A new report by TechTarget Enterprise Strategy Group Principal Analyst John Grady has uncovered the value of first using security service edge (SSE) before implementing secure access service edge (SASE).
SASE, which landed just before workers were sent home as a result of the pandemic, has become a necessity over recent years, thanks to its ability to deliver network and security controls via the cloud directly.
Four in five who have implemented SSE are now saying that cybersecurity has become easier than it was two years ago.
Cybersecurity is getting a cloud makeover thanks to SASE and SSE
According to the firm’s research, almost three-quarters (72%) of respondents said their organization was going to start with the security or SSE side of SASE first. This compares to just one-quarter (25%) focusing on the SD-WAN side, and a tiny 4% taking a fully converged SASE approach. In response to this, Grady said: “SSE just simplifies that conversation.”
Comparing SSE to a “steppingstone toward SASE,” Grady noted that more than half (57%) of the respondents expected full SASE adoption to take two or more years.
SSE is credited with ensuring consistent enforcement and protection across environments, but almost one in three (30%) noted that using SSE could see them reduce the number of vendors they use, in turn helping to reduce cybersecurity-related costs.
The change is not without its challenges, though, with around one-quarter concerned about determining a starting point (24%) or migrating their existing security policies (25%).
A list of priorities when it comes to using SSE can be found on the TechTarget website. The TLDR is that organizations should first define their path, “because it’s going to be a lot.”
Overall, Grady said that security professionals are looking at SSE in the right sort of way: “improving their security, improving user protection, modernizing their security stack… as opposed to it’s going to save me money.”
