How to spot a ‘true’ SASE Platform?

The enterprise networking industry was the last bastion of enterprise tech to be disrupted. This disruption began around 2008 when the network control plane was abstracted from the data plane, commercialized as SDN (Software Defined Networking) in 2010 by many vendors. The network control plane was abstracted across campus, WAN, and data center environments, and vendors built a new controller software for each.

Most importantly, this abstraction of the network control plane served as a boon for Cybersecurity vendors in a practical sense, allowing them to converge networking and security functions into a single platform. In 2019, Gartner noticed this industry convergence and coined the term SASE (Secure Access Service Edge). Today, there are 11 vendors in the Gartner SASE magic quadrant and around 5 vendors as honorable mentions.

As our team reviews the architectures of various SASE platforms, one thing has become clear. A fragile patchwork of point products in security and networking has been stitched together by few vendors and entered the SASE market in the name of a “platform”. A true SASE platform accelerates security and networking innovation and fast delivery of new features. In contrast, many SASE solutions are a cobbled work of point products where operational friction and critical security gaps in policy management are inherent.

How to Spot a “Fake” SASE Platform

Identifying warning signs is essential for due diligence. There are 3 characteristics IT leaders need to examine:

• Fragmented Data Lake: Separate data stores (one for FW, another for IDS/IPS, etc.) prove a patchwork architecture. This forces the IT organization to rely on external SIEM for essential event correlation and threat hunting.
• Multiple Management Consoles: At the surface, it might look like a unified dashboard, but under the hood, the admin is redirected to separate dashboards for routing, policy, and access management.
• Asymmetric PoPs: To save compute cost, some vendors don’t turn on all security inspection features at the closest Point of Presence (PoP). Instead, your traffic is backhauled to another PoP for security inspection.

The Four Pillars of a True SASE Platform

Now, let’s pivot to the solution: the four non-negotiable pillars that define a true SASE platform built for future-proofing:

1. True Convergence: Networking and security are natively unified without a patchwork of point products.
2. Cloud-Native Architecture: Built as cloud-native services from the ground up, not just “virtual machines” moved to the cloud.
3. Global Private Backbone: Independent connectivity that is not solely hosted in hyperscalers like GCP or AWS.
4. Equal Support for All Edges: All edges run a full suite of networking and security capabilities consistently.

A crucial aspect for IT leaders who are serious about AI transformation is ensuring that their SASE platform provides a pristine unified data lake to optimize routing traffic and detect zero-day security threats in real time. The platform cannot be a patchwork of point products if it is to support industrial-scale intelligence.

Good luck on your SASE journey!

About the Author

Guru Bettadapura is the founder of LayerArch Systems, a firm specializing in the intersection of networking and security. He brings over two decades of experience in enterprise networking, security architecture, and digital infrastructure transformation. Guru holds CISSP, CCSP, and CCNP certifications, and an MBA from the University of Illinois.

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