SASE stands for Secure Access Service Edge, which is an emerging network architecture that combines extensive WAN capabilities with comprehensive, cloud-native network security functions to create dynamic secure access that modern digital enterprises need.
How’d We Get Here?
Well, it’s no shock that technology evolves based on user needs and usage patterns. Over the last few years, personalization and mobility has become a priority for every aspect of business. In our cloud-centric world, users and devices are spread out all over. We needed to find a way to provide secure access everywhere. Meaning, we’d need a worldwide mesh of network security capabilities that can be dynamically applied any place and any time that a user or device needed to access connectivity and services.
SASE helps security and risk management leaders address this shift with a converged cloud-delivered secure access service edge. With this change, the focal point for security and network service design has shifted from data centers to the edge- prioritizing unique users and devices.
Traditionally, enterprise network and network security architectures are built and prioritized around the enterprise data center. As mobile and cloud technology have evolved over the past decade, focusing on the data center as the focal point for access has become increasingly ineffective and cumbersome. SASE works to transpose this focus and create a more secure, agile, and efficient network architecture.
How does SASE Work?
SASE dares to challenge traditional network architecture by leveraging the ‘fingerprint’ of the device and individual to determine access and authentication rather than forcing traffic through the data center. With the SASE approach, users and equipment in a network are connected to a centralized cloud-based network, and services are delivered with policy-based “software defined” secure access.
These customizable policies, which can be based on user identity, real-time context, enterprise security/compliance policies and constant assessment of risk/trust throughout the sessions, empower IT leaders to specify the level of performance, reliability, security, and cost of each session. By doing so, SASE makes it easier to securely allow dynamic access requirements and to deliver connectivity and cloud-based services to distributed users and locations.
SASE delivers the services and policy enforcements on demand, regardless of where the device is requesting these services and access from.
Why SASE?
SASE offers agility and flexibility that’s needed to adjust to consumer changes & other market factors that may require operators to pivot. The world we live in today leans heavily toward personalization, particularly when it comes to network and device preferences. By identifying and applying policies based on device rather than AP, we’re able to ensure greater security and a better overall experience.