Are all SD-WANs made equal? Part 3: Securing global networks via Unified SASE

As is common knowledge, the main reason for security breaches is human error, whether by misconfiguration due to complexity, lack of knowledge, or lack of oversight.

And given the rise in remote working, with users and applications potentially anywhere around the world, security enforcement must happen closer to the source to ensure robust data security.

This is the exact challenge that is causing headaches for small and large enterprises alike, but there is a relatively simple solution that enables enterprises to amalgamate network and security orchestration into a single service, Unified SASE.

What is Unified SASE?

An acronym for Secure Access Service Edge, SASE describes the principle of extending security services all the way to the network edge, including individual users, devices and sites.

However, the term was quickly warped by marketing teams, overpromising the capabilities of last-gen services. Unified SASE, a new interpretation originating from Dell’Oro’s analysts, returns to the core idea of unifying network and security orchestration under a single solution, and delivering it as a hands-off, managed service.

Fit-for-purpose SASE solutions deliver:

§ A true single pane of glass for both configuration and observability

§ Common network/service/application/user objects across SD-WAN functions and security functions

§ A Zero-Trust approach to enhance security posture

§ Single-pass architecture for a given session across SD-WAN and security functions.

§ A given traffic session going through only one instance for SD-WAN functions and security functions, enforcing policies on both ANAP and POP

§ Reduced attack surface on the SASE deployment itself

However, by extending services and protections to the network edge, the increased volume of vulnerable devices and attack vectors requires additional checks across the journey all data takes across the network. This is where a Zero-Trust methodology is ideal, scrutinising the credentials of users, devices access to workloads and packets transmitted with contextual awareness.

Leveraging Zero-Trust

Zero-Trust WAN solutions enable enterprises to securely connect any user, anywhere in the world across a global, software-defined backbone, with security integrated at the edge, to access workloads wherever they live.

In an ideal Unified SASE solution, Zero-Trust WANs are built with three core principles in mind:

Single-pane Management Single-pane management and observability is essential to support both end-users and resellers in managing both network and security services. This ability to provide real-time visibility into performance characteristics and security aspects of the traffic, may also leverage AI/ML and data analytics for proactive issue identification and faster resolutions.

Unified Control Plane

SASE must be centrally orchestrated, a unified control plane that ties these capabilities together coherently to apply policies consistently across hundreds of locations and ensure they get applied properly.

And, given the ‘as-a-service’ aspect of SASE, a Managed Service Provider such as Aryaka may effectively offer this control on behalf of the reseller or end customer, removing the burden and chance of misconfiguration from the IT departments respectively.

Distributed Data Plane Given the modern-day necessity to securely connect remote workers, cloud services, on-premise servers and more, Unified SASE solutions must be truly distributed in a cloud-native data plane. This ensures that appropriate security functions can be applied at any location, deployed at any edge and in support of any resources, addressing the entire spectrum of attacks that a customer could experience.

Ensuring seamless network management

Given the widespread skill shortages in IT and cybersecurity, it’s entirely understandable that enterprise end-customers, and even the reseller partners that may introduce these services to their customers, would not have the confidence, skills or resources to orchestrate a new platform in-house, even if it is all managed within a single platform, even with in-depth training.

When delivered by a best-of-breed vendor, fully-managed Unified SASE solutions can be entirely hands-free for end-users and their technology partners, all managed by the vendor. Of course, if a partner or an organisation wants to manage aspects of the deployment, options to co-manage should be part of the solution and supported by the vendor to ensure a successful deployment.

In Aryaka’s case, deployment, configuration, monitoring, and the best support team customers will ever encounter are all included, supported by strict SLAs and responsive, transparent interactions to deliver an incredible customer experience. A customer experience so exceptional it was recently recognised by Comms Business, with Aryaka winning its 2023 award for Best Cybersecurity Vendor.

Channel organisations wishing to bolster their portfolios with forward-thinking security solutions for SME and larger enterprises can learn more about Aryaka’s fully managed solutions here, or visit https://info.aryaka.com/become-a-partner.html to become a partner today.