The traditional work environment has been turned on its head in recent years. While some of us still operate out of a conventional head office setting, accessing the applications we need from an on-prem server, there is a growing multitude of other locations that need to be folded into the mix when considering issues like connectivity and security. As employees, we now work across a spectrum of geographies, and our workloads are similarly distributed. Some still reside on-prem, but these days they are as likely to be found on a public cloud platform, or split between a number of clouds on a hybrid basis
Fundamental changes to how we work, indeed to how business is done, have given rise to the widespread deployment of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, helping to boost the productivity and agility of a dynamic workforce by allowing them to tap into platform-based resources.
But this dispersal of workers and applications cannot thrive on the kind of networking and security we used to rely on in a world of unchanging locations and tightly defined corporate perimeters. In a nutshell, as applications and workers become more widespread and attack vectors get more diverse and sophisticated, we can no longer depend on the jumble of point solutions that used to support and protect our data. The lack of coherence and unity that result from this kind of piecemeal approach lays an organisation open to multiple dangers.
Subheading: A different kind of SASE
A commonly deployed fix has been available for a number of years in the form of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE). But while the promise of SASE is to bring together networking and security in one wrapper, the reality is often rather different.
Too many SASE solutions fail to deliver the desired unity, and often come with a side order of added complexity for the already stretched network manager.
As Renuka Nadkarni, Chief Product Officer with SASE provider Aryaka puts it: “Enterprises are increasingly looking to unified SASE, but they’re finding that most solutions are stitched together via acquisitions and ‘unified’ in name only.”
An alternative emerged earlier this year in the form of Aryaka’s Unified SASE as a Service solution, an integrated security networking experience that is designed to deliver performance, agility, simplicity and security.
Aryaka has already augmented the original solution with the addition of AI>Perform, a GenAI network acceleration tool that is now a native part of its Unified SASE as a Service, ensuring that it is fully ‘AI ready’. Now with its Fall ’24 product update, Aryaka has taken its SASE offering to the next level, integrating new security capabilities into the mix. Freshly added are:
• A cloud access security broker (CASB), a cloud-native tool that unites many different types of security policy, from authentication and credential mapping to encryption and malware detection, helping to deliver the protection that SaaS-based applications demand. According to the definition established by independent analyst firm Gertner, a CASB ‘interjects enterprise security policies as cloud-based resources are accessed’. Aryaka has integrated CASB into its OnePASS Architecture and Zero Trust WAN, creating a seamless cloud security experience for customers.
• For workers who depend on Internet access but need to be protected against Internet-borne threats, Aryaka has added remote browser isolation (RBI) technology under a partnership with Menlo Security. This works by confining browsing activities within a remote environment, hosting them separately to the user’s device. By keeping potentially harmful web content isolated, the potential attack surface is reduced, but without the user’s experience being affected.
• Aryaka IPX provides an easy-to-deploy virtual proof of concept option where enterprises can experience the value, agility and capabilities of its Unified SASE as a Service. Users can test drive specific use cases in an intuitive virtual setting without having to integrate with or disrupt their current network operations.
“We want to bring added value to organizations looking to further consolidate their security and networking deployments,” explains Nadkarni. “With these new capabilities, customers can protect their globally distributed applications without compromising performance or agility, marking a significant step forward in secure networking.”
With users relying on a portfolio of widely distributed applications, they need solutions appropriate for each class of application, but without the headache of having to manage them individually. Aryaka’s newly updated Unified SASE solution takes care of that, offering seamless connectivity to every application as if each were running in the same place.
“IT needs to mirror the user experience,” explains Nadkarni. “It should be simple for the IT department too. Typically IT managers have multiple security and networking policies to cope with different security requirements and connectivity types, plus multiple firewall rules to manage. With Unified SASE, all this complexity is under the covers. IT can manage everything through the same control plane.”
She points out that traditional infrastructure, such as MPLS, is too inflexible and costly to match Unified SASE’s capabilities, having been invented for a ‘point to point’ era rather than hub and spoke networking.
“Our aim is to provide IT managers with three things – namely networking, security and observability – so that there is no trade-off between performance, agility, simplicity and security,” she concludes. “With this year’s updates, we have covered the first two of these. Watch out for an observability announcement early next year.”
Analysts appear agreed that a more unified approach to SASE is the way to go: “Aryaka’s expansion of its Unified SASE as a Service offering comes as enterprises grapple with increasingly sophisticated cyber threats and the challenges of managing distributed workforces,” says Roy Chua, Founder of AvidThink. “By adding CASB and integrating RBI to its converged security and networking experience, Aryaka is addressing the limitations of piecemeal solutions.”
“With the new Unified SASE as a Service launch, Aryaka has shown a rapid-fire approach to new services and capabilities,” agrees Scott Raynovich, Founder and Principal Analyst with Futuriom. “SASE technology represents a key focus of enterprises looking to secure networking traffic, and there is huge demand for consuming these services, especially when they are combined with networking.”
Above, Renuka Nadkarni, Chief Product Officer with SASE provider Aryaka / image credited to NetEvents
