Intelligent CIO North America Issue 47 | Page 38

TALKING

‘‘ business integrated platform , greatly improving security posture , staff efficacy , user and admin experiences as well as cost efficiency .

A unified approach also allows for greater agility and faster deployment , increasing the organization ’ s time to value .
Gartner predicts that by 2025 50 % of all new SD- WAN purchases will be part of a single-vendor SASE offering , up from 10 % in 2022 .
Unified SASE offers many benefits to organisations , such as improving security by reducing the attack surface and improving threat detection and response times by employing universal security policies and centralised access control .
It also improves the efficiencies of networking and security teams by eliminating roadblocks between teams and minimising complexities and costs .
It offers a better user and admin experience , guaranteeing high performance and low-latency connectivity for users via the fastest access paths .
Here are five top tips to ensure a successful SASE deployment :
1 . Define your goals and requirements and assess your current network and security architecture to find gaps and challenges .
2 . Choose the right single-vendor SASE provider making sure you compare different providers based on their capabilities and price , looking for a well-architected single-vendor SASE solution that is integrated , unified , flexible and easy to use .
3 . Design and develop your SASE plan working collaboratively with your provider to define your network topology , security policies , user groups application profiles and connectivity options .
4 . Take a phased approach migrating users , devices , locations and applications in your SASE solution in a phased or batched manner . SASE can work in tandem with existing solutions to allow you to manage deployments at the speed that works for your organisation .
5 . Make sure you get the most out of your investment by working with your provider using their tools and dashboards to gain visibility and feedback to further optimize your business .
And finally , it lowers capital and operational expenditure by eliminating the need for multiple point solutions and hardware appliances .
SASE is not just a passing trend but a strategic imperative for modern businesses looking to thrive in today ’ s digital era .
Unified SASE is also highly scalable , quickly adapting to changing business needs and provides multiple points of presence for geographically distributed organizations .
SASE can help organizations achieve better security posture and user experience while delivering operational efficiencies and cost savings .
Deploying a single-vendor unified SASE solution may seem daunting , but it doesn ’ t have to be with the right partner and a clear roadmap .
Ultimately , by using a unified SASE delivered by a single vendor , you will get to all these benefits even faster . p
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