Cato boasts 5Gbps encrypted tunnel throughput

Cato Networks said today that it has successfully created an encrypted tunnel capable of 5Gbps of throughput, offering reassurance to network administrators worried about traffic overhead created by Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platforms.

The company’s announcement said that increasing uptake of SASE, particularly by large enterprises, has created a need for faster encrypted connections that still support the full array of security technologies present in SASE. The speed boost, Cato said, was made possible by improved performance in the company’s Single Pass Processing Engine, which is the umbrella of services that runs in its various points of presence.

Cato said that virtual machine-based SASE systems running in the cloud or as web proxies are limited to less than 1Gbps per tunnel.

“This limitation forces enterprises to have their edge appliance create and manage multiple tunnels and load-balance their traffic between them,” the company said. “An added layer of complexity and risk that does not exist in Cato’s solution.”

The root of the problem that Cato is trying to solve is in the wide array of different security protocols running in any SASE setup, according to Enterprise Management Associates vice president of research Seamus McGillicuddy. With each service needing to read the network traffic, the more demands are placed on a given connection.

“SASE is about running as many different types of network security as possible in a cloud-delivered [point of presence],” he said. “The goal is to have these solutions running in lots of different locations as close to end users and the sources of traffic as possible.”

Cato, according to McGillicuddy, seems to think that connection speed via SASE could prove to be something of an arms race, given the increasing demand.

“It’s definitely going to be a requirement for some businesses,” he said. “It can also be a competitive differentiator.”

Cato also announced the availability of private layer 2 connectivity between its servers and any cloud provider connected to Equinix Cloud Exchange or Digital Reality, broadening the possible user base for its newly speedy encrypted tunnels. The idea is to provide legacy environments, in particular, with the ability to use up-to-date network security measures like Cato’s SASE platform.

“Enterprises with MPLS or third-party SD-WAN infrastructure can now leverage Cato’s SSE capabilities without changing their underlying networks,” the company said.

Cross Connect will be available for a “flat monthy fee,” though Cato declined to provide a dollar figure.