The Australian workforce has never been as distributed as it is now. Since the pandemic, there has been a huge shift from operating exclusively from an office to work from home and now hybrid remote working models. While this is exciting and progressive that we’re adapting work arrangements to our more modern and complex lives – it also raises issues of security for organisations.
With recent studies showing that 40-50% of office workers now operate in hybrid conditions and the vast movement of apps to the cloud – companies have had to adapt to the new normal.
What was previously industry standard – to have an in-house data centre and VPN is increasingly insufficient and obsolete for the number of workers accessing data remotely, not to mention unable to combat the security risk. All of this has paved the way for a new concept in network architecture and data security known as Secure Access Service Edge or SASE.
So what is SASE?
SASE (pronounced ‘sassy’) is a network architecture model that combines WAN capabilities with network security services into a single service.
The architecture allows remote workers to enjoy seamless and secure access to their company apps and data through firewall as a service (FWaaS), zero-trust network access (ZTNA), secure web gateway (SWG) and a cloud access security broker (CASB) – all rolled into one. SASE comprises Security Service Edge (SSE) and Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN).
A relatively recent concept, SASE was first coined by Gartner in 2019, who stated that by 2025, “80% of enterprises will have adopted a strategy to unify web, cloud services and private application access using a SASE/SSE architecture.”
What are the benefits of SASE?
In short? Flexibility, scalability, increased cost efficiency and security.
Adoption of SASE allows organisations to apply secure access no matter where users, data, applications or devices are located. It’s easier to connect resources and workers and benefit from more flexible networking and improved application performance. It can also assist businesses in scaling more easily in line with their business goals as well as reduce risk and improve cost efficiencies. This network architecture model can help security teams to implement more robust and far reaching cyber security policies too – with identity based application and data access.
Does my company need it?
SASE is a great option for organisations who are facing current challenges with their legacy networks and are looking to upgrade. If your organisation has a large remote work contingent who need high speed, large volume access to sensitive data and applications, then SASE would be a fantastic option to look into. SASE is also particularly effective in providing a comprehensive and unified security framework for businesses with inconsistent application of security policies throughout their organisation. For companies who are unsure where to start – it would be a good idea to conduct a security audit of current network capabilities as well as any WAN investments.
As an approach that moves networking and security out of the data centre and closer to the cloud, SASE looks to be the future of network security. While it isn’t a one size fits all solution, for businesses seeking to increase security and adapt to the modern remote workforce it’s definitely worth exploring further. If you’d like information about how we can help your business with SASE or a security audit, get in touch with us today.
