Envisioning the Future After Deploying SASE

• By Dave Greenfield
• Jul 07, 2023

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) converges networking functions and security tools into a unified cloud-based service delivered at each edge. It fundamentally transforms how organizations approach enterprise networking and cybersecurity. As with any transformative initiative, gaining leadership support can be the biggest challenge. CSOs and CISOs must look beyond the technical considerations to emphasize the strategic and financial value SASE provides. They must enable key decision-makers to envision a post-deployment future to realize SASE’s transformative potential and how the journey can align with their business objectives.

Finding the Value in SASE

The operational migration to SASE is a rather seamless process that organizations can complete within a matter of weeks. However, in order to garner internal support and track progress, it is important to lay the groundwork beforehand. The pre-migration planning should include establishing:

• The strategic business value: How SASE can deliver a seamless user experience, allowing employees to focus on their core responsibilities instead of getting tied up in productivity roadblocks due to misconfigurations and connectivity issues.
• The technological value: How SASE’s converged architecture can eliminate the complexities and overhead associated with managing and integrating, individual, disparate networking and security solutions.
• The financial value: How SASE reduces the annual cost of networking and security with its global private backbone, single software stack, and centralized management.

By focusing on these key aspects, businesses can determine if they can achieve a secure, connected, and agile future with SASE. Knowing what to focus on and what to expect will ensure a smooth transition enabling organizations to maximize the benefits of their initiatives.

Envisioning the Future: What to Expect After SASE Deployment

Here’s how SASE architecture can transform the work experience for employees, IT and security teams, and business leaders alike:

Operational efficiency for IT teams: SASE can allow IT and security teams to bid farewell to fragmented network and security information. SASE's convergence brings newfound visibility, consolidating end-to-end networking and security data from various systems into a single pane of glass. With a unified view, IT can analyze security alerts and network metrics together, leading to better insights for identifying anomalies, diagnosing issues, and troubleshooting connectivity problems quickly and accurately.

With a holistic view of the internal network and granular access control, IT can address critical security challenges in the modern enterprise, including shadow IT, to enhance the overall security posture. SASE’s synergistic convergence of all security functions, including FWaaS (Firewall-as-a-Service), CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker), SWG (Secure Web Gateway), and ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access), can bridge any functional gaps between individual tools.

The SASE model eliminates certain mundane tasks from IT’s to-do lists, like cumbersome integrations between point solutions and security updates and patch management across a portfolio of networking and security tools. Admins can deploy identity-driven security policies across all endpoints centrally via a single management console, significantly reducing the administrative burden of managing hundreds of endpoints. With SASE, businesses can allow IT to redirect their focus towards strategic business initiatives.

Seamless remote working user experience: SASE enables a consistent and reliable user experience when accessing applications and services. SASE uses intelligent resource allocation and dynamic routing across multiple internet access links on a cloud-native, global, private backbone, ensuring that users get ubiquitous connectivity and MPLS-like superior performance at a fraction of the cost.

SASE integrates real-time monitoring and threat detection capabilities across all traffic flows. It allows organizations to eliminate traditional, high-latency remote connectivity solutions, like VPNs. End-users can access organizational resources securely from wherever they are without complicated authentication processes and additional security checks. This eliminates the typical productivity roadblocks to remote working and enables faster innovation and improved bottom line.

Higher revenue and peace of mind for leadership: With SASE minimizing the operational overhead, providing comprehensive visibility into security and performance metrics, and ensuring optimal connectivity and performance, end-users and IT teams can shift their focus to critical business initiatives. Boards and leadership can enjoy peace of mind knowing that SASE provides stable and secure global connectivity, enabling everyone to work towards fulfilling business objectives. Besides, they can rest assured that their network is readily prepared for any scale of future expansion, without incurring unnecessary connectivity costs and complications.

Overall, embracing SASE can potentially unlock a future where organizations enjoy enhanced operational efficiency, security, and user experiences. However, the key to a successful implementation lies in meticulous planning, setting realistic expectations, and charting out the strategic value. With the right migration strategy, organizations can ensure their SASE journey aligns with their business objectives and remain confident in the transformative power it holds for their digital future.