What are the primary SASE benefits?
SASE converges both networking and security capabilities into a single-service cloud-native, globally distributed architecture that shifts the security focus from traffic-flow-centric to identity-centric. SASE encompasses a package of technologies that embeds security into the global network fabric so it is always available no matter where the user is, where the application or resource being accessed is, or what combination of transport technologies connects the user and the resource. SASE provides many benefits by consolidating all the networking and security functions traditionally delivered in point products. Before diving in, here’s a brief overview:
Primary SASE Benefits
- Reduces Costs and Complexity
- Enables New Digital Business Scenarios
- Centralized Orchestration
- Secure, Seamless User Access
- Secure Remote / Mobile Access
- Applies Least-Privilege Access
- Ensures Consistent Policy
- Increases IT Staff Effectiveness
- Threat Prevention and Reducing Risk
- Increased, Optimized Performance
Reduces Costs and Complexity
- Appliance sprawl is replaced by a single software stack that reduces both CAPex and OPex costs.
- Eliminating backhauled traffic flows reduces transport costs, data center aggregation, optimizes client-to-cloud delays, and streamlines the operation of communication networks.
- By securing DIA, SASE reduces private circuit costs and enables cost-effective transport choices.
- SASE provides consistent policy enforcement that reduces IT complexity and IT staff burden.
- SASE’s SaaS approach supports rapid growth and technology improvements at reduced cost.
- SASE offers easy-to-buy, -manage and -operate models, including per-user pricing.
- SASE provides client security on all devices and OSs, Windows, MacOS, Linux and BYOD.
Enables New Digital Business Scenarios
- SASE applies secure access regardless of the location of users, workloads, devices, applications or data, enabling secure WFA, rapid SaaS adoption, and flexible multicloud environments.
- Automated, cloud-delivered SASE provides a scalable architecture, leverages the internet, and enables digital transformation without the costs and rigidity of on-prem architectures.
- SASE is entirely software-based, cloud-delivered, and readily fits in existing environments.
- SASE’s SaaS approach supports rapid growth and low-cost adoption of technology improvements.
- SASE eliminates forced traffic flows through policy enforcement points, enabling cloud migrations that are unconstrained by typical traffic flow bottlenecks.
Centralized Orchestration
- SASE management offers centralized policy definition combined with local enforcement.
- SASE provides single-pane-of-glass management for network and security as a single solution.
- End-to-end visibility and analytics of all users, devices, applications and resources—regardless of location, or connection via private, cloud or internet—simplifies management capability.
Secure, Seamless User Access
- By securing DIA, SASE enables optimization of the user experience and cloud access.
- A cloud-native SASE architecture provides consistent user experience, regardless of location.
- Assured experience is provided for business applications: optimal bandwidth and low latency.
- SASE provides always-on clients with private, public, hybrid and multicloud access.
Secure Remote / Mobile Access
- SASE brings security to the user, instead of backhauling traffic to a policy enforcement point.
- Provides optimal user experience by anchoring the client to the best SASE gateway.
- By securing DIA, SASE reduces latency by securing the most direct user access path.
- SASE can detect malicious traffic and intervene before it reaches the enterprise, enabling it to, for example, mitigate DDoS attacks.
- SASE enables a full security stack anywhere in the network.
Applies Least-Privilege Access
- SASE uses zero trust principles (ZTNA) that assume a hostile network and enforce authentication of all devices and users, and check locations and policy compliance before allowing a session.
- SASE restricts access to any asset or resource based on policy, context and user, device and application identity.
- SASE restricts broad network access based on IP address or location, mitigating lateral movement of a hacker breach, and threats from unmanaged or IoT devices connecting to the network.
Ensures Consistent Policy
- A SASE architecture improves security by applying consistent policy enforcement.
- SASE delivers a comprehensive range of UTM services to any network edge, and protects user and assets both on-prem and off-prem.
- SASE provides a secure, consistent client-to-cloud user experience.
- SASE dynamically allows connections based on authentication, identity and business rules.
Increases IT Staff Effectiveness
- Centralized, role-based management increases network and security staff effectiveness.
- Staff gain full visibility and control over their areas of responsibility by applying policies.
- Analytics are tailored to staff roles.
- All network/security intelligence is automatically propagated to all network components.
- Cloud-delivered SASE enables rapid deployment on a global scale.
Threat Prevention and Reducing Risk
- SASE architecture provides application and resource cloaking, segmentation and isolation with distributed control and data planes.
- SASE architecture provides comprehensive security at various locations along the access path.
- SASE provides support for inline encryption/decryption.
- SASE incorporates user, device and/or location-based risk profiling and assessment (UEBA).
- Security is built into the SASE fabric, ensuring all connections are inspected and secured.
Increased, Optimized Performance
- By securing DIA, SASE improves performance and minimizes latency to optimize user experience.
- The single-pass parallel processing approach to applying security controls reduces latency and improves application and network performance.
- Eliminating backhauled traffic flows reduces client-to-cloud latency.
- Cloud-native SASE architecture scales elastically to enable WFA and rapid deployment.
- Distributed SASE architecture scales easily to accommodate traffic fluctuations and minimizes interruptions to user experience during peak demand times.
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