As the world continues to turn up the dial on digital transformation, businesses need faster, more agile and secure solutions to support evolving operations. Traditional legacy infrastructures are increasingly inadequate, as organizations integrate new technologies and roaming identities into existing networks, creating complex, layered architectures that expose them to new security risks. Combined with the rising costs of maintaining traditional networking, these systems are becoming increasingly unsustainable. A secure access service edge (SASE) solution offers the promise of a unified and cost-effective approach to modern networking: enhancing security, performance and scalability to meet dynamic business needs. By merging networking and security requirements, SASE protects remote access points, providing secure hybrid work environments whilst improving the performance of SaaS based apps and network performance. SASE solutions, whether single-vendor or multi-vendor, bring many benefits to organizations, however, implementing a SASE solution is a strategic decision that goes beyond simply upgrading network security. It requires detailed planning and an outcomesbased approach to ensure that the implementation meets both operational and security needs. Here are five key steps to bear in mind when approaching a customer’s SASE deployment. 1. Define Core Objectives Whilst this sounds like an obvious first step, it too often is not given the attention it deserves. When embarking on a SASE project, requirements and outcomes need to be considered from both a networking and security perspective at the same time. Unfortunately, this is often overlooked, underestimated or hastily pulled together at the start of the project and not reviewed until post-delivery – at which point it is too late. Oversights such as these can lead to security gaps, poor performance for its intended use, and further costs from having to rectify these issues. Well-defined core objectives will help to better guide the design and implementation of a SASE solution. EDGE TO CLOUD 44 CHANNELVISION | JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2025 By Stephen Amstutz Steps to a Secure and Streamlined SASE Rollout
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