The technologies businesses have at their disposal to combat cyberthreats continue to evolve in capability and sophistication. In fact, the biggest challenge many businesses now face is finding ways to integrate the various security tools and technologies they have come to depend on. That is the very challenge that Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) aims to address.
It is a new approach to overall business infrastructure security that unites the latest in local network and cloud security together with the latest in secure access technologies like Software-Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN). The result is a secure defensive perimeter around a business’s technology access, regardless of where they exist in the infrastructure landscape. In this article we provide a complete explanation of SASE, the major technologies it brings together, and the advantages that businesses can gain by adopting it.
Originally coined by Gartner, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is a new, cloud-native approach to overall business networking and security. Specifically, it calls for the de-siloing of networking and security solutions to create a cloud-delivered converged cybersecurity infrastructure. Using it does not mean businesses need to move all their operations into the cloud. Instead, SASE simultaneously functions like a security umbrella that covers both on-premises and cloud infrastructure, as well as the devices, sites, and services the business needs to protect. It is perhaps easiest to think of SASE as a secure bridge that connects all those assets, with built-in security checkpoints at multiple levels.
Since SASE represents a convergence of various cybersecurity and networking technologies, it is useful to know the key elements that make up a SASE security approach. These include:
Firewall as a Service (FaaS)
This is a hardware-abstracted firewall appliance that runs in the cloud, protecting both local business networks and cloud-based assets. It allows a business to enforce uniform connection security for all office and remote connections, regardless of their geographic origin.
Secure Web Gateway
This is a cloud-based web filtering service that sits between authorized users and the public. Its job is to defend against online security threats via a combination of web request filtering, application control, HTTPS inspection, antivirus scanning, and data loss prevention technology. In other words, a secure web gateway aims to keep users from reaching dangerous sites and services, stop any threats before they enter the secure perimeter, and keep privileged business data from making any egress from protected systems.
Zero Trust Network Access
This is a cloud-based authentication and authorization approach that provides access control on a need-to-know basis and follows the principle of least privilege. It grants access to business resources and data using identity verification and then only to the most narrowly limited subset of resources necessary for the user to do their job. This limits the impact of attack vectors like stolen access credentials and mitigates the effects of privilege creep.
Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN)
SD-WAN refers to the usage of software as an overlay to stitch multiple disparate networks together into a single virtual secure network. It can connect both virtual and logical endpoints via encrypted channels to secure data passing between them and create multiple paths for data to use between them.
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
A CASB is a Software as a Service (SaaS) product that controls traffic and access between on-premises and cloud-based infrastructure. It also enforces business data access policies and serves as a checkpoint to detect violations of those policies and provide real-time alerts to IT administrators.
A Central Unified Management Interface
Perhaps the most important part of an SASE security approach is the use of a central unified management interface, which puts the control of the previously mentioned technologies into a single, easy-to-use dashboard. This reduces overhead and the burden on IT managers to maintain visibility into SASE operations, and decreases the odds of a security issue going unnoticed.
There are a variety of advantages that businesses gain through the use of the SASE security approach. The most obvious is an enhanced overall cybersecurity posture. SASE places additional security checkpoints throughout a business’s digital infrastructure, thus providing enhanced protection and better observability.
SASE also improves network performance due to the traffic routing optimizations inherent in SD-WAN. Additionally, it provides excellent flexibility and scalability due to its cloud-based nature. With SASE, businesses can add and remove resources as business needs change without inadvertently creating security vulnerabilities in the process.
SASE also makes the access provisioning and security of a remote workforce simpler. This is because SASE is location-agnostic, extending the same protections and policy enforcement to an employee working from home as they would have in the office. On top of all of that, SASE simplifies overall network management. This not only helps IT staff to handle their ever-increasing workloads but also reduces IT costs.
One of the most important takeaways here is that SASE is a modular security approach that is neither vendor-specific nor feature-locked. Businesses can design their own SASE security approach using cybersecurity tools they already own or plan to implement. Alternatively, they can opt for a SASE platform that already has all of the necessary tools and technologies integrated into it. In either case, the benefits of SASE make it something that every business should evaluate as a forward-looking cybersecurity solution.
Outsource IT can help with that. We offer complete business IT security services, including the design and installation of SASE solutions. To get started, just contact one of our knowledgeable account managers and ask how Outsource IT can help make SASE a part of your business’s cybersecurity future.
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