A Brief Explanation of Security Service Edge (SSE)

Published on: November 11, 2022

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12 min read

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For German Version

IT leaders have realized that it no longer makes sense to backhaul user traffic to a corporate network as more users work outside the corporate perimeter due to hybrid work, increased adoption of SaaS applications, like Office 365, Salesforce, etc., and migration of private applications to the public cloud. As a result, many IT executives are aiming to replace conventional network security appliances, such as firewalls, web gateway appliances, VPN (Virtual Private Network) gateway appliances, etc., in an effort to improve data protection, enhance the user experience, and minimize company expenses. Security Service Edge (SSE) platforms are the contemporary replacement for conventional network security systems. Security Service Edge (SSE) platforms offer a modern alternative to legacy network security systems.

Security Service Edge (SSE), which was first introduced by Gartner in early 2021, is a cloud-centric converged solution that accelerates digital transformation by securing enterprise access to the web, cloud services, Software-as-a-Service, and private applications. It is regarded as an essential component for constructing cloud and networking security that can accommodate improved performance and growth. Through cloud services, they offer safe access to the user's location without connecting users to the corporate network, exposing applications or IT infrastructure to the Internet, or necessitating sophisticated network segmentation. Instead, a Security Service Edge (SSE) platform enables IT to give end users secure access to the Internet and to access work-related SaaS services instantly.

In this article, we will cover the following topics.

• What Does Security Service Edge Mean?

• What are the Core Components of SSE?

• Why Do You Need Security Service Edge?

• What are the Challenges Solved by SSE?

• What are the Benefits of SSE?

• What are the Use Cases of SSE?

• How to Select an SSE Solution?

• How to Deploy an SSE Solution?

• What are the Best Practices for SSE Deployment?

• What are the Differences Between SSE and SASE?

What Does Security Service Edge Mean?

Security Service Edge (SSE), the security component of SASE (Secure Access Service Edge), is the convergence of network security services. Gartner mentioned SSE as an emerging cybersecurity concept in its 2021 Roadmap for SASE Convergence report. SSE is a subset of the SASE that focuses on facilitating secure access to the web and cloud-based applications with essential features including SWG, ZTNA, FWaaS, and CASB. SSE is supplied mainly as a cloud-based service and incorporates on-premises or agent-based components. The following are key SSE capabilities, often delivered via cloud, edge, or hybrid models.

• Threat prevention

• Access control

• Security surveillance

• Data security

• Network-based Use Control and API-based integration

What are the Core Components of SSE?

Security Service Edge (SSE)'s security services are as follows:

• Secure Web Gateway (SWG): SWG is a cyberbarrier that prevents illegal traffic from accessing an enterprise's network by acting as a checkpoint. An SWG enables users to visit authorized, safe websites and protects them from web-based dangers by connecting the user and the website while performing protective activities such as URL filtering, web visibility, harmful content inspection, and web access restrictions.

• Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB): As enterprises move their sensitive assets to the cloud, CASB acts as an intermediary between users and cloud service providers, addressing the gaps in data visibility, security, and compliance, extending security policies from existing on-premises infrastructure, and creating new policies for cloud-specific content. Integrated CASB in an SSE model discovers and controls Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) risks automatically and can operate via API integration or in-line proxy methods to scan SaaS applications for data, malware, and policy violations while leveraging User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for real-time threat prevention.

• Data Loss Prevention (DLP): DLP permits policy-based categorization of information content inside an object, often a file, whether in storage, usage, or network transit. As needed by the company's rules, DLP solutions are used to apply these policies in real-time to extend appropriate protection to sensitive data components and to restrict access to and flows of this information, particularly outside the business.

• Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA): Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) enforces granular, adaptive, and context-aware rules for allowing secure Zero Trust access from any distant device to private applications housed across clouds and corporate data centers. ZTNA is a crucial enabler for Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), changing the security perimeter into a dynamic, policy-driven, cloud-delivered edge to satisfy the digital transformation's access needs.

• Firewall as a Service (FWaaS): FWaaS is a cloud-based firewall service that protects online data and applications. SSE leverages FWaaS to aggregate traffic from several sources, including on-premises data centers, cloud infrastructure, branch offices, and mobile users. FWaaS also provides uniform application and security policy enforcement across all sites and users, as well as total network visibility and management.

  tip

  Zenarmor takes a different approach with its Plug and Secure architecture. By enabling deep packet inspection and policy enforcement to occur locally - on the edge, at the endpoint, or on-premises - Zenarmor eliminates the dependency on centralized cloud firewalls. This distributed inspection model not only reduces latency but also removes the need for FWaaS entirely while still delivering full network visibility, consistent security controls, and simplified management.

• Remote Browser Isolation (RBI): RBI is an effective method of online threat prevention that isolates web surfing inside a cloud environment. RBI safeguards consumers from any malware or harmful code that may be concealed on a website and prevents malicious code from reaching the end user's device.

Why Do You Need Security Service Edge?

As a solution to fundamental difficulties in the cloud, secure edge computing, remote work, and digital transformation, Security Service Edge (SSE) is expanding quickly. As enterprises deploy infrastructure and software as a service (IaaS, SaaS) and cloud applications, their data becomes further dispersed outside of on-premises data centers. In addition, a rising number of organization users are mobile and remote, accessing applications and data from anywhere and over any connection. Traditional network security measures make it challenging to secure cloud applications and mobile users. The primary drawbacks of traditional network security solutions are as follows:

• Administration and hardware maintenance increase the cost of conventional data center systems.

• Due to an absence of patching, VPNs are exploitable.

• Relaying user traffic to a data center for inspection over a regular VPN slows down everything.

• Legacy systems, which are rooted in the data center, cannot track user connections to cloud applications.

• To make things worse, modern data center security stacks have evolved into a collection of complicated, difficult-to-integrate point products. This complexity creates gaps between separate security systems, which increases the danger of ransomware attacks and other sophisticated threats.

As the hybrid workforce grows, remote and mobile users and the data and applications they access must be secured. A comprehensive SSE solution equips organizations with the complete set of security technologies required to provide employees, trusted partners, and contractors with secure remote access to applications, data, tools, and other corporate resources, as well as to monitor and track user behavior once they have accessed the network.

Solutions that support local inspection at the edge, such as Zenarmor, can further enhance performance and visibility without relying fully on centralized or cloud-only enforcement models.

What are the Challenges Solved by SSE?

SSE addresses the basic security concerns associated with digital business enablement, remote work, and cloud transition. As PaaS, SaaS, and IaaS use increases, there is more data outside of the data center, more users are working remotely, and VPNs are typically sluggish and exploitable. Using outdated network topologies, it is impossible to protect all of this. SSE assists organizations in addressing the following important use cases:

• To safeguard remote employees' access to private apps, VPNs are being replaced: To defend against the fast development of remote employees using private applications in extremely sensitive circumstances, businesses must install a more secure solution. After authentication, VPNs inherently offer unlimited, trust-based access to the whole corporate network. ZTNA is a feature of SSE that facilitates granular resource access, allowing the appropriate degrees of access for each user, wherever.

• Providing control and insight over SaaS applications: Organizations want visibility and control over data accessed and stored in the cloud, as well as protection against cloud-based risks from a centralized, cloud-native enforcement point. The CASB functionality of SSE offers multi-mode support by imposing granular controls to monitor and control access to sanctioned and unauthorized cloud services.

• Administration and maintenance of security measures are simplified: Organizations must handle cloud and on-premises environments with a mishmash of security measures that vary across cloud providers and on-premises technology. Security Service Edge consolidates security capabilities into a single, integrated solution typically delivered via cloud but also adaptable for hybrid or on-premises deployments. This makes it simpler for security teams to install, configure, monitor, and administer security systems, hence increasing efficiency and decreasing operational burden. A cloud security provider handles routine tasks such as making backups and maintaining high availability and redundancy. SSE reduces cost and complexity, enabling the adoption and implementation of policies across on-premises, cloud, and remote work environments to be streamlined.

• Protecting confidential information at any place: Organizations demand the secure usage, sharing, and access of information that resides or travels totally beyond the security perimeter. The Data Loss Prevention (DLP) functionality of SSE offers a centralized and unified approach to data security, where data classifications are specified once and enforced across the cloud, web, and endpoint.

• To safeguard web users, sophisticated malware and ransomware must be prevented: Detection and mitigation of sophisticated malware and other threats are necessary for businesses. Numerous current attacks use social engineering tactics to exploit cloud provider capabilities and imitate user behavior with authentic credentials. The SWG(Secure Web Gateway) feature of SSE aids by providing an inline cyberbarrier responsible for blocking illegal online traffic and monitoring web traffic.

What are the Benefits of SSE?

As the need for a remote workforce and customer base has grown, businesses have battled to reduce the complexity of their security strategy while simultaneously enhancing security and user experience. Security Service Edge (SSE) solutions have proved beneficial in reducing the complexity of endpoint protection and enhancing the enterprise-wide security of cloud services.

A comprehensive SSE strategy provides organizations with a comprehensive range of security solutions that deliver on-site and distant advantages to workers and stakeholders:

• Zero trust access: SSE systems (together with SASE) should allow least-privileged access based on a zero-trust policy, including user, device, application, and content authentication. A more secure remote experience is achieved by connecting users and applications via the internet, not your network. Threats can't move laterally, and applications aren't accessible to the internet, so they can't be identified. This reduces your attack surface and risk.

• Better risk reduction: SSE provides the delivery of unified cybersecurity services from a cloud platform that is not network-bound and can follow user-to-app interactions everywhere. This removes the often-seen gaps between point products, hence decreasing risk. SSE also enhances visibility across all users and data independent of location or channel of access. In addition, SSE automatically enforces security upgrades throughout the cloud, eliminating the lag time associated with human IT management.

• User experience: A successful SSE architecture must be dispersed throughout a global footprint of data centers, as opposed to being housed in IaaS, and must be purpose-built for inspection at each data center. Decryption and inspection performed closer to end users, including TLS/SSL inspection, increases speed and minimizes latency. SSE provides connectivity that is faster, more secure, and more efficient to the web, cloud, and private applications when accessing application resources from any user, on any device, anywhere. Combined with peering throughout the platform, this provides mobile users with the optimal experience, eliminating VPNs and providing smooth, rapid access to cloud applications.

• Consolidation benefits: A cloud-delivered, unified platform minimizes expenses and complexity. SSE provides numerous essential services, including CASB, SWG, ZTNA, cloud firewall (FWaaS), cloud data loss prevention (DLP), cloud sandbox, cloud security posture management (CSPM), and remote browser isolation (RBI), which can be engaged later if they are not initially required. Bringing all protection under a single policy guarantees that all channels your users and data travel have the same level of security.

• Best-in-class SASE: With two separate capabilities, SD-WAN and SSE, organizations may choose the optimal networking and security functionalities for their SASE architecture based on their specific requirements. Moreover, modern SD-WAN solutions allow enterprises to go beyond SASE and protect IoT devices by incorporating next-generation firewall (NGFW) features that dynamically partition the network based on role and identity.

• Cost-effectiveness and scalability: SSE enables enterprises to integrate security and networking operations, thereby optimizing their network infrastructure. The unification of security appliances at each location obviates the necessity for individual devices, hence diminishing expenses related to hardware, maintenance, and management. Furthermore, SSE provides the advantage of scalability, enabling enterprises to readily adjust to evolving business requirements without necessitating substantial alterations to their infrastructure.

• Simplified Security Infrastructure: SSE aims to streamline security design and management by consolidating several security activities into a unified platform, hence reducing the complexity associated with managing multiple point solutions.

What are the Use Cases of SSE?

The most common use cases of SSE are explained below:

• Identify and counter threats: SSE and, to a lesser degree, SASE adoption is driven by the need to detect risks and prevent successful assaults via the internet and cloud services. With end users having access to applications and data from anywhere, firms must have a robust strategy against malware, phishing, and other risks. Your SSE platform must include sophisticated threat protection features, such as a cloud firewall, a cloud sandbox, malware detection, and RBI. CASBs allow data analysis inside SaaS applications and detect and quarantine existing malware before it can cause harm. Important are also adaptive access control methods that can identify the device position of the end user and automatically alter access.

• Secure cloud service access and web use: Historically accomplished by an SWG, controlling user access to the internet and cloud apps is a main SSE use case. Control of SSE policy mitigates risk when end users consume material on- and off-network. Compliance with corporate internet and access control regulations is a primary driver for this use case. Another essential skill is cloud security posture management (CSPM), which safeguards your organization from unsafe misconfigurations that may lead to security breaches.

• Identify and safeguard sensitive data: SSE integrates important data security technologies to help you locate and regulate sensitive data across all data channels with greater visibility. Cloud DLP offers the easy discovery, classification, and protection of sensitive data to fulfill industry standards and other compliance regulations. SSE further simplifies data security since DLP rules are created once and applied to inline traffic and data at rest in cloud applications through CASBs. The most efficient SSE systems include high-performance TLS/SSL inspection to handle encrypted traffic. Essential for this use case is shadow IT detection, which enables businesses to restrict sanctioned or dangerous apps across all endpoints.

• Connect and protect remote employees: The contemporary remote worker needs VPN-free access to cloud services and private apps. The security implications of putting a user on a flat network are eliminated by providing access to apps, data, and content without enabling access to the network. It is essential to provide safe access to applications without having to open firewall ACLs or expose applications to the internet. SSE systems should allow native inside-out app connection while keeping applications "black" with respect to the internet. A ZTNA strategy should provide scalability over a worldwide network of access points, providing all users with the quickest experience independent of connection requirements.

How to Select an SSE Solution?

Consider an SSE platform that provides rapid, scalable security and a smooth user experience based on zero trust. You should deploy an SSE system that has the following capabilities:

• Zero-trust architecture implemented from the ground up: Access should be regulated by the user's identity, and users should never be put on your network. Consider cloud-native providers that offer zero-trust access for all users, devices, IoT, cloud applications, and workloads. A provider with a big global network of data centers offers a positive user experience without the need for a VPN. As scalability is essential for remote user productivity, your vendor's ZTNA approach to SSE must have a track record of success across large worldwide deployments.

• Built for a quick user and cloud application experience: Rapid and secure access requires a cloud-native architecture deployed over a global footprint of data centers. SSE systems designed for inspection at any data center, and not only housed in IaaS clouds, guarantee that real-time content inspection and security will not slow down users regardless of their location. You should seek SSE suppliers with robust service provider peering to ensure that the cloud application experience stays optimal.

• Increasing innovation in SSE expansion: The simplicity of delivering new security capabilities and services guarantees the longevity of a successful SSE platform. Digital experience monitoring, for instance, is transitioning to SSE as a tool for IT to swiftly discover user-to-cloud application connectivity concerns. According to the SASE design, network service consolidation in conjunction with an SSE platform is essential. Focus on SASE suppliers that are pushing SSE innovation to guarantee that, as your cloud ecosystem evolves, you can expand without adding complexity.

• Scalable inline proxy inspection capacity: Unlike standard passthrough firewalls, proxy inspection terminates both connections, from the device and from the cloud application, and checks all traffic before allowing it to pass. Concentrate on SSE systems capable of worldwide content delivery and TLS/SSL inspection. As inline inspection is often done on mission-critical communications, disruptions may have severe consequences. Ensure that the SSE vendor you choose has strong service-level agreements (SLAs) and experience evaluating inline traffic for major multinational companies.

• Single supplier for SSE: By using a single vendor, you may circumvent issues such as extensive policy administration, various user interfaces, and possible architectural conflicts. Prioritize entirely cloud-based SSE systems above hardware-based ones. Not all SSE services are entirely cloud-based; some consist only of virtual appliances or physical hardware. Verifying that each service is cloud-delivered helps you decrease equipment expenses, automatically grow through the cloud, and provide a better user experience owing to additional points of presence.

• Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM): User experience must not be impeded by security. DEM solutions provide network operations to monitor hop-by-hop data for users connecting to SaaS and private applications. This enables them to give more insight into user experience and shorten the mean time to resolution of support issues by identifying the precise cause of user disruptions.

How to Deploy an SSE Solution?

Businesses have two options for designing and deploying a successful SSE:

• Multi-vendor Method: Businesses assess distinct suppliers for each essential security technology set and then employ internal or external resources to integrate these capabilities into a unified SSE solution. While this method offer enterprises with their preferred capabilities or functionality across all needs, it exposes them to a substantial integration expenditure, both at the time of implementation and in the long run. In addition to managing many vendor relationships and their respective SLAs, this strategy requires extensive administration and monitoring to guarantee that all products and services continue to function as a unified platform.

• Single-vendor Method: Businesses are able to assess suppliers offering full security systems with all of the required SSE capabilities, FWaaS, CASB, SWG, and ZTNA, already integrated. This method instantly removes the administration and integration complications associated with the multi-vendor method. It streamlines system maintenance and troubleshooting throughout the system's life cycle.

What are the Best Practices for SSE Deployment?

Best practices for Security Service Edge (SSE) implementation are explained below:

• Plan a progressive SSE migration: SSE needs the implementation of SWG, CASB, and ZTNA technologies, each of which demands extensive planning and migration efforts. Plan to transfer users, devices, data, and applications to SSE in steps, as is prudent for any significant technological change. Conceive and execute a modest pilot project to identify and solve main difficulties. Then, gradually extend the pilot to accommodate more people, devices, data, and applications. Typically, a business must complete the migration of its users' on-premises and cloud-based services and apps before reaping the full benefits of SSE's security. One of the primary advantages of SSE is that services and applications are no longer accessible from any location. Instead, users access them through SWGs, which serve as mediators that implement and monitor security regulations and threat actions. CASBs and ZTNA provide additional security advantages, including authentication, access control, and behavioral analysis. However, until all users have moved to SSE, the services and apps they use remain more vulnerable to compromise. Therefore, it is essential to maintain the migration time as brief as possible, if at all feasible, in order to attain more security sooner.

• Determine SSE control additions: Depending on the inclusion of CASB, SWG, and ZTNA technologies, an SSE has one or more security control gaps. Fortunately, it is often simple to acquire extra network security services to cover these gaps. Any SASE security procedures that are not already included in SSE, such as firewall as a service or data loss prevention, are obvious candidates for consideration. If an organization's SSE requires several extra controls, it may be prudent to reconsider if a complete SASE implementation is preferable. There are clearly benefits to obtaining a single SASE platform as opposed to combining many SSE and SASE components. However, adding individual controls to SSE is often better if SASE is impractical or too costly.

• First, observe and then enforce regulations: SSE components, particularly ZTNA, are often far more restricted than the conventional security solutions they replace. SSEs regularly monitor, for instance, user behavior, the device's health, and other use factors. This is immensely beneficial for the organization's security posture, despite the fact that it initially generates some unpleasant surprises and operational inconveniences. Run the SSE in a monitoring-only mode, without enforcement, whenever possible, particularly during first pilots, to determine what the technology would have stopped and why. This often uncovers current security policy infractions and in some instances identifies where an SSE policy needs to be temporarily modified to accommodate real-world behavior.

What are the Differences Between SSE and SASE?

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Security Service Edge (SSE) are often confused with one another. Although they may sound similar, they are distinct. SASE reflects the larger framework that a number of IT executives want to embrace. SSE is one component of the SASE framework. One of the primary distinctions between SSE and SASE is that SSE prioritizes security above network connection and infrastructure. While SSE contains certain features of network access, it is primarily designed for end users. In contrast, SASE is mainly concerned with assuring connection and distribution to dispersed sites through the cloud.

Gartner's 2019 introduction of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is the convergence of networking and security technologies into a single platform that enables secure and rapid cloud transition. In this next generation of SASE, Gartner presents a two-pronged vendor strategy that combines a highly converged Wide Area Network (WAN) Edge Infrastructure platform with a highly converged security platform, referred to as Security Service Edge (SSE).

Security Service Edge (SSE) is the security component of SASE that combines all security services, including Secure Web Gateway (SWG), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), enabling secure web, cloud, and private application access. The networking component of the SASE framework, WAN Edge Infrastructure, focuses on the network connection portion by altering network infrastructures to allow more effective direct-to-cloud communication. The WAN Edge Infrastructure is responsible for networking services, such as software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN), WAN optimization, quality of service (QoS), and other techniques of enhancing cloud application routing. Within the SASE architecture, networking and security are consumed and supplied in a unified fashion. SSE and WAN Edge Infrastructure combine to provide a comprehensive SASE platform.

Moving away from a hub-and-spoke style of network connection, SASE is a more suitable brokering alternative for companies requiring complete cloud-based connectivity and a security policy application that covers both end users and whole locations. SSE provides all the same security choices for distant users, excluding software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) and SDN network traffic management tools that would be mostly redundant.

SSE offers a set of measures that can shield a remote workforce from harmful actions by using a zero-trust approach that governs access control and monitoring, browser and cloud services security, and data protection.

To provide a contemporary workplace with security, businesses must first establish an SSE platform. Once SSE is implemented, the organization has the option of continuing to invest in network optimization or adopting a more "internet-centric" approach. This will enable them to make more informed judgments on the importance of technologies such as SD-WAN to their business objectives. On the other hand, when the added security capabilities of SSE are combined with the increased connection characteristics of SASE, organizations have a completely comprehensive solution that protects against attacks while enhancing network performance. A comprehensive SASE solution makes it simpler than ever to increase or decrease the size of an increasingly dispersed workforce. Numerous vendors provide both SASE and SSE, with SSE accessible through a licensing scheme that enables organizations to upgrade to SASE as necessary.