5G SASE- Key to Security Access

Executive Summary

Networking and cyber security have changed dramatically in the past few years. The rising remote working culture due to the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the growing push of company data and infrastructure into the cloud, promoted many enterprises to outline a new approach to networking and security of the data. SASE, security access service edge, helps companies to install security at edge networks where the employees are located. SASE delivers end-to-end security, telemetry, and visibility for 5G infrastructure and related services. SASE frameworks were designed by Gartner to identify the features required to deliver device and application security to the end-users.

Factors That Are Driving the Market Growth

  • Adoption of SaaS in the traditional on-premises network architecture backhauling SaaS to the data center was a complicated process as it worsens latency and increases network costs. Due to the rising prevalence of cloud environments, SASE allows organizations to move network security services from data centers to remote users.
  • Rising adoption of remote working culture due to the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working has become very common among organizations. Employees have now started working remotely, ensuring the security of networks through traditional VPNs is not feasible. The traditional type of VPN doesn’t provide granular security controls.
  • IT Team handles all the security features and updates or upgrades their infrastructure to tackle ransomware or other threats. This is a complex and time taking process that still often leaves many organizations open to zero-day threats.

Key Challenges of SASE

  • In a few cases, a standalone SASE cloud-based solution is not enough to fulfill all the requirements an organization may ask for. For example- when local security is needed to separate OT and IT at a branch location, in that case, a hybrid approach is taken into consideration to balance on-premises and cloud networking and security.
  • No single platform is superior to any other; different types of organizations have different needs, for which Gartner’s magic quadrant isn’t enough.  An all-in-one platform benefits from a single policy engine that combines policies for networking and security. However, it may come with some functional limitations compared to a best-of-breed solution approach.

Key Opportunities Offered by SASE

key opportunities offered by sase

Implementing SASE in the Current Cloud Environment

implementing sase

SASE is a unified fabric that combines networking service brokering, identity service brokering, and security as a service into one. One of the major issues facing many IT teams today is ensuring that security is applied uniformly across an increasingly scattered network. Most businesses rely on on-premises, cloud, or hybrid security, and they want to protect their existing investments. A business would need to examine best-of-breed integrations and solutions that can be scaled to consolidate and centralize the security posture based on SASE principles. Integrating individual security tools into a single, policy-driven service is one of the primary drivers for adopting the SASE approach. Following are the key benefits:

  • Access to enterprise-level security provides greater security.
  • Firewall management consolidation.
  • Improvement in application performance.
  • Improved internet communication security.
  • Adaptability to changing business requirements.
  • Remote employees and stand-alone locations can be deployed faster.
  • Improved links to regions that are expensive or difficult to reach.
  • Network & Security-as-a-Service/monthly subscription

Traditional network perimeters are being phased out in favor of more optimized, cloud-based networks with zero trust governance as a result of growing risks, increased competition, and new methods of working. In addition, IT and security teams must meet stringent business and security requirements, consolidate and optimize technology, and enable frictionless connection to a hybrid workforce, customers, and partner ecosystem.

traditional networking and sase model

Enabling and securing remote access is one critical scene in which the SASE technique thrives. The remote worker is effectively becoming the new branch office as more individuals work from home. SASE streamlines security management and company-wide governance by providing visibility over resources and the ability to apply a single set of policies to all users, regardless of their location or device.

Vendors have been rapidly innovating since the COVID-19 outbreak began, providing services and solutions to their SASE platforms. To boost connectivity speeds and dependability, leading SASE suppliers are increasingly collaborating with key cloud service providers such as Office 365 and Zoom, AWS, Google Cloud, as well as ISPs and other partners.

SASE

As hackers take advantage of the trend to remote and hybrid work, cyberattacks and threats have escalated, leading to a significant shift toward cloud-based security and SASE solutions. The SASE model solves the limits of traditional network designs by integrating networking and security in the cloud as firms allow their staff to access corporate resources remotely. As per the data from the survey done by Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. In July 2021, organizations were more vulnerable to cyberattacks when they moved to remote working, according to 45 percent of all respondents. Finance (54 percent), utilities (52 percent), and manufacturing were the industries with the most cyberattacks (47 percent).

Vendors Selection

Cato SASE

Cato SASE Cloud is a tested SASE platform. SD-WAN, a global private backbone, a robust network security stack, and seamless support for cloud resources and mobile devices are all part of Cato’s cloud-native architecture. Customers may connect physical sites, cloud resources, and mobile users to Cato SASE Cloud with ease, and IT professionals can benefit instantly from the agility of a unified network and security service administered through a single self-service portal. Furthermore, Cato Networks is bringing the world’s first SASE platform to all edges via a globally distributed cloud service. Cato SASE Cloud is powered by a private global backbone with over 65 points of presence (PoPs) connected by numerous SLA-backed network providers. The PoPs software constantly monitors providers for latency, packet loss, and jitter to select the optimum path for each packet in real time. It has an NG firewall, secure web gateway, sophisticated threat prevention, cloud & mobile security, and cloud & mobile security features.

Benefits of Cato SASE

•          Quick and easy service agility Maximize visibility and control

•          Infrastructure Management

•          Cost-Effective

•          Self-healing architecture

•          Firewall-as-a-service

•          Secure Web Gateway

•          IPS & NG Anti-Malware

•          Cloud and WAN Optimization

Aryaka Managed SASE

Aryaka Prime EZ is a managed SASE system that includes Aryaka’s SD-WAN based on a layer 3 global backbone, secure edge devices, secure Aryaka Private Access, and Secucloud Protect for branch, remote, and mobile users. Aryaka’s FlexCoreTM services fabric’s Layer 3 Private Core provides predictable, increased internet performance, transcending the unpredictability of the public Internet. It’s ideal for companies that require a managed SASE service that combines reliable network performance with convergent cloud-based security services at a low cost, owing to Aryaka’s global PoP presence. Aryaka Prime EZ includes Silver lifetime services from the company. In addition, it takes advantage of Aryaka’s FlexCore global backbone network, which has over 40 points of presence (PoPs) and reaches 95 percent of the corporate population across six Continents in under 30 milliseconds. The company offers first-mile/last-mile redundancy, as well as CPE and PoP-level redundancy. Uptime ranges from 99.999 percent to 99.99 percent, depending on the underlying SD-WAN service. Furthermore, Aryaka purchased Secucloud, a cloud-based firewall-as-a-service, secure web gateway with advanced threat security capabilities, to complement its SASE features.

Benefits of Aryaka Managed SASE

•          Fast Deployment

•          Converged Edge & Cloud Security

•          Closed-loop workflows of Services and Support

•          100% subscription-based model

•          Anti-Virus scanning

•          FWaas

•          SSL Decryption

•          WAN Optimization

•          Multi-Cloud Networking

Barracuda Networks SASE

Barracuda Networks is introducing the industry’s first cloud-native SASE platform, which allows organizations to govern data access from any device, anywhere, at any time, and examine and enforce security policies in the cloud, at the branch, or on the device. Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS), Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), and Secure Web Gateway (SWG) are all essential functionalities of the platform, allowing companies to avoid buying multiple purpose-built products. Barracuda CloudGen WAN is a cost-effective SASE solution that can be deployed quickly on Azure. While other SASE manufacturers employ their cloud and network, CloudGen WAN allows consumers to make use of Azure’s worldwide presence and power, as well as Microsoft’s global network.

Benefits of Barracuda Networks SASE

•          Advanced multi-layered security

•          SSL interception

•          Zero-touch site deployment

•          Identity-integrated access proxies

VMware SASE 

SD-WAN Gateways, VMware Secure Access, ZTNA solution, SWG, CASB, AND VMware NSX Firewall are all part of VMware’s cloud-native SASE architecture. All of these solutions are delivered through VMware’s Points of Presence (PoPs). It provides network and security services sequentially or intrinsically. The VMware SASE advantage is a unified edge and cloud service model that allows the business policy, configuration, and monitoring to be managed from a single location. It provides features to safeguard distributed users and applications against internal and external threats at all levels, including network, data, application, and user.

Benefits of VMware SASE

•          Cloud-First Approach

•          Intrinsic Security

•          Assured Application Performance

•          Operational Simplicity

Palo Alto Networks SASE

Prisma SASE is a cloud-delivered technology by the company that combines best-of-breed security with best-of-breed next-gen SD-WAN. It combines ZTNA, Cloud SWG, NG CASB, FWaaS, SD-WAN, and ADEM into a single integrated service, lowering network and security complexity while enhancing organizational agility. Irrespective of whether users are remote, mobile, or working from a branch office, it consistently protects all apps used by the client’s hybrid workforce. Its proven cloud-delivered security services use machine learning-powered threat prevention to stop 95 percent of web-based threats in real time, lowering the chance of a data breach dramatically. Prisma SASE contains the industry’s first and only SASE-native Autonomous Digital Experience Management (ADEM), ensuring end-users have an incredible experience.

Benefits of Palo Alto Networks SASE 

•          ZTNA

•          CASB

•          Cloud SWG

•          FWaaS

•          User experience – ADEM

•          Network as a service

•          DNS Security

•          Threat Prevention

Citrix SASE

Citrix delivers a fully unified SASE solution that combines a comprehensive, cloud-delivered security stack with SD-WAN and zero-trust access to provide the best experience for every application, anywhere, on any device. Citrix Secure Internet Access (SIA) is a SaaS product that provides SASE features as a managed service for SD-WAN and cloud direct Internet access (DIA) connections. Citrix SD-WAN users may administer both products from a single interface and set up secure tunnels from edge sites to SIA. SIA also works with Citrix Virtual App and Desktop environments, redirecting traffic to SIA using a Cloud Connector agent.

Benefits of Citrix SASE

•          Secure web gateway

•          Firewall

•          Cloud Access Security Broker

•          Malware Protection, DLP, Sandbox

•          Zero Trust Network Access

•          Remote Browser Isolation

Comparison of Top SASE Vendors in the Market

Tools

About Tool

Features

Best for:

Cato SASE

Cloud native- architecture

SD-WAN, fully network security stack.

Has a complete set of networking and security capabilities

Zscaler

Provide cloud security for external, internal, and b2b apps

ZTNA, zero attack surface, Native & multi-tenant cloud architecture

Security as a service

Netskope

Fast and cloud smart

SD-WAN, CASB, SWG

Data-centric, cloud-smart, and fast security platform

Twin gate

Zero trust access solution with security

Scalable platform, provide zero trust access etc.

Configure and manage enterprise-wide access control

Barracuda Networks

Cloud native- architecture

Secure access to internal apps, on-device security, etc.

Security, application delivery, and data protection solutions.

Developments

  • IBM is launching a set of secure access service edge solutions designed to catalyze cloud-delivered zero-trust security solutions for enterprises in partnership with Zscaler.
  • Zscaler, Inc., a leader in cloud security announced an expanded strategic partnership with VMware to help organizations simplify the traditional complex process of security in the new dynamic workplace.
  • CITIC Telecom CPC announced its partnership with Zscaler to introduce a cloud-native true connect SASE service to provide security to the expanding SD-WAN edge.
  • Zscaler, Inc. has acquired smokescreen technologies, a leader in active defense and deception technology. Smokescreen’s cutting-edge capabilities is integrated with Zscaler zero trust exchange which builds Zscaler’s ability to accurately detect the most sophisticated, highly targeted attacks, ransomware attacks, etc. It will also provide threat intelligence and telemetry to the Zscaler team to proactively hunt for emerging adversary tactics and techniques.

Difference Between Fortinet vs Palo ALTO SASE

Fortinet SASE

Palo Alto SASE

  • FortiGate, stabilize SD WAN, next-generation firewall (NGFW), and advanced routing to deliver fast, scalable, and flexible network coverage
  • Palo Alto’s software-defined product simplifies the network by reducing cost and automation, which helps integrate applications with maintaining industry-leading security.
  • FortiSASE is their scalable cloud-based SASE offering fully integrated into Fortinet Security Fabric. They’ve realized that networks are more distributed and depend on cloud applications, creating more opportunities for threats.
  • Prisma SASE is one of the complete SASE offerings, which has some unique features, coverage without compromise, the best-in-class security regardless of application or location, and an exceptional user experience.
  • FortiSASE provides secure access for users and applications wherever at any time without relying on legacy VPN-only solutions.

 

 

About the Author

Akansha Malik is a Market Research Analyst at Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence LLC. Akansha works with various qualitative analysis tools to understand and analyze the current and future market dynamics of the target market. Her expertise lies in Mining large data sets, Primary or Secondary Research, and Market assessment to supply current market information to administrative personnel regarding decision-making and implementation. She is passionate about supporting the IT and Telecom sector to flourish and be useful in making a more digital, better working world. Through her qualitative research, she helps her clients to achieve excellent performance. To read more informative articles and white papers from her and for more information regarding the global market scenario, visit www.knowledge-sourcing.com.