To 100G and Beyond: The Next Frontier for SASE
January 24, 2024
To 100G and Beyond: The Next Frontier for SASE
In the ever-evolving landscape of enterprise networking and security, a significant transformation is underway. Siloed, point product infrastructures are giving way to a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) approach, driven by the rapid adoption of cloud technologies, the increased reliance on collaboration tools, and the emergence of hybrid work models. This shift is not merely a trend but a strategic response to the challenges posed by the dynamic nature of modern business environments. Organizations are on a journey to simplify network complexity to reduce costs, address security risks more effectively while assuring a great user experience.
However, this evolution comes with its own set of challenges. Vendors have taken different approaches to deliver SASE. We discuss the differences below and their impact to organizations.
Convergence or Integration? What’s the difference, anyway?
With SASE moving to edges everywhere, compute scale is quickly becoming an important consideration. A SASE solution must have the compute scale and performance to be deployable at any edge of any size or scale – from small edges in branches to very large edges in campuses, data centers/private clouds and public clouds.
Unified SASE promises the true convergence of many networking and security products into a single gateway at the edge, to deliver a simplified, secure, and high performance solution. In reality, many SASE solutions today consist of point products integrated under a SASE umbrella, not unlike the purpose-built approach of legacy infrastructure solutions. Here’s the problem with this approach.
While it is possible to build SASE with a portfolio of point products, that does not reduce operational complexity, nor does it deliver on the promise of higher performance. This is because each SASE function is its own software image that performs its own packet processing and applies policy, which is service chained with other networking and security functions in the SASE portfolio. Gartner quotes, “Most current SASE offerings across single-vendor, dual-vendor and managed SASE have at least two management and policy control planes, data lakes and integrated product platforms. These introduce unnecessary complexity for day zero, day one and day two operations.”
Our view is that it is impossible to achieve scale through superficial SASE integration. There are too many point products, with separate interfaces and data lakes. This increases complexity, which inhibits performance and scale. The lack of end-to-end visibility makes it difficult for IT teams to get a holistic view of the attack surface, increasing security risk in complex hybrid environments.
In contrast, a truly converged SASE solution is designed from the OS up to be converged. Such a SASE solution provides a single software image, a single policy and data lake, and a single pass, parallel processing architecture. Every packet is opened only once, and all relevant network and security policies applied.
Unified SASE is true convergence of networking and security, not an integration. It is the sharing of common services such as a data lake, a console, a policy repository, with a single-pass architecture. True convergence helps organizations drive operational efficiencies, achieve higher security, performance and scale – with the capacity to meet the needs of any edge.
Thus, the path to a true Unified SASE platform is convergence, not integration. In essence, a converged SASE solution goes beyond the superficial integration of point products to delivering convergence from the ground up, of SD-WAN and cloud-native Security Service Edge (SSE) functions. This convergence, implemented in a unified software stack with single-pass packet processing, not only enhances overall performance but also strengthens security, improves operational efficiency, and reduces network complexity.
True Convergence Delivers Compute Scale
Today, we are announcing the industry’s fastest Unified SASE gateways, made possible by Versa’s converged, single pass SASE architecture. The level of performance and capacity delivered makes it possible to consolidate as many as 32 servers into a single converged node at the edge.
These gateways deliver an unprecedented 120 Gbps of firewall, 100 Gbps of SD-WAN, and 40 Gbps of NGFW performance. In independent tests by CyberRatings.org of top industry vendors, Versa CSG5000 ranked highest in Throughput, HTTPS Capacity and Price per Protected Mbps, reflecting superior performance and security effectiveness with the lowest TCO. The table below shows the summary results, check out the full report, and read the press release.
As enterprises navigate this transformative journey, embracing a true converged SASE solution becomes imperative for unlocking the full potential of digital transformation at the network edge.
