What Are the Steps to a Successful SASE Implementation Strategy?

Published on: February 6, 2024

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20 min read

Secure Access Service Edges (SASEs) products are among the most significant technological advances in networking and cybersecurity in recent years. According to Market Research Future, the market is expected to reach more than $5.36 billion by 2027, rising at a rate of 28.3% annually.

The need to strengthen edge security and resilience at a time when hybrid work, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, and other trends are increasing the attack surface and raising the risk of cyberattacks and serious business disruptions is driving demand for SASE products.

SASE is a framework that describes the network and security skills needed to manage highly dispersed environments, such as on-premises, hybrid cloud, remote, edge, and remote worker use cases, according to Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG).

With SASE solutions, enterprises may leverage zero-trust architectures, malware protection, cloud access security brokers, and other essential components of a cloud security platform to integrate security and networking functions to provide edge computing resiliency.

A SASE architecture aims to facilitate dependable, policy-based, centralized administration that is easy to scale and resilient enough to satisfy corporate objectives. How can SASE be applied most effectively given that most businesses are aware of its advantages and why they should think about utilizing it? Although SASE functionality is normally provided as a cloud service, deploying any necessary virtual or on-premises software, such as SD-WAN, usually requires a physical platform.

The adoption of SASE inside your firm can be guided by the following best practices. The following article contains a wealth of information regarding the SASE application as well as the steps of a successful SASE implementation strategy:

• How Do You Assess Your Organization's Network Security Needs Before Implementing SASE?
• What Are the Key Stakeholders and Roles in a SASE Implementation Team?
• What Should Be the First Steps in Defining a SASE Implementation Roadmap?
  1. Assessment of Current Infrastructure
  2. Set Clear Objectives and Goals
  3. Identify Key Stakeholders
  4. Budget and Resource Planning
  5. Regulatory and Compliance Considerations
  6. Vendor Selection
  7. Pilot Phase Planning
  8. Policy Development
  9. User Training and Communication
  10. Deployment Phases
  11. Testing and Quality Assurance
  12. Monitoring and Maintenance Plan
• How Do You Select the Right SASE Vendor or Solution for Your Organization?
• What Are the Considerations for Network Migration to a SASE Architecture?
• How Can You Ensure a Smooth Transition for Remote and Hybrid Workforces?
• What Are the Best Practices for Configuring SASE Policies and Rules?
• How Do You Address Security and Compliance Requirements in the Implementation?
• What Metrics Should You Monitor to Evaluate the Success of SASE Deployment?
  1. Network Performance Metrics
  2. User Experience Metrics
  3. Security Metrics
  4. Scalability and Load Metrics
  5. User Access Metrics
  6. Compliance and Policy Adherence Metrics
  7. Cost and Resource Utilization Metrics
  8. User Feedback and Satisfaction Metrics
  9. Business Outcomes Metrics
  10. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

How Do You Assess Your Organization's Network Security Needs Before Implementing SASE?

Before deploying SASE, there are measures to verify the organization's network security. To prepare for SASE adoption and create a workable project roadmap, use the following steps:.

1. Sort the business issues that need to be resolved into priorities: Is enhancing support for remote and hybrid work a priority? Adding to a zero-trust program? Updating the secure application access system? Streamlining office provisioning and maximizing global connectivity? IT teams may determine if it makes more sense to choose a security, network, or completely integrated approach by first understanding the organization's most pressing demands. After that, they may start developing the SASE project's technical specifications.

2. List more projects that are in the works: SASE doesn't function independently: The operationalization of the approach is becoming more and more linked to zero trust. The security of IoT installations is increasingly linked to SASE. To ensure that technical needs are not opportunistic, SASE planning might benefit from an understanding of the kinds of larger security or IT initiatives that are either underway or being considered.

   Collaboration across functional lines is necessary for this activity and is essential to the success of SASE. In order to strengthen overall alignment and support the plan, interact with stakeholders from various business lines and other areas of the IT organization.

3. Pick the essential qualities needed for both immediate and long-term success: The most important attributes are those that facilitate the earliest SASE use cases. It's crucial to have a longer-term perspective. Hybrid alternatives could be significant for SWG's first on-premises and cloud-delivered deployments, but as the project grows, it will become increasingly cloud-focused. Comparably, an organization's ZTNA requirements can initially call for an agent-based strategy, but eventually, an agentless plan for use cases involving third parties is anticipated. Generally, adaptability needs to be the main priority.

4. Assess suppliers: The procedures leading up to vendor evaluations can be finished: Seek for suppliers who can assist both now and in the future. Presently, very few, if any, suppliers provide a complete SASE platform. Pay attention to suppliers who serve as reliable consultants and who can assist you in comprehending their approach to SASE and the services they offer and do not offer. This facilitates the process and produces better outcomes and connections.

   All things considered, putting in place a SASE architecture may aid in boosting security, improving UX, and increasing operational efficiency. Planning is necessary, though. These actions can assist any company in creating an initial plan for addressing SASE and should be seen as a place to start.

5. More precisely, you must determine which of the essential SASE components can be achieved with your current technology and which ones require development or acquisition: The network security requirements of your company prior to SASE adoption. The fundamental five elements of SASE are:

   • Software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN). This creates an overlay that securely connects your company's main office, branches, data centers, work-from-home users, and users' mobile devices via the public internet, private networks, or even cellular networks.
   • Secure web gateway (SWG) housed in the cloud. Regardless of the user's location, tracks, examines, and logs all web activity and prevents viruses and attacks.
   • Cloud-access security broker (CASB). All cloud deployments require important security software since it controls and monitors communications between users and your organization's cloud instances and apps.
   • Firewall as a service (FWaaS). Builds a cloud-based firewall that enforces the regulations and policies of your company on user network traffic.
   • Zero-trust Network Access (ZTNA). A cloud-based system that guarantees constant verification of all users and devices and personalized consideration of each access request, regardless of the user's location.

The five main components may be combined with or added to by other, more well-known elements:

• A data-loss prevention (DLP) solution that runs on the cloud. Perhaps a component of DNS-layer (or domain-name system) security, or FWaaS, clouds-based endpoint detection and response (EDR) software that blocks harmful or undesired servers and may be a component of the SWG or FWaaS. This, or at least antivirus software, is certainly already installed on your system; check to see whether it can be moved to the cloud.
• Cloud-based intrusion prevention and detection system (IPS/IDS). Determine whether your current IDS or IPS can be repurposed for cloud computing.

What Are the Key Stakeholders and Roles in a SASE Implementation Team?

A SASE framework should be immediately considered by every firm that wishes to offer complete threat and data security, expedite its digital transition, and support a remote or hybrid workforce.

The security and network operations teams should work together closely for a successful SASE conversion (if they don't already). Through this partnership, the network's performance and security are guaranteed to be taken into account. It is advisable to designate an impartial project manager who will guarantee that all specifications are fulfilled and efficiently conveyed.

Embrace the advice of Gartner and include the owners of transformative teams for the workforce, branch offices, and strategic applications. Working together is essential, particularly when a larger, company-wide digital transformation initiative is being planned or implemented.

What Should Be the First Steps in Defining a SASE Implementation Roadmap?

Decision-makers should comprehend their current surroundings and establish criteria for choosing a SASE solution to fulfill their unique company demands before assessing possible solutions and partners.

Planning is key to a successful SASE deployment, as is having a thorough grasp of your current infrastructure, needs, and pain areas. Thorough planning, preparation, and ongoing optimization are necessary for a successful SASE deployment.

Here are some tips for organizing and executing phased SASE deployment, including how to rank business issues, identify future projects, evaluate significant tool shortages, and develop a workable SASE implementation roadmap.

Step	Explanation
1. Assessment of Current Infrastructure	Few businesses employ SASE in a "green-field" setting without any pre-existing security architecture or capabilities. Prior to attempting to replace functioning historical capabilities with SASE, while adopting SASE, make use of current capabilities and endeavor to fix security holes.
2. Set Clear Objectives and Goals	Identify the challenges in your organization that can be solved with SASE, as well as the desired business consequences.
3. Identify Key Stakeholders	The security and network operations teams should work together closely for a successful SASE conversion (if they don't already). Through this partnership, the network's performance and security are guaranteed to be taken into account.
4. Budget and Resource Planning	Plan not only for the present but also for future development, and adjust your budget appropriately to prevent problems later on.
5. Regulatory and Compliance Considerations	Seek fresh chances for ongoing, flexible SASE deployment as your company expands and its goals change. The journey to a mature SASE architecture is different for every firm. Implementation phasing makes sure you can proceed confidently at every turn.
6. Vendor Selection	Pay attention to suppliers that serve as reliable consultants and who can assist you in comprehending their approach to SASE and the services they offer and do not offer. This facilitates the process and produces better outcomes and connections.
7. Pilot Phase Planning	In order to examine how SASE functions and how it interacts with your existing security software, it is recommended that you first conduct a pilot test of the technology on a single, small network.
8. Policy Development	Key qualities that are essential to both short- and long-term success must be chosen. The most important attributes are those that facilitate the earliest SASE use cases. It's crucial to have a longer-term perspective.
9. User Training and Communication	To ensure that the user base is aware of the changes to their everyday routines and what to do in the event of an issue, your support team must teach and document the user base.
10. Deployment Phases	As current appliances approach their end of life or reach their scalability limits, deploy SASE security features, such as NGFW (next-generation firewall), SWG (secure web gateway), and IPS (intrusion prevention system), progressively.
11. Testing and Quality Assurance	Test SASE capabilities in a staging environment and play with the integration of your multi-cloud security stack with other products and the SD-WAN before deploying SASE live.
12. Monitoring and Maintenance Plan	Optimize SASE implementation continuously. After your SASE solution goes live, you should keep a close eye on it and seek opportunities to optimize and improve it.

Table 1. SASE Implementation Steps

1. Assessment of Current Infrastructure

A large portion of SASE is unnecessary when using technologies that businesses already have. Cloud access security brokers and secure web gateways (SWG) are well-established and widely used solutions. Organizations may come to the conclusion that a SASE project should first concentrate on adding missing features due to the difficulty of transferring current policies to a new cloud-delivered tool. For SASE projects, zero-trust network access (ZTNA) is a typical starting point. To stop unknown attacks and safeguard high-risk users, remote browser isolation is used.

The next step is to evaluate your current network architecture and resources in-depth to find any areas where you could be falling short of your SASE targets. Make use of the following inquiries as a guide:

• Are the key personnel equipped with the necessary knowledge and abilities to oversee and carry out a SASE deployment?
• Do you require access to an SD-WAN backbone or other SASE service provider resources?
• Is it possible to leverage any current infrastructure for the SASE implementation, or will you need to buy new hardware for your edge?

To get a thorough picture of your present environment, review technical documents and network diagrams, speak with key staff about their training and expectations, and go over security and network configurations. It is crucial to make this decision before developing SASE needs since it might be much simpler to identify pain points and business objectives with a full grasp of the current infrastructure.

You may begin selecting SASE providers and solutions once you have a clear understanding of your current situation and your long-term goals for SASE.

2. Set Clear Objectives and Goals

Determine the issues in your company that SASE might help with and the anticipated business results. First, when you understand the significance of SASE, identify the technologies that close the gaps in the infrastructure that already exists inside your company. Determine the SASE use cases: What issues require a solution, and what advantages does your company expect to reap?

SASE ought to be implemented as a component of a well-defined strategy with quantifiable objectives and KPIs. For instance, the goals of a SASE implementation are to provide uniform security throughout the corporate WAN, continually monitor devices for compliance, and perform least privilege access management for corporate resources.

3. Identify Key Stakeholders

The security and network operations teams should work together closely for a successful SASE conversion (if they don't already). Through this partnership, the network's performance and security are guaranteed to be taken into account. It is advisable to designate an impartial project manager who will guarantee that all specifications are fulfilled and efficiently conveyed.

Embrace the advice of Gartner and include the owners of transformative teams for the workforce, branch offices, and strategic applications. Working together is essential, particularly when a larger, company-wide digital transformation initiative is being planned or implemented.

SASE suppliers provide a wide array of security solutions centered on the following:

• Software-defined wide area network, or SD-WAN, is able to optimize and automate the routing of network traffic between on-premises and cloud computing as well as distant IT.
• Your security policies and access restrictions are uniformly enforced both on-premises and in the cloud by Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB).
• Advanced threat protection (ATP), intrusion prevention, web filtering, and Domain Name System (DNS) security are all included in firewall capabilities provided by Firewall as a Service (FWaaS).
• Zero-trust networks (ZTNA) prevent access to apps and data until they have completed constant authentication, authorization, and security validation.

Many of these features may already be present on your networks and at your edges. In other situations, SASE can address security holes in your system. You may search for SASE solutions that work for your specific circumstances once you know what you need.

4. Budget and Resource Planning

You could have already embraced certain parts of SASE if you facilitate remote work, but you might be reluctant to move from traditional security solutions to a cloud-based solution if you are still using them. Additionally, the problems associated with secure connectivity for remote work cannot be resolved by older technologies. By using cloud-based solutions, you avoid the upfront costs associated with a significant technological update. Additionally, it tends to present integration opportunities and is scalable and versatile. Success is able to be mapped out. Additionally, you can compile prerequisites. Determining which websites, users, and cloud services require connections and security is crucial. Then, prepare for both current and future growth and adjust your budget appropriately to prevent future interruptions. Observe your applications carefully. Video and speech programs that operate in real-time may see a reduction in quality. You may need to provide high availability (HA) for certain of your sites. There are actions your company may take to strengthen the resilience of site-based components, even if the SASE provider bears the majority of the HA liability.

5. Regulatory and Compliance Considerations

Your network should support the expansion of your company by quickly adjusting to both anticipated and unforeseen future requirements. It's essential to future-proof your network to prevent creating a rigid system that can't adapt to changing needs.

Typical occurrences may be branching out into new areas, which calls for secure networking; engaging in M&A activity, which might entail merging several IT systems; or putting more apps on the cloud. It can take months or more to unlock new capabilities in legacy infrastructures like MPLS. These problems include sourcing, integrating, deploying, and managing various point products. A cloud-delivered SASE solution, on the other hand, is implemented in a matter of days or weeks, reducing time and removing resource limitations.

It has the ability to deeply apply control and guide requests according to business policies.

FWaaS, or Firewall as a Service, is a form factor in which SASE provides the security of a next-generation firewall (NGFW). This cloud-based NGFW provides scalable protection for corporate online applications by inspecting HTTPS traffic as it is being routed to its destination.

Web resources and applications, as well as other Internet-based information, may be accessed securely with the use of a Secure Web Gateway (SWG). SWG includes features including antivirus software, intrusion prevention systems (IPS), URL filtering, and anti-bot defenses.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) works to stop private information from being seen by uninvited outside parties. DLP systems will look for sensitive and restricted data, including personally identifiable information (PII), in outgoing traffic.

11. Testing and Quality Assurance

The provider, environment, and needs will all affect the precise processes involved in configuring services.

Before implementing SASE deployment live, we advise you to create a staging and testing environment that is distinct from the production environment. This will allow you to conduct comprehensive integration and user acceptability testing. Examine the integration between the cloud security stack and an SD-WAN system, together with additional tools and applications such as role-based access control (RBAC), security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR), and security information and event management (SIEM).

Furthermore, do user acceptability testing using actual users and workloads to precisely visualize how these modifications will impact the individuals who use your systems on a daily basis. In order to facilitate the transfer of your business as a whole to SASE, this will help you discover faults and difficulties, ascertain what sort of user training is required at the cutover time, and enhance the overall user experience. For these reasons, you should experiment with how your multi-cloud security stack connects with the SD-WAN and other technologies and verify SASE functionality in a staging environment before moving forward with a SASE deployment.

In this manner, the company implements the determined policies and solutions during the implementation stage. Deploying and testing tools is just one aspect of this; another is developing least privilege access constraints based on links between people, apps, and data sources that have been identified.

12. Monitoring and Maintenance Plan

Optimize the application of SASE continuously. You should continuously examine your SASE implementation once it goes live and search for methods to make it better and more efficient. Both the infrastructure and the technologies that SASE suppliers provide will change over time. You should assess the SASE technology to see whether further capability is required or wanted when you add more branch offices, SaaS platforms, cloud infrastructure, and other edge computing requirements.

How Do You Select the Right SASE Vendor or Solution for Your Organization?

Day-to-day network security and administration ought to be simplified by SASE systems. Make sure the SASE provider you choose has an intuitive user interface while researching them. SASE should simplify things and free up an organization's IT staff to concentrate more on business operations and mistake correction rather than maintaining the network's infrastructure.

Ten essential components your SASE solution needs to have are listed below:

1. Software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN), network firewall (FWaaS), secure web gateway (SWG), cloud access security broker (CASB), zero-trust network access (ZTNA), data loss prevention (DLP), inspection of malware and sensitive data, line rate operation, remote browser isolation (RBI), and user entity behavior analytics are all included in this comprehensive solution.
2. A comprehensive solution that offers all of these features as a tightly integrated software stack rather than as a collection of loosely connected, separate components.
3. To isolate resources, combine user/device identity and authentication with policy administration and enforcement for users and client/clientless devices, and utilize segmentation and IT/OT capabilities.
4. To circumvent the inefficiencies of a multi-product or multi-OS design, an elastic and scalable architecture with the flexibility to dynamically scale out for high performance and single-pass scanning for all services per flow is used.
5. Regional data storage for compliance and a single data format for logs and events are features of consolidated analytics and data lakes.
6. A single pane of glass for management that integrates the development and administration of security policies, devices, networks, and users in order to simplify configuration and provide real-time and historical insights.
7. To satisfy regulatory and compliance requirements, delivery choices include cloud-delivered or on-premises services; they can be fully managed, co-managed, or self-managed.
8. A distributed Point of Presence (PoP) network across the globe allows policy enforcement to be carried out nearer to branches and distant workers.
9. Application-aware connectivity serves as the backbone for providing the best possible user experience based on dynamic network circumstances, as well as an access point between distant branches, users, devices, and cloud gateways.
10. Smooth integration with other and current architecture, technology, and tools in a brownfield setting.

What are the SASE Architecture Types Available in the Market?

Many vendors are selling "SASE" these days. All SASEs, however, are not made equal or provide the same answers for the same use cases in the same manner. Let's examine each SASE architecture in more detail and highlight its variations:

1. Vendor-only SASE: Network and security capabilities are combined into a single cloud-delivered solution by a single-vendor SASE provider. This enables companies to reduce appliances, combine various point goods, and guarantee uniform policy enforcement. Furthermore, a single data lake houses all of the event data. The efficient enforcement of security regulations and visibility are both enhanced by this common context. Furthermore, network and security problem monitoring and troubleshooting are made simpler by centralized administration. This increases efficiency, guarantees regulatory compliance, and simplifies the use of SASE.
2. Vendor-multiple SASE: In a multi-vendor SASE, two vendors -usually a network-focused vendor and a security-focused vendor- provide all SASE functions. Integration is needed in this arrangement to guarantee that the solutions function together and to provide log collection and correlation for management and visibility. This method necessitates several applications. Even though it may perform functions comparable to those of a single-vendor system, its greater complexity frequently leads to less visibility as well as a lack of flexibility and agility.
3. Managed SASE, or portfolio-vendor SASE: When a service provider offers SASE through the integration of several point solutions, such as a single management dashboard that leverages APIs for setup and management, the result is a portfolio-vendor SASE. Although handling different goods is easier for the consumer with this paradigm, managing a heterogeneous SASE infrastructure remains complicated. Furthermore, MSPs who select this course of action could have to wait longer for updates and assistance, which would be detrimental to the flexibility and agility of their company.
4. Appliances-based SASE: In appliance-oriented SASE, which is frequently promoted by providers that are still associated with old on-premise solutions, before branch traffic and remote users reach their destination, they usually pass via a central on-site or cloud data center appliance. Flexibility, performance, efficiency, and productivity may suffer from this approach's physical structure and network traffic backhauling, despite the possibility that it combines security and network characteristics. Although the proposal seems good, there are some underlying issues with it.

What Are the Considerations for Network Migration to a SASE Architecture?

When migrating to SASE, organizations must carefully prepare, taking into account things like legacy infrastructure, interoperability with current security solutions, and possible connection problems.

Furthermore, picking the best SASE supplier is essential. Businesses should assess the provider's worldwide reach, security record, performance indicators, and scalability choices, among other things.

The single-vendor SASE industry is still in its infancy, but it is growing quickly. When choosing SASE providers, I&O leaders in charge of networking should collaborate with their security counterparts to identify which vendors are most appropriate for their requirements. The pros and cons of each of these suppliers should be taken into account before choosing one of their SASE solutions.

Additionally, SASE poses some challenges for companies that are firmly rooted in their IT team hierarchy. For example, organizations may find it challenging to manage conflicting interests and adjust restrictions, as well as to break free from silos within the network and security teams.

To enable integrated networking and security teams, a move to SASE may require altering IT culture. Given that most bigger companies have separate architectural, engineering, implementation, and operations teams, IT should make sure the systems they are considering enable multi-tenancy and role-based access control.

However, because this SASE isn't a single product but rather combines previously separate services into a framework, it may appear overly complicated at first. IT teams work together with their suppliers to identify the architectural components they need and more easily implement them.

How Can You Ensure a Smooth Transition for Remote and Hybrid Workforces?

Companies all around the world are adopting remote and hybrid work arrangements as a key trend because they provide flexibility and new avenues for production. But in the euphoria of this change, many businesses frequently forget important technological aspects that might jeopardize the viability of their remote or hybrid work models.

Businesses improve their IT infrastructure and enable their people to succeed in the changing workplace by taking the necessary lessons from these errors and putting the proper tactics into practice. Here are some insightful tips on how businesses might better manage this technology shift and steer clear of these frequent blunders.

1. Accept Written Correspondence: It is difficult to coordinate calls across different time zones when working remotely. It's usually more effective to embrace textual communication rather than battle to arrange a meeting across three time zones. Productivity is increased by providing clarity and removing time zone barriers with a thorough brief that outlines the next actions. So utilize less technology rather than more!
2. Implement Identity Verification for Employees: Companies are typically more concerned with preserving productivity than ensuring cybersecurity when transitioning to a remote work arrangement. Because of this, they frequently neglect to handle employee identification verification correctly, leaving confidential corporate information at great risk from hackers. Instead, companies ought to make sure staff members are authenticating each time they try to access the corporate server remotely.
3. Get Your IT Infrastructure Ready: When implementing remote or hybrid work arrangements, many organizations fail to consider one tech-related factor: how well-suited their current IT infrastructure is for this paradigm change. The unexpected increase in distant data access may put a strain on network capacity and result in sluggish response times, outages, and worse user experiences.
4. Make a Sturdy Cybersecurity Investment: Many businesses neglect to put strong cybersecurity safeguards in place, which leaves their systems and data open to hacks and breaches. Rather, they must give top priority to making secure remote access solution investments, establishing rules, funding personnel with best practices training, and carrying out frequent security audits to guarantee data safety.
5. Call Continual Gatherings: Strong bonds and creative problem-solving are crucial. Our monthly group gatherings, which are more akin to enjoyable team outings, foster a sense of community and a core culture. In order to facilitate teamwork and brainstorming while talking about important areas or design concerns, we have additionally purchased extra hardware and software. Above all, we make an effort to meet in person once a quarter.
6. Set up Security Guidelines: Now that internal network movement is set up, you need to pay attention to outbound traffic. To solve this, you might add more features, like, Firewall rules, DNS configurations, URL and Content Filtering, SSL Inspection, and Web Proxy. Spend some time configuring the visibility engine on your SASE so that it can provide you with information on network activities in addition to these features. Make sure deep packet inspection features are included in your SASE solution to strengthen your network's security posture overall. The finest SASE solutions have these features as well.
7. Perform a Gap Analysis: Now that you have a basic understanding of your network, it's time to discover any details you may have overlooked during implementation. In order to extend your SASE to every device, infrastructure, and appliance on your network, you will need to look at what has to be done. You are essentially shifting parts of your business network to the Internet via SASE. Therefore, you need to be sure you are ready to accomplish this. It's a terrific chance to plan and establish the foundation for the things you'll need as you develop.
8. Implement SASE Across the Entire Company: After you've reached this point, it's time to implement SASE throughout your whole environment such as endpoints, bare metal servers, cloud infrastructure, and networking appliances. It will be crucial to address consumer devices first, servers, and other infrastructure later. Infrastructure requires more attention than endpoints, as it is used by more people and holds more sensitive data. You have the chance to establish safe tunneling so that consumers may access essential resources. Based on what users need to access, you may choose to develop alternatives for one-to-many or one-to-one tunnels.

How Do You Address Security and Compliance Requirements in the SASE Implementation?

Organizations more successfully satisfy regulatory compliance standards with the use of Secure Access Service Edge. It includes security rules and procedures that comply with different industry laws. Organizations may reduce the risk of non-compliance by ensuring that their network and data security procedures adhere to these regulatory criteria by putting in place a secure access service edge.

All things considered, putting secure access services into place gives businesses a complete, cloud-native approach to network connection and security. It provides increased security, better performance, easier administration, financial savings, adaptability, and regulatory compliance. Organizations may enhance their network security, provide safe resource access, and cater to their changing business requirements in a dispersed and digitalized setting by implementing a secure access service edge.

Due to its significant simplification and optimization of the corporate wide area network security procedure, SASE is already regarded as the network security technology of the future. SASE has a number of crucial network and security features, such as SD-WAN, ZTNA, CASB, FWaaS, SWG, and DLP.

What Metrics Should You Monitor to Evaluate the Success of SASE Deployment?

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) links and secures any IT resource, physical, virtual, and mobile, with unified administration and policy by merging networking and security domains into a distributed cloud environment. Compared to VPNs set up in a conventional centralized data center, this dynamic, policy-based architecture achieves substantial benefits by providing digital organizations with the agility, elastic scalability, and resilience they need. Delivering the hybrid dispersed systems required by intelligent operations presents new obstacles as technologies converge.

We may list the following checkpoints to see if SASE, which successfully overcomes these challenges, is effective in your organization:

1. Assessment of Current Infrastructure
2. Set Clear Objectives and Goals
3. Identify Key Stakeholders
4. Budget and Resource Planning
5. User Access Metrics
6. Compliance and Policy Adherence Metrics
7. Policy Development
8. User Training and Communication
9. Deployment Phases
10. Testing and Quality Assurance
11. Monitoring and Maintenance Plan

1. Network Performance Metrics

The foundation of your organization's security and connection is your SASE architecture. It is crucial to make sure it operates at peak efficiency, which is why network performance monitoring (NPM) technologies are useful.

NPM tools ensure that your network is constantly operating at its best by acting as watchful eyes and personal trainers. These tools are experts at monitoring a variety of network parameters, including packet loss, bandwidth use, and speed.

NPM tools enhance the health of your network so that it can easily manage your data-intensive duties and exercises, just as a personal fitness trainer may customize your routines to preserve your physical health.

• Bandwidth and Speed: NPM tools are essentially the same as the speedometers on your network. They continuously monitor network speed and bandwidth to keep an eye on how quickly data moves across your network. They will detect data sluggishness before anyone else. NPM technologies detect network bottlenecks and slowdowns, whether it's a sudden decrease in download rates when you're streaming your favorite program or a sluggish video conference call.
• Bandwidth Usage: Consider bandwidth use as your network's nutrition plan. NPM tools monitor the amount of data being used at any given time. If your network is on a data diet, eating too much, or keeping a healthy balance, they'll notify you. It is essential to make sure that the resources on your network are used effectively and that you aren't spending more than necessary on bandwidth.
• Dropped Packets: Packet loss is another issue that NPM tools monitor. It's similar to your network's "stamina." Dropped packets during transmission give your network a faint, lifeless feeling. Performance issues and data retransmissions might result from packet loss. These resources serve as the network's endurance trainers, making sure it can endure without panting and puffing.
• Monitoring in real-time: NPM technologies offer real-time network monitoring, much like a personal fitness trainer who is by your side the entire time you work out. They are designed to notify you as soon as something goes wrong in your network, so you can fix problems right away.

These NPM utilities are essential for preserving your network's general health in a SASE architecture. They give you vital information about network performance, enabling you to quickly identify and resolve problems. Similar to how a committed personal trainer keeps you in peak physical condition, NPM tools help provide a seamless and effective experience for your customers by making sure your network is operating at its peak.

2. User Experience Metrics

User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) tools are excellent for analyzing the behavioural patterns of users and entities on your network when it comes to monitoring SASE infrastructures. Similar to behavioral psychologists, these systems constantly examine and interpret user and entity interactions in order to spot any odd or suspect activity. The indispensable agents that closely monitor your network's behavioral spectrum are UEBA systems.

• Analysis of Behavior: The focus of UEBA systems is behavior analysis. They provide a baseline for each user and object on your network in terms of "normal" behavior. This implies that they get to know each user's regular behavior, including the apps they use and the times they typically log in and log out.
• Identifying anomalies: UEBA systems become proficient in spotting abnormalities once they have a firm understanding of normalcy. These might be anomalies from the standard operating procedures, including a person accessing private information at an odd hour or utilizing programs they don't usually utilize.
• Identifying Insider Threats: Finding insider threats is one of the UEBA system's main functions. They pick up on odd behaviors that might point to dishonest or careless behavior on the part of an employee or other organization. Unauthorized data access, questionable data transfers, or adjustments to user rights are a few examples of this.
• Improving the user experience: Another goal of UEBA systems is to enhance the user experience. They can find ways to optimize application access, expedite procedures, and guarantee that users have a smooth and productive network experience by analyzing user behavior.
• Forensics and Incident Response: UEBA systems offer vital data for incident response and forensics in the case of a security issue. They can assist investigators in following the attacker's path or locating the breach's origin.

UEBA systems are essential components of a thorough SASE monitoring plan. They give a more contextualized and nuanced picture of network activity by concentrating on behavior. When sophisticated cyberattacks and insider threats are commonplace, UEBA systems serve as watchful eyes, making sure that your network is secure, users are productive, and security is reinforced.

3. Security Metrics

When it comes to Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) monitoring, SIEM solutions are essential for protecting your SASE architecture since they monitor security events closely, examine logs, and look for irregularities or possible malicious activity. SIEM technologies actively defend your network against security threats, breaches, and suspicious activity, just like a watchful security guard watches over your house or place of business.

• Recognizing questionable behavior: Your network's digital detectives are SIEM solutions. They keep an eye on everything that goes on in your network and match it to pre-established guidelines and trends. They raise the alarm if they observe any behavior that is out of the ordinary. SIEM technologies can notify you of any strange login habits, a significant rise in data transfers, or an attempt at unwanted access.
• Examining Events and Logs: Logs may be thought of as a network's breadcrumbs, left behind by each activity that has been done. SIEM systems gather these logs and do real-time analysis on them. They offer you a clear picture of what's going on on your network by making sense of the confusion. To discover security issues and comprehend their extent, log analysis is essential.
• Context and Correlation: SIEM solutions are specialists at tying the dots together; they don't only concentrate on individual incidents. They collect context and link events to help you see the bigger picture. Determining whether seemingly unconnected occurrences are part of a broader security concern requires doing this.
• Instantaneous Alerts: In the realm of security, timing is crucial. In the event that they identify any unusual behavior or threats, SIEM systems send out real-time notifications. You can react quickly thanks to its immediacy, which may lessen the effect of security problems.
• Adherence to Regulations: For regulatory compliance to be maintained, SIEM tools are essential. They provide the tracking and reporting of security occurrences, which helps you comply with industry norms and regulations.

SIEM solutions are essential in a SASE architecture since security is of the utmost importance. They monitor your network for dangers from the outside world and irregularities from within by serving as its eyes and ears. They are the reliable custodians of your virtual world because of their real-time monitoring, log analysis, and correlation skills.

4. Scalability and Load Metrics

A company's reputation may be preserved, significant failures can be prevented, and the customer experience can be assessed with the use of efficient scalability testing.

Both the network and the security architecture are fully scalable due to SASE's cloud delivery. The system can expand your business, making it feasible for the digital transition to happen more quickly.

SASE is flexible and affordable, and it can be readily scaled up or down to meet business needs.

In order to handle higher data loads or more sophisticated features, the system needs to grow vertically in addition to horizontally to support additional users.

As your organization's demands change, keep an eye on resource use and make plans to scale your SASE architecture accordingly.

5. User Access Metrics

Zero trust principles (ZTNA), which are used by SASE, impose device and user authentication, consider a network to be hostile, and verify that locations and policy compliance are met before permitting a session.

SASE restricts access to any resource or asset based on user, device, application, policy, and context.

SASE reduces the lateral movement of a hacker intrusion as well as the risks posed by unmanaged or Internet of Things devices connecting to the network by restricting broad network access based on IP address or location.

6. Compliance and Policy Adherence Metrics

Tools for cloud-based security quickly adapt to cover newly connected persons or devices. Hardware configuration and profile modifications for various security tools are not necessary. Because management is centralized, complete consistency is ensured.

Consistent enforcement of security policies enhances compliance. Network managers ensure adherence to relevant data protection standards and provide authorities with detailed audit data as needed.

7. Cost and Resource Utilization Metrics

Organizations have embraced a number of security solutions, adding considerable expenses and operational overhead as they try to offer safe access to cloud services, protect distant users and devices, and close other security holes. Nevertheless, in the digital age, the on-premises network security paradigm is utterly ineffective.

Spread permanently by employing a single platform strategy and utilizing SASE to save on or completely eliminate capex and opex expenses.

SASE turns the security model upside down rather than attempting to apply a notion from the past to a contemporary issue. SASE focuses on entities, such as users, as opposed to a secure perimeter. SASE services push security and access close to users, based on the idea of edge computing - processing information near the people and systems that require it. SASE dynamically permits or prohibits connections to apps and services based on an organization's security policy.

To safeguard the network perimeter, legacy network security models rely on a patchwork of technologies. SASE lowers the number of solutions required to protect services and apps, resulting in lower IT expenses and easier management.

8. User Feedback and Satisfaction Metrics

It was simple to regulate and anticipate the user experience when users were connected to the network and IT controlled and operated the infrastructure and applications. Nowadays, a lot of businesses still utilize VPNs to link customers to their networks for security, even in distributed multi-cloud setups. Nevertheless, by disclosing IP addresses, VPNs increase the attack surface of a business and provide a subpar user experience.

SASE offers optimization in place of this deterioration. It advocates for enforcing security close to the object that has to be secured; that is, security should be sent to the user rather than the other way around. SASE is a cloud-secure solution that optimizes connections to cloud apps and services to guarantee low latency and intelligently manages connections at internet exchanges in real-time.

9. Business Outcomes Metrics

SASE enables safe WFA, quick adoption of SaaS, and adaptable multi-cloud settings by implementing secure access independent of the location of users, workloads, devices, applications, or data.

Without the expenses and limitations of on-premises systems, automated, cloud-delivered SASE uses the internet, offers a scalable design, and permits digital transformation. SASE is easy to incorporate into existing infrastructures, offered via the cloud, and entirely software-based.

SASE's SaaS model enables rapid expansion and cost-effective adoption of technical breakthroughs. By eliminating forced traffic flows via policy enforcement points, SASE enables cloud migrations without being hampered by traditional traffic flow bottlenecks.

10. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Choose KPIs and traffic patterns based on the demands of your organization.

You may prevent the false assurance that comes with simplistic traffic patterns given by open-source tools and guarantees that performance is defined under realistic conditions by choosing suitable SASE test traffic patterns that are indicative of your network traffic and applications. It takes many KPIs for every technology and service level to test every security element of the SASE architecture, including the cloud infrastructure services, business apps, and network underlay.

Since Quality of Experience (QoE) measures end-user satisfaction directly, it is the most appropriate unit of measurement. Performance, error detection, transactional delay overall, and variability for SSL/TLS-based services are its foundations. Changing the underlays that application flows will forward across the SASE environment is likewise best accomplished with this measure. Furthermore, as part of the CI/CD/CT practice, bandwidth/throughput, concurrent users and connections, connection, and rate are useful baseline metrics that can be used to help with infrastructure right-sizing to business needs and continuously baseline for a measured approach to operationalizing the change management process.