by Alyssa Ramella
Technology never stops changing, but you likely already knew that. Gartner recently released a new report talking about the future of network security, introducing: Secure Access Service Edge, SASE, (pronounced: sassy). Although it may sound complicated, it is simpler than it seems. You may actually be familiar with its components already. SASE is the combination of existing technologies into one, single solution to reduce overhead and overall operating costs. Through a bundle of cloud networking security measures and SD-WAN technology, SASE can be the complete network solution you have been looking for. Let’s break it down.
What is SASE?
With SASE, securing your endpoints is easier than ever. Up until now, networking philosophy assumed the datacenter was the central point for analyzing and securing traffic. However, SASE brings the user identity to the forefront since organizations have moved from the physical datacenter into the cloud. SASE accomplishes this by inspecting data at the source.
Previously, when traffic was inspected at the datacenter level, speed and user experience was hindered. Now, SASE can redistribute the traffic and inspect traffic directly at the endpoint leveraging SD-WAN technology at cloud data center points of presence (PoPs) across the globe.
How SASE works for you
Imagine, your employee, David. David is a consultant and frequently travels for work in a post-Covid world. He just arrived at the airport for a flight to San Francisco to work on a customer site. As he’s waiting to board, he pulls out his laptop to get some work done. Airport Wifi leaves open a ton of vulnerabilities and some companies have VPNs in place for this situation. If you have ever used a VPN in an airport, you know that it is a bit slow and can be a user experience headache. With SASE, David’s traffic is not only being protected, but also being optimized to provide the best experience. With the SASE PoPs all over the globe, he is routed to the closest one.
Closing Thoughts
A SASE technology functions as a tool that inspects your traffic using secure web gateway, cloud access security broker (CASB), ZTNA, and WAF while simultaneously optimizing the traffic and implementing malware inspection & data loss prevention. With all this included, SASE allows you to have one solution for your network and security needs.
Next Steps
Citrix has entered the SASE market this year with Citrix Secure Internet Access. Here is a great resource that shares some great information on the topic if you are interested in learning more. https://www.citrix.com/products/citrix-secure-internet-access/
