The Emergence of Secure Access Service Edge or SASE
The SASE concept can best be described as a mixture of WAN (Wide Area Networking) and multiple network security services such as Zero Trust, CASB, Firewalls and gateways that are provided in the form of a single cloud security model.
The existing security efforts and technology no longer provide the necessary level of security in the changing digital world. Considering the increased rate of hybrid workforce, these changes highlight the insufficient security measures that have so far been taken by many organizations. Nonetheless, the emergence of Secure Access Service Edge or SASE concept provides a way for organizations to adapt to these changing landscapes of networks, identity access, and infrastructure changes.
The SASE concept can best be described as a mixture of WAN (Wide Area Networking) and multiple network security services such as Zero Trust, CASB, Firewalls and gateways that are provided in the form of a single cloud security model. This service model delivers secure capabilities based on the identity access through real time with continuous assessment of risk throughout the session activity.
Key Benefits of SASE
Compared to a traditional data center network security approach, SASE provides numerous benefits in terms of increased security, better protection, more flexibility with increased performance all at an increased cost of savings.
Since SASE utilities cloud-based infrastructure, it is easier to implement and deliver various security services to: achieve zero trust in the network, provide identity access with a heavy security focus, establish threat prevention, and utilize DNS security along with Web Filtering.
Considering that SASE represents a single cloud-based network security service model, an enormous benefit that all organizations attain is the reduction in the complexity. In other words, simplifying the IT infrastructure needing maintenance and decreasing the number of security products IT departments need to operate by consolidating all security solutions in the form of SASE, organizations can start focusing more on security and less on maintenance.
The most important feature of SASE is undeniably the reliance on Identity-based Zero Trust network access. Simply put, entity identity is verified over time independent of its location in the network. Besides identity verification, a SASE identity based Zero Trust model takes into account additional factors such as user location and time, compliance policies, and various ongoing trust assessments.
Additionally, combining firewall and CASB elements into SASE, protection against external attacks is highly effective for both on-premises and cloud networks alike. These elements block attacks against network infrastructure thus preventing the compromise of internal resources. By leveraging different security components, the SASE service model can deliver full content inspection for increased security and visibility. The obvious increase in the quality of threat prevention, SASE also provides the ability of protecting data by defining data protection policies within the SASE solution.
Taking all the above benefits into account, it is worth mentioning that the combined solutions provide a significant increase in performance by connecting to whatever resource, no matter where it is located. This is also a very important factor as it provides access to resources, apps, and company data from almost any location, easing the transition to hybrid workforce environment that is growing at a rapid pace.
Hybrid Workforce and Work from Home
If asked two years ago, nobody could have predicted the massive shift of people starting to work from home not having to set foot into an office ever again. This new shift in the way of working blurred the lines between the already unclear hybrid environment and the made the vulnerable digital space even more difficult to manage. The common problems that most cybersecurity teams had only got bigger and have compounded the difficulties in managing an effective secure identity access.
By adopting the SASE cloud service delivery approach, organizations can effectively reduce the risk of unauthorized access by leveraging identity verification combined with user location, time of day and various user and device compliance policies. Considering the large amount of workforce shift towards a hybrid way of working and work from home, the SASE’s heavy reliance on the Zero Trust security model allows for greater flexibility for all employees without compromising on security.
In a traditional network model, organization’s critical applications and data resided in a data center and accessed from within different private networks or using a secure channel such as VPN when access is required outside the private networks, away from the office space. The traditional approach has proven to be ineffective when presented with the increased complexity brought by cloud-based services and hybrid workforce due to the almost impossible task of routing all the traffic through a data center.
As opposed to the traditional approach, the SASE utilizes all network controls on the cloud edge instead of the data center. SASE combines the security and network services to create a secure network edge. This implementation of identity based Zero Trust access allows organizations to expand the network perimeter to any user, device or application regardless of geographical location.
As it became more obvious that the existing security measures no longer provide adequate security, new security services and concepts began emerging. The concept of SASE has proven itself a worthy measure against the changing digital environment and will most likely shape the future of secure access. SASE combines and provides various security services to achieve zero trust in the network, provide network edge-based identity access, establish threat prevention, and utilize DNS security along with Web Filtering. Considering that the various benefits come with increased performance, less complexity and cost savings, it is easy to assume that the usual factors that determine the selection of IT products will not hinder the implementation of SASE. Lastly, SASE can not only support but enhance the increase of hybrid workforce and allow for secure remote work no matter the location.
