Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is a private traffic-routing network that secures connections and enables remote workforces to access company systems safely and with minimal latency. It works by routing authorized traffic through a private network and to the nearest gateway location, thus providing an optimized connection with one of several robust safety protocols.
SASE (pronounced "sassy") is crucial in today's heavily Telecomm-reliant business environment, and because it can be configured to operate with other security protocols, it is also highly flexible. As remote work has increased, technologies such as SASE are increasingly important. According to a 2020 study about global SASE adoption rates, almost one-fifth of the companies surveyed reported plans to adopt SASE.
Today, well over half of businesses are estimated to be using SASE – though not without some confusion about what it truly is. Here, we'll discuss five of the most important benefits of SASE and how companies leading telecom-security advancements have made SASE services more robust, reliable, and easy to use than ever before.
Highly Customizable
As companies strive to accommodate both hybrid and fully remote workforces, IT needs have grown more sophisticated. Whether a company must integrate new remote-work telecommunication networks with their preexisting systems or are adopting completely new systems, it's important that those systems are well-understood and that multiple security protocols, if applicable, do not conflict with each other.
One of SASE's huge advantages over other remote-systems access services is that it is capable of functioning in tandem with a variety of other services and systems, such as managed SD-WAN and a variety of SaaS (Software as a Service) or IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)systems – including Salesforce, Azure, AWS, and ADP.
Alternately, SASE is extremely robust on its own and was designed for superior network security from the ground up. Used by itself, SASE's network and security protocols are extremely uniform and can be streamlined and adjusted easily by IT technicians.
Even when configured to run alongside other systems, SASE access modifications are extremely simple and can be applied to either the entire organization or to one or several users as the need arises.
Ease of Use
For the less technically inclined, SASE proves to be just as user-friendly as it is robust. Even companies without a dedicated IT team or even so much as a single dedicated IT technician can confidently and effectively manage their SASE system after a short primer on its simple operations and settings adjustments.
This is all the more true when it functions on its own and there is no other system to integrate it with – although even when there is, the simplicity of SASE makes it easy to use.
With a trusted SASE provider, your custom private network can even be configured for you (and without the technical jargon). Audits and reviewing network policies are also easy to do from a central director portal, where network configuration changes can be quickly made from the SASE director settings.
Some companies also have easy payment arrangements, offering a managed SASE network with subscription services based on the number of users. By configuring your remote workers to utilize a private SASE network and gateway system, you'll be able to ensure that even the most tech-averse employees will not compromise your network at large or inadvertently reveal sensitive private information saved on company servers.
They simply download the pre-configured SASE software onto their preferred device(s), which handles all of the technical processes in the background. To your users, it will appear as normal as their everyday computing experience, save for the need to enter login information now and then.
Note that the external management of your SASE system is not a standard with all SASE providers. Some simply provide you the tools, such as the necessary software to run it yourself, and let your IT department operate it themselves; others maintain full customer support and tech services to configure and run the system on your behalf.
If the greatest possible ease is something you need in your remote work environment, a remote-work environment assessment and a fully customized and tested SASE network created just for you is an option.
Non-Localized & Non-Physical
SASE functions purely as a system to manage data exchange between devices, and there is no central data center from which it functions. It uses encrypted cloud computing, so it is independent of any one or group of consoles (although it is most often managed from a central console).
Network data is not required to be stored in a single location, and the network itself remains independent of any employee or equipment, such as a server (although doing so is optional, as we'll discover below).
Rather than logging onto a central data center, network traffic is inspected at "enforcement points" (aka "points of presence"), which continually verify that the user is (1) a recognized employee and (2) authorized to access the particular part of the system they are trying to reach.
This non-reliance on extra equipment makes SASE a highly affordable security option while simultaneously reducing the vulnerabilities that relate to having data stored at a single physical location.
Though digital security is a constantly evolving practice, reducing vulnerabilities related to having one central source of data is extremely important as cybercrime continues to rise, having reached a record-breaking $4.1 billion in losses in 2020, according to the FBI.
The non-localized nature of SASE also improves the speed of the network, because the entire network is much simpler. With fewer "moving parts" between users and the data they seek, the network can send data in less time while still maintaining a high level of security.
This reduces the length of time and the number of times data transmissions are sent, thus reducing both the waiting time for authorized data and opportunities for hackers to intercept data packets being sent back and forth.
Security
In addition to the security benefits of SASE already mentioned (encryption, non-centrality, less complexity), SASE also operates on zero-trust network access. Zero-trust access involves treating every user on a network as untrusted by default, even when they are already logged in. What this means in practice is that identity verification and device authentication occurs at every point in the exchange of information.
The time delay of zero-trust is negligible and, due to the simplicity of the SASE user interface, hardly noticed by the users. On the other side, hackers have an enormously hard time obtaining and maintaining access to the network, because even if they could obtain privileged access, that access is not maintained throughout the session – rather, the authentication process will occur all over again the next time they come across one of the numerous enforcement points mentioned in the previous section.
Because SASE was designed to be extremely robust even on its own, it was designed with numerous inherent security protocols – these are just some of the standard features that make it a highly secure option for securing sensitive private data, but it also can provide other useful features.
Multi-Function Service
SASE's versatility is not exclusive to its ability to function alongside other systems – it includes many services in its own right. From its single "backbone" service as a cloud-based private network protocol, a custom SASE environment can also be built with several "edge" services that make the entire network capable of several different functions besides just security.
In addition to cloud and internet access, these edge services can be modified to include (to name just a few):
- VPN services
- Data center services
- Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) for multi-media sharing
- App development or deployment (for programmers)
- Unified Threat Management
- FWaaS (Firewall as a service)
- ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access)
As you might expect, extra security services are also an option. SASE is not just highly customizable – it's a highly effective multi-use networking tool in and of itself.
The Most Reliable SASE Networking Provider
As populations across the world seek out increasingly decentralized ways of accomplishing their work and remaining connected with the information they need to conduct business, novel solutions are taking hold like never before.
The widespread adoption of SASE proves to be one of the most significant shifts in how businesses and their employees connect, and BCM One has taken the lead to help companies across the world get the custom private network systems they need to accommodate increasingly remote workforces. If you think SASE might be the right business solution for you, contact us to learn more and get started today.
