SECURITY FOR A GROWING HYBRID ENVIRONMENT

Users, applications, and data are everywhere

A SECURITY APPROACH
FOR THE CLOUD AND BEYOND

A company’s on-premises data center used to be the most important piece of an organization’s technological puzzle. Traditional security frameworks are designed around the idea of the data center as the “center of the universe,” even though the shift to the cloud means that’s no longer the case.

With this shift of resources into the cloud, IT teams need to rethink how security is done by getting sassy — or better yet, SASE.

In 2019, Gartner coined the term Secure Access Service Edge — known better as SASE, pronounced “sassy” — to describe the most current approach to security architecture in the cloud.

SASE isn’t a product. It’s an architecture. Or better yet, a forward-thinking framework where networking and security converge into a single integrated service. It works at the cloud edge, delivering protection while maintaining high user performance.

SASE’s modular view of security architecture is purpose-built to protect organizations’ hybrid cloud or distributed enterprise environments. SASE is on the road to becoming commonplace because of its simple, effective coverage across multiple platforms.

^{By 2025, at least 60% of enterprises will have explicit strategies and timelines for SASE adoption encompassing user, branch and edge access, up from 10% in 2020*}

_{^{*Source: Gartner®, 2021 Strategic Roadmap for SASE Convergence,

Neil MacDonald et. al, 25 March 2021}}

WHY ARE FIRMS ADOPTING SASE?

The proliferation of remote work, which skyrocketed during the pandemic, means users need easy access to apps and data from everywhere — at home, at a coffee shop, in a park, or in the office.

Not only are users connecting in different locations, but they’re also now connecting in different ways: on multiple devices, through software as a service (SaaS) apps and diverse cloud platforms.

This new environment calls for new strategies. The biggest challenge is ensuring secure, seamless connections that optimize productivity without causing performance issues or inconveniencing users.

Enter SASE, with its numerous networking and security functions integrated into a single, integrated cloud service.

THE GROWING
ISSUE OF
COMPLEXITY

The digital landscape isn’t just growing—it’s becoming more complex, with more options for cloud platforms. Organizations often have an on-premises data center alongside cloud services such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and SaaS.

Each service tier’s unique security needs require attention and maintenance. For example, users are responsible for managing the operating system for IaaS services, but not typically for PaaS or SaaS.

Keep in mind that organizations — including yours — may juggle numerous cloud services, all with varying levels of security management. So, it shouldn’t be surprising that “complexity is the enemy of security.”

69% of organizations had two or more IaaS vendors.
Approximately 70% of firms reported at least one major security breach of their IaaS environment in the past two years that they had to spend significant resources to fix.
Firms with five IaaS vendors were more likely to have a higher number of security breaches than firms with one IaaS vendor.

^{Source: Pervasive Integrity: Maturing Security into Resiliency, IDC Directions 2021, Frank Dickson}

While moving to the cloud can improve functionality and performance by introducing new tools to your enterprise, it unfortunately can make you more vulnerable.

In today’s global business environment, organizations must build up security in the cloud to protect against modern threats and uphold the highest level of performance.

GET THE SASE ADVANTAGE

Taking a SASE approach delivers huge benefits for the enterprise and the CTO/CISO designated to protect it, including:

Improved user experience. SASE extends business policy, permissions, and processes to user connections at the point of exchange — bringing users to the security, rather than security to the users. This optimizes users’ direct connections to multiple clouds and services.
Greater flexibility. SASE’s cloud-based infrastructure makes it easier to add services like threat prevention, web filtering, sandboxing, and others to your security posture.

Additional control. SASE provides more security and visibility into your network. Adding data protection policies helps prevent unauthorized access.
Reduced complexity and increased scale. SASE unifies previously separate security functions, minimizing the number of point security products and vendors. Because it combines security and networking, it easily meets multicloud demands at scale.
Better user performance. With SASE, end users can effortlessly connect to wherever resources are located — access to apps, data, and other users is available globally through cloud infrastructure.

SASE allows the CTO/CISO to build out their security infrastructure to align more closely with the organization’s needs. Even after deployment, a SASE framework can protect multiple public clouds, additional SaaS apps (such as Salesforce or Workday), and other key services that are vital for your business to succeed.

For IT, assurance is SASE’s biggest benefit: With a cloud-based security framework in place, you can build an infrastructure with confidence that security protection will adapt as your business grows.

SHI’s Cisco security practice can help integrate SASE into your environment.