Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
SASE
Business everywhere requires security everywhere. With multiple clouds, remote workers, headquarters and branch offices, the attack surface has been increasing. As the network boundaries expand and with increasing SaaS penetration, an evolved and heightened security approach is required.
Recognising this trend, Gartner, in 2019, defined the Secure Access Service Edge and coined the term SASE (pronounced sassy) tying together SD-WAN, managed security and edge compute in a single architecture.
“Digital transformation and adoption of mobile, cloud and edge deployment models fundamentally change network traffic patterns, rendering existing network and security models obsolete”
The change in network traffic patterns is essentially the inversion of network access requirements with more users, devices, applications, services and data now located outside of the enterprise than inside. Legacy networking and network security architectures were designed for a world that has been turned inside out with more user work performed off the enterprise network than on the enterprise network and more traffic from branch sites and remote offices heading to public clouds than to the enterprise HQ.
SASE (Secure Access Secure Edge) is the convergence of SD-WAN and network security services into a single cloud-delivered service model.
SASE is a network architecture that integrates SD-WAN capabilities with cloud-native security functions such as secure web gateways (SWG), cloud access security brokers (CASB), firewalls and zero-trust network access (ZTNA). By combining SD-WAN and Security, SASE delivers the optimal mix of performance, availability, usability and cost. SASE, in essence, is the combination of Managed SD-WAN and Security as a Service making SD-WAN the logical and essential starting point for SASE implementation journeys.
SASE and SD-WAN bring networking and security together in the cloud delivering secure connectivity with simplicity, scalability and flexibility. SASE delivers end to end performance and security driving a shift from traditional box-heavy branch (NGFW, branch routers) to a thin branch (with SD-WAN) and heavy cloud model.
Iricent works with leading security and networking specialists , e.g., Netskope, Fortinet and VMWare all of whom provide a comprehensive portfolio in their own right but who also facilitate choice with a broad range of existing integrations with other vendors ensuring customers have options in terms of deployment alongside existing infrastructure whilst avoiding vendor lock in.
To learn more about SASE and the role of SD-WAN visit our blog post here and find out more about Iricent SASE solutions