SASE and SSE, without the acronyms
When everybody sat in the office, the security stood at that office’s front door. Now half the people work somewhere else and the application sits in the cloud, so the traffic routes around that front door, or it is sent to the office and back again. SASE turns that problem round: the security moves to the edge of the network, close to the user.
SSE, SASE and CASB, pulled apart
They are used interchangeably and cover different pieces.
- SSE, the security sideFiltering internet traffic, access to applications and watching what goes to the cloud, delivered as a service instead of a cabinet on site. This is the part most organisations need first.
- SASE, security plus networkSSE with the networking side added: traffic between sites also runs over that platform. Worthwhile with several branches, unnecessary with one office.
- CASB, visibility of cloud useShows which cloud services are actually in use, including the ones nobody requested. On almost every first measurement that number is a multiple of what the organisation assumed.
The move, in four steps
Switching over in one go stops the work. This is the order that prevents it.
Measure what passes the firewall now
Which applications, what volume, which sites. Without that picture you buy capacity on instinct and find out three months later.
Start with people working outside the office
That group benefits immediately and is small enough to reverse. Office traffic keeps running the way it does for now.
Convert sites one at a time
Per branch, with the old route still open. Every conversion produces a list of traffic nobody knew about, and that is the gain of this step.
Close the old exit
As long as traffic can still go around it, nothing changes about the risk. This is the step that delivers and the step most often left undone.
What belongs with this
SASE touches the network and the security at once.
Find out whether this fits you
Tell us how many sites there are and how many people work outside the office. You get an honest answer on whether SSE is enough or SASE makes sense.
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