SASE or Secure Access Service Edge

SASE Secure Access Service Edge (Pronounced: Sassy)

SASE is a term coined by Gartner in 2019 to describe an architecture that combines Wide-Area Network (WAN) functions including routing, segmentation, zone-based firewall and even WAN optimization with comprehensive cloud-delivered security services, delivered and managed in the cloud.

"The real goal of a SASE architecture is to more intelligently connect users to their applications, without compromising any security."  

The benefits of SASE are many including:

• Improved business productivity and customer satisfaction
• Enhanced, consistent security policy enforcement across the enterprise
• Reduced risk and brand image protection
• Increased IT efficiency and lower overall WAN and security costs

It’s become more important to companies since the pandemic as more employees work remotely blurring the tradition edge boundary and methods of securing corporate data, access, entitlements.

What does this mean for SMBs and MSPs?

SASE requires more including Security inforcement, user management, and licensing controls

SASE is more than monitoring and patching.  SASE includes many Cloud Security measures such as Single Sign On solutions, advanced endpoint security such as Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), and recording communications into a centralized, Cloud-based Security Operations Center (SOC) and Security Incident Event Monitoring (SIEM) solution.  These collection of cloud-based security services when combined is considered a SASE solution set and should be defined as a baseline for each SMB and MSP, required of every remote user.