In cybersecurity, the term “network perimeter” refers to the secure zone that separates an organization’s private, locally managed network, often known as an intranet, from the public side of the network, typically the Internet.
Perimeter security aims to protect the perimeter of a company’s network and prevent any attack or intrusion that could affect the integrity and confidentiality of stored information and data.
Infrastructure for SASE: how to prepare it?
To achieve its objective, the network perimeter can include various elements, such as border routers, firewalls, detection systems (IDS), intrusion prevention systems (IPS), and demilitarized zones or protected subnets.
For IT administrators, network security has become one of their top concerns as hackers become increasingly skillful and sophisticated in their attack techniques.
This, added to the fact that companies’ transition towards hybrid and remote work models is increasing, has increased the attack surface that can be exploited by cybercriminals.
Secure Access Service Edge ( SASE) is a cloud architecture model that provides a unified networking and security solution as a single service allowing organizations to easily manage their security and networking tools.
In this article we will show you what to consider when preparing your infrastructure for SASE and why it is important to do so.
Why implement SASE in your business
If you are thinking about adopting a SASE framework, you should know that it offers numerous advantages for modern companies, for example:
Reduce complexity
By enabling the combination of multiple security functions, such as Firewall as a Service (FWaaS), Secure Web Gateway (SWG), Zero Trust (ZTNA), and CASB, into a single platform, it reduces complexity and simplifies security management. security.
Flexibility
The platform-agnostic architecture provides unprecedented flexibility in security infrastructure, enabling greater scalability as the business grows.
Cost savings
Consolidating security services generates cost and efficiency savings by eliminating multiple management consoles.
Higher performance
Users who connect to SaaS applications and latency-sensitive applications experience a better quality of experience, thanks to direct connectivity to the Internet and decreased network latency.
Improve security
Cloud security services with advanced threat prevention, such as sandboxing and CDR technologies, can close security gaps and protect the enterprise from potential threats.
Zero trust
ZTNA solutions implement and enforce a company’s zero trust policy, allowing users to connect only if access is necessary to perform their functions.
How to prepare the infrastructure for SASE?
When preparing the SASE infrastructure for implementation in your company, you should mainly take these 4 points into account:
1. Adopt a cloud-based architecture
A cloud-native architecture is capable of providing continuous security services tailored to risk reduction requirements.
You can also prevent investments from becoming stale in the ever-changing networking and security market, and natively create new products and offer security services without impacting the end-user experience or disrupting business productivity.
2. Integration of essential security services
SASE solutions should integrate multiple security services into a single package, allowing your company to consolidate multiple security technologies into one simplified environment, and improve the end-user and administrator experience.
The SASE-ready platform provides security web gateway (SWG) capabilities, alongside other cloud-based networking and security services, such as data leak prevention (DLP), advanced threat protection (ATP) and Cloud Access Secure Gate (CASB).
By having these unified capabilities, SASE allows enterprises to decode and identify both web and cloud-based application traffic, providing detailed context and a global view of the threat landscape.
3. Use a global perimeter network
To achieve a successful SASE solution,it is important that the provider has a global cloud perimeter network that offers security services closer to the end user, reducing latency and improving the effectiveness of security controls.
Additionally, integrating SD-WAN into a cloud-based architecture helps scale performance and delivery for remote workers, eliminating the need to deploy physical SD-WAN hubs.
4. Evolve remote access methods
To improve remote access security, security teams have traditionally used expensive and complex VPN solutions, which are difficult to scale and maintain.
Additionally, these solutions can allow unauthorized access to compromised data and accounts, posing a security risk.
Security teams need a modern, secure remote access solution that is scalable and allows users to access private cloud applications and data centers regardless of their location.
A SASE provider solution will be able to provide application-level access to private applications that follows zero trust principles.
This means that users must be authenticated and the behavior of their devices must be verified and classified before allowing access to certain private applications.
In conclusion, preparing infrastructure for SASE involves implementing a robust, global perimeter network as well as consolidating multiple security technologies into a cloud-native model.
This architecture enables simplified management and administration, reduced costs, and an improved user experience for both end users and administrators.
Are you looking for a SASE service that combines SD-WAN capabilities with comprehensive network and cybersecurity functions? Get to know SASE service and discover how it can solve your company’s dynamic access needs.