The cloud's knight in shining armour

SASE integrates SD-WAN and cloud-delivered security, ensuring unified cybersecurity with SSE components for efficient, cost-effective, and scalable protection

- VIVEK SRIVASTAVA

If you aren't a cybersecurity professional, you might mistake Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) for an advanced algebra problem or perhaps a scientific formula. But IT professionals understand that at a high level, SASE is a solution that provides the hybrid workforce with consistent enterprise-grade cybersecurity no matter their location and is composed of both networking components, Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) as well as cloud-delivered security (SSE).

If drilled deeper though, the confusion about what SSE means and which cloud-delivered security solutions are necessary for a comprehensive SASE approach is still there. Not understanding each element and how they work together to protect the hybrid workforce can leave the organisation with an incomplete solution, management challenges, and, potentially, costly breaches.

SSE is a cloud-delivered security solution that ties together the four components namely, Firewall-as-a- Service (FWaaS), secure web gateway (SWG), cloud access security broker (CASB), and zero-trust network access (ZTNA). Each of these products work together to secure users, devices, and edges to applications, no matter the location.

FWaaS: ONE SOLUTION FOR ALL

FWaaS allows organisations to move security inspection partially or fully to a cloud infrastructure. With security in the cloud, their solution is managed by the cloud provider, who maintains the hardware infrastructure that powers their solution. Many companies want a service-based architecture because it gives them the freedom to expand security coverage without having to provide new hardware. FWaaS is a one-solution-fits-all option, regardless of the size of the organisation.