How the SASE Model Helps Secure Remote Workers, Branch Offices

These days, it seems like the only constant is change, and the networking and security worlds are no exception. Industry predictions around consolidation, cloud adoption and convergence that were previously considered aggressive now seem understated. And, with the unprecedented move to remote work across industries, these massive shifts continue to accelerate. The SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) model can help organizations securely adapt to this change by simplifying today’s complex IT environments through a combination of cloud-native networking and security architecture.

These massive shifts include:

The network perimeter is evaporating.

Do you remember the last time you were in an office? If you’re like many people, it can seem like a lifetime ago that you were inside the walls of an office building. Some (or many) will return to the office in the future, but the ability to work from anywhere is here to stay. The same goes for your digital presence. In the past, networking and security models were perimeter-based, and policies were applied based on whether traffic was inside, outside or moving through perimeter-based defenses. In today’s world, there is no hard line between “inside” and “outside” the office walls. This requires a new approach to secure users, data, and applications.

There’s more data in more places than ever before.

As cloud adoption accelerates and more organizations store business-critical data in SaaS apps, the amount of internet traffic multiplies quickly. Bandwidth needs can vary dramatically over time, and traditional networking appliances struggle to keep up with the demands of newer types of content and a higher percentage of encrypted traffic. This leads to issues with application performance and latency–a serious problem for fast-paced industries. It’s difficult to scale the network in an elastic fashion with old-school networking technology. Without a flexible networking architecture, the lofty promises of cloud efficiency will go unrealized.

Security has become too complex.

Along with the growth in complexity from distributed networks and multi-cloud environments, keeping your users and data secure has grown more complicated, as well. Cloud and SaaS adoption are great news for productivity and velocity, but they can easily lead to gaps in security and issues with compliance or acceptable use. With networking and security delivered together, it’s easier to scale for growth and throughput across a wide range of security and compliance functions.

Enter SASE (Secure Access Service Edge)

Coined by Gartner in late 2019, the SASE concept aims to simplify today’s complex IT environment through combined cloud-native networking and security architecture. The benefits are many, but they can be distilled down into three major categories: simplicity, security and scalability.

How to Get Started with a SASE Approach

Implementing a SASE architecture is not easy, but the benefits are clear. To better set up your organization for success today and in the future, there are a few key steps to consider.

To get started, read the report Quick Answer: Cost Effectively Scaling Secure Access While Preparing for a Remote Workforce, where you’ll learn about:

Get the Gartner report.

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