What Is SASE? Secure Access Service Edge in Plain English

Secure Access Service Edge — SASE, pronounced “sassy” — is an architecture that delivers networking and security together, from the cloud, close to wherever users and devices are. It exists because the old model no longer fits how people work.

Why the old model broke

Traditionally, security sat in the data centre: branch and remote-user traffic was sent back to a central firewall before reaching the internet. Now most applications are SaaS or cloud-hosted and many people work remotely, so backhauling everything adds latency and cost and creates bottlenecks.

What SASE includes

• SD-WAN for branch connectivity
• Secure Web Gateway (SWG) to filter web traffic and block threats
• Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) to control use of SaaS and protect data in it
• Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) giving users access to specific applications rather than the whole network
• Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS)

All are managed through one policy engine and enforced at the provider’s points of presence.

How organisations adopt it

Few replace everything at once. A common path is to start with secure web gateway and ZTNA for remote users, then move branches onto SD-WAN and firewall-as-a-service as hardware and contracts come up for renewal.

Single vendor or best of breed?

Single-vendor SASE is simpler to operate; combining specialist products can offer more depth. The right answer depends on your team, existing investments and requirements.

We help organisations plan and run SASE. Read more about our SASE service or get a SASE roadmap.