How SASE’s rise is driving simplicity, speed and agility in business

What is SASE?

At a time when security remains at the forefront for many organisations, the latest security buzz word to hit the market is SASE (pronounced ‘sassy’ and yet another one of our favourite acronyms).

This stands for Secure Access Service Edge. Put simply, it’s all about providing security to users so that they can access services (such as SaaS platforms) at the edge of the network.

The past year has epitomised the use case for SASE, with businesses pushed to turn their teams into professional home workers overnight. Key to maintaining any form of business continuity has been organisations’ ability to for their users across the globe.

But the need for SASE started long before 2020. Its primary driving force has been the move from data centres to cloud services. To keep pace with this change, the traditional models of networking and security technologies need to be re-addressed.

And re-addressing security needs to be a constant. To be true to its name, cyber security needs to be in the sidecar giving directions, whilst the business is on the motorbike driving. And that’s what this move to SASE is about – enabling a seamless integration between security and business objectives.

Bringing simplicity, speed and agility

SASE addresses the shift to cloud platforms by centralising network and security controls in the cloud. Not only does it make implementing and managing security controls more effective and efficient, it creates a ‘mesh’ that links to business objectives (such as cloud adoption, digital transformation and SD-WAN).

And there’s good news with this new security buzz word – it’s not just another tool to add to all of our (endless) lists. Rather, SASE enables consolidation. IT teams will be able to shift from managing security boxes to delivering policy-based solutions. It creates a much simpler way of managing security, which means it’s viewed as a business enabler, creating speed and agility.

My colleague Rob Robinson, who’s the Head of Security and Networks, notes that SASE opens doors to flexible and secure ways of working well-suited to these pandemic times: “It helps organisations to address data sitting outside of their physical environments, as well as people’s need for immediate access. It does this by delivering secure policy-based security which, if done right, enhances user experience.”

How to get started on SASE?

Whilst many vendors are talking about SASE, it’s not so much a point solution as an approach, which harnesses a blend of technologies. A Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) can bring together this approach under a single umbrella to design, create, run and manage a suitable SASE model.

To find out more about SASE, have a read of our earlier blogs below:

SASE Demystified: Why it’s the heart of the transformed enterprise

Beyond the VPN: how zero trust leads to a SASE future

If you want to chat to one of our SASE experts, we’re here to help. You can either drop us a note via our website or connect with me on LinkedIn and start a conversation.