Top four benefits of SASE for the modern workplace

By: Gabriel Gomane, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company.

With the acceleration of digital transformation and hybrid working, organizations are moving their applications to the cloud at a faster pace. Users are now accessing sensitive data in the cloud from any location and device, often through untrusted connections. Traditional security models based on perimeter defenses are becoming obsolete as the security perimeter dissolves.

To solve these challenges, watch my video to learn how SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) enable the workplace transformation.

Here are four benefits of SASE to enable the modern workplace:

Benefit 1: Securely connect from anywhere

With hybrid working becoming the new norm, branch workers and remote workers require seamless and secure access to applications. As most applications now reside in the cloud, directing application traffic from branch offices to the data center is no longer practical, as it was done in traditional router-based network architectures. VPN, commonly used by remote workers, provided unrestricted access to the enterprise network, but lacked granular control, and created potential security risks.

ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Architecture) offers least privilege access principles, allowing granular control over network segmentation at the application level based on user identity. This ensures a more secure and flexible approach compared to traditional VPN solutions. Moreover, third-party users can be easily onboarded with agentless ZTNA, enabling efficient collaboration.

Benefit 2: Browse the web securely

SASE also addresses the need for secure web browsing in the modern workplace. Employees are exposed to a myriad of web-based threats, including ransomware, phishing, and malware. Secure Web Gateway (SWG) protects users by utilizing advanced SSL inspection, URL filtering, content filtering, and DNS filtering in real time. By safeguarding employees from internet-based threats, organizations can enhance their overall security posture and improve compliance to regulations.

Benefit 3: Regain control over cloud-hosted data

As more organizations are adopting cloud services, it is key to ensure security and compliance of cloud-based data. More sensitive data travels over unsecured links and are hosted outside of the enterprise security perimeter in sanctioned or unsanctioned cloud services. With that in mind, organizations must detect potential data breaches and prevent them by monitoring and blocking unsafe movement of sensitive data.

CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker) provides the necessary measures to detect and prevent potential data breaches by monitoring and blocking unsafe data movements. Additionally, CASB helps organizations discover shadow IT, enforce unified policies across platforms, and prevent data loss through controlled file uploads and downloads.

Benefit 4: Improve application performance

Traditional architectures relying on MPLS links for branch office connectivity, introduce latency and performance limitations when backhauling cloud traffic to the data center for security inspection.

With SD-WAN, organizations implement a robust and flexible way to connect branch offices to headquarters by combining MPLS, Internet and 4G/5G links while intelligently steering traffic to the cloud, improving application performance and security. Virtual instances of SD-WAN can also be deployed in cloud service providers creating an end-to-end connection from the branch to IaaS platforms to enable multi-cloud networking. Advanced SD-WAN solutions also include routing and next-generation firewall capabilities such as IDS/IPS and fine-grained segmentation, allowing organizations to replace legacy routers and firewalls in branch locations, while isolating mission-critical application traffic from unsecure traffic such as IoT devices.

In conclusion, SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) offers numerous benefits for the modern workplace. It enables secure connectivity from anywhere, protects web browsing, ensures control over cloud-hosted data, and enhances application performance and security at branch offices. By adopting SASE, organizations can meet the challenges of hybrid working, digital transformation, and evolving security needs, empowering their workforce and safeguarding sensitive information in the dynamic modern workplace.

If you want to learn more, watch my lightboard video about enabling workplace transformation with SASE.

Other resources:

Unified SASE Web page

EdgeConnect SD-WAN Web page

HPE Aruba Networking SSE Web page

What is a secure SD-WAN?