Intelligent CIO North America Issue 08 | Page 77

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John Smith , Founder and CTO at LiveAction
Don ’ t be fooled ; visibility plays a critical role in SASE . It allows IT to better understand network and application traffic and verify that policies and their intent are working as designed . It also enables troubleshooting and the remediation of network and / or security issues . So as issues arise , IT can identify the root cause and understand the most appropriate remedial action to take . Finally , having a level of granular visibility from an end-to-end perspective allows IT to understand what is being sent and received through the SASE system and how the application traffic works from end-to-end .
How to evaluate SASE solutions
Given that SASE involves the consolidation of multiple technologies , there are technologies entering the market from various network security , cloud-based security and SD-WAN companies . They all make grand promises . But the reality is you ’ ll need to work with multiple organizations ( at least two ) to deploy SASE today . Interestingly enough , according to EMA , just 16 % of organizations prefer a purpose-built SASE solution . When making a selection , consider the following questions :
• How mature is the technology ? – Are the network or security features fully baked ? Is it completely integrated , separate , or does it allow for integration with other solutions ? Depending on any existing vendor relationships , an all-one-solution could make sense ( but most will need to be an add-on ).
• Is it cloud-managed ? – Is all of the functionality easily managed through a centralized cloudbased service ? If so , how is this done ? This can be important for reducing the complexity and management of a SASE solution .
• What are the cloud integration capabilities ? – Does it easily provide access to the public cloud and offer private cloud connectivity through colocation and remote sites ? This is important as more applications live in a hybrid cloud model .
• Does it offer scalable , secure remote access ? – Does it include a scaled approach to remote user access , with respect to points of presence that allow for better performance from various locations mapping to customer needs ?
SASE is changing how organizations think about securing and accessing connections to data and applications . Understanding the key elements of SASE and the role of visibility can help your team as they start or continue this deployment journey . p
The complexity of SASE can make visibility challenging for IT .
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