Can we all agree the shift has happened – the workforce isn’t just working from a coffee shop on occasion? The events of 2020 accelerated a growing trend of work from anywhere, any device, any time, while expecting a seamless experience. That’s not a tall order. That’s a grande order – with a double-shot of espresso.
The pandemic accelerated remote access to applications, while ‘work from anywhere’ became a top organizational priority. Organizations rushed to spin up direct internet access to roaming users and zero trust network access to help ensure trusted access. Now, most people are working anywhere – at home, on the go, at the branch or campus offices – on any device.
With this shift, the datacenter is no longer the hub – the user is. And to give them secure access to work resources and applications, users must now be treated as a “branch of one.”
Users expect a seamless connection to the applications they need. So, how are your customers going to get networking and security to row in the same boat to ensure secure and consistent access with low latency for these seemingly endless “branches of one?”
Treating each user as a branch of one creates significant risk and complexity across IT, security, and networking teams. The fact that users and devices now require secure access everywhere requires security services to be everywhere too. This opens up new risks and challenges.
Cybersecurity challenges for customers:
- Rising complexity: Distributed locations, workers, applications and data create new levels of complexity
- Increased risk exposure: Remote employees and increased SaaS usage expands the attack surface
- New performance and user satisfaction issues: Use of high bandwidth is causing latency and dragging down user satisfaction
To protect against these growing risks — while optimizing performance at every connection — networking and security can no longer work in silos. Instead, they must work together in tandem to connect and protect users at the edge, securely and efficiently.
This is where SASE enters the picture. Recently introduced by Gartner, SASE — or Secure Access Service Edge — is a forward-thinking framework in which networking and security functions converge into a single integrated service. Working at the cloud edge, SASE delivers protection and performance in one simplified approach.
This approach leans forward into simplification of the technology stack. We need to say goodbye to silos so we can adapt quickly to changing threat vectors. We need to be able to seamlessly connect and protect users at the edge with not just ANY security – but effective security that won’t slow our users down. And finally – we need it all to work together.
And that requires a new way of thinking and a new approach. Cisco Umbrella, one of the core components of Cisco’s approach to SASE, is focused on meeting the challenges by simplifying the IT environment while providing the best security with high performance scalability. Umbrella customers are discovering the benefits of this converged and simplified, cloud-based network and security method of management.
“Cisco Umbrella is significantly easier to deploy and manage than prior web filtering products. Easiest solution to scale as bandwidth needs grow because there are no appliances needed. Best way to secure and filter remote endpoints no matter where they are.”
Charles Hiestand, System Administrator, Reading School District
Source: TechValidate.
SASE done right is a cloud edge service that helps you simplify, secure and scale – anytime, anywhere, on any device.
With SASE you can:
- Safely move access control closer to where it’s needed – to the user and to the cloud edge
- Converge resources to a more efficient, as-a-service model for secure networking
- Make your business more agile to adapt to a continuously changing world
- Simplify deployment, management, and policy enforcement across all environments
- Deliver seamless, secure connection experience users expect to any application, from any device, at any time
This is the first of a five-part series on the three keys to migrating safely and efficiently to the cloud. For more information about this topic and the Cisco approach, get the new ebook, Investing in a long-term security strategy: The 3 keys to achieving SASE.
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