by providing a comprehensive security platform that can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud.
1. It Answers Increasing Needs of Distributed Workforce
The rise of the cloud and the increasing number of people working from home have led to the evolution of the modern workforce, which is now highly distributed. This means that people are connecting to various resources, such as public clouds and software as a service (SaaS) applications.
Due to the evolution of the workforce, the traditional hub-and-spoke topology is no longer feasible. Instead, a cloud-native approach can help organizations manage their distributed workforce. This eliminates the need for remote users to connect to the data center using a VPN.
2. It Converges Security and Networking Functions
Today, many organizations are looking for solutions that can protect their highly distributed workforce. They need to have a variety of security options, such as firewalls, VPNs and SD-WAN. However, these solutions can be complex and require more performance.
Secure Access Service Edge combines the various security capabilities of a wide area network with those of a cloud-based security platform. It can be implemented efficiently and provide a more secure environment for the distributed workforce.
3. Its Currency is Based on Users’ Identities
The currency of Secure Access Service Edge is based on the user’s identity, which is a better description than the IP address of a machine or a user. In today’s distributed world, identity is becoming the source of truth for everything that we do. This makes networking and security more important.
4. It Can Be Scaled
Due to the rise of the cloud, organizations are now shifting from their private data center to the public cloud. They need to replace their physical hardware with an elastic, cloud-native solution that can meet the agility requirements of a highly distributed environment.
Secure Access Service Edge represents a major shift in the way that organizations do networking and security. Although it is still in its infancy, it has a lot of promise and can provide a new approach to addressing the security and networking needs of modern enterprises. Secure Access Service Edge is already being adopted by various security and networking vendors, such as firewalls, secure web gateways and cloud access security brokers.
To fully capitalize on the potential of SASE, these solutions need to be rebuilt to deliver more secure and efficient networking.