Empower employees to work from anywhere with agile connectivity solutions that are secure by design and intent.

An agile network goes beyond just connectivity. It takes the business into a new era of productivity and capability, allowing for employees to connect at any time and from anywhere within secure frameworks that define flexible operations and redefine customer delight. This next-generation network is also essential in building a digital-first strategy that puts the business into the cloud and onto the right path for speed, agility and scale. However, it also introduces risks – security challenges that have to be overcome to fully realise the value of cloud, digital and connectivity.

Cybersecurity has been a threat since the first computer encountered the first worm in 1988, except now it’s far more ubiquitous and insidious. The technology companies rely on to run their business is the very vulnerability that can cause the business to come to an unexpected halt. As McKinsey points out – the cyber adversary is now sophisticated, organised and immensely capable. The risks are clear, so to overcome them, organisations need to invest in solutions that embed resilience within the network – a resilience to demand, to attacks and to the future.

This is one of the reasons why SASE – secure access service edge – has become so popular. Combined with software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN), SASE is a flexible and agile solution that adds intelligent security to the network. It’s proven so popular that Gartner predicts that it will be one of the fastest-growing segments in the network and security market, achieving end-user spend of $6.8 billion by the end of 2022. This popularity rests on its ability to provide organisations with the right levels of scalable security to allow for anytime, anywhere access to applications and services.

SASE is all about giving the CIO the ability to take the security to the solution, not the solution to the security. It allows for the organisation to maximise the benefits of a cloud-first strategy – giving users access to the applications and solutions they require to do their jobs effectively without slamming their hands in the proverbial iron door of security. If SD-WAN is the bridge between the office and the cloud, then SASE is the handrails that prevent the data from falling off the edges and into the wrong hands.

What makes it such a sweet solution is that it ultimately makes life easier. It’s a smarter way of providing security, as it allows for the integration of multiple security solutions and applications into the network with relative simplicity. From the zero-trust network approach through to next-generation firewalls and secure web gateways, SASE is an ever-expanding portfolio that can be customised to fit within very specific enterprise gaps. Also, thanks to the digital functionality inherent within the system, organisations benefit from access to insights and data that can be used to consistently refine network uptime and scalability.

In addition to its ease of use and ubiquity, SASE – combined with SD-WAN – opens the door for the business to achieve true cloud mobility. With the right partner, the organisation can create a full-stack, multi-layer security solution that secures both on-premise and cloud systems and delivers consistent policy enforcement and management. It’s highly agile and visible, ensuring that users are protected throughout their journey and embedding peace of mind into organisation architecture.

This network of the future is far more elastic, capable of putting the security where the users are instead of locking them into a secure box that inhibits growth and productivity – a future that’s defined by cloud and digital potential, not by the threats that surround it.