By Salah Nassar, Vice President of Marketing, CipherCloud
When it comes to any new concept, especially in the technology space, the best starting point is
to clearly understand the purpose, then to peel the layers of how the tech attempts to solve for
this said purpose. In this case, Gartner has recently introduced a new cloud architecture, Secure
Access Service Edge (SASE). Pronounced ‘ sassy ’, it is as bold as its name in spirit.
Let’s first understand SASE, from my perspective of course.
SASE is the future of cloud architecture, solving the complexity of siloed security measures that
are currently divided between on-premises security and cloud security. While this concept is
not new, until SASE, the closest architecture that discussed continuity between on-premises
security and cloud has been the Zero Trust Framework by Forrester. The difference with SASE is
it proposes an architecture that we can see taking shape today. Starting with Cloud Access
Security Brokers, Software-Defined WANs, Virtual Private Networks as a Service, Firewalls as a
Service, Secure Web Gateways, Cloud DNS Services, and Software Defined Perimeter solutions,
it is clear we are in a cloud first security environment. The only on-premises solutions left are
either for unique security measures that are industry specific, i.e. governments, and very large
organizations that require hybrid deployment for the foreseeable future.
The future of cloud security is SASE
So how does SASE plan to solve for this? Gartner predicts that by 2024, 40 % of organizations
will have explicit strategies to adopt SASE. This is not far fetched as we see this taking shape
today in CASB. CipherCloud CASB+ over the last couple of years has expanded to not only solve
for information protection with cloud DLP, cloud encryption, data classification, data rights
management, but has expanded to user behavior analytics, advanced access controls, secure
application access (SDP alternative), threat protection, and multiple deployment models with
API, reverse-proxy, and forward proxy. CASB has also expanded in foundational functionality
and turned into a true cloud platform that integrates with existing enterprise infrastructure
such as on-premises DLP, supporting IaaS apps and posture management, and deep SIEM
integrations.
As the cloud security market matures over the next 3-5 years, the best approach to solve cloud
security and support digital transformation initiatives is to choose the best of breed products.
Focus on acquiring best of breed CASB (you can view the Gartner Critical Capabilities report
here ) and best of breed solution for the given area of need.
Best of breed cloud security
A few weeks ago, we posted a blog announcing our partnership with Cloudflare. It is a quick
read but offers a lot more detail. The reality is, CipherCloud and CloudFlare are best-of-breed in
their respective categories.
CipherCloud CASB+ provides end-to-end security protection for all SaaS and IaaS apps that
organizations are looking to secure in terms of information protection, threat protection, access
controls, risk analysis, achieving compliance, and posture management among other things.
CipherCloud has empowered organizations to implement a more powerful security solution
than legacy data center security. Read more about CipherCloud CASB+ security here.
A major problem many organizations must solve is the connection between the HQ, Branch, or
road warrior to the SaaS or IaaS applications. This gap that is typically depicted by an image of
the cloud or internet, is where CloudFlare comes in. CloudFlare not only addresses this security
gap, but they also provide full connection optimization, deep tunnel security and protection.
The combination of our products provides a solid foundation for organizations looking to adopt
SASE. CipherCloud protects SaaS and IaaS for organizations with hundreds of thousands of
endpoints and employees. Combined with CloudFlare, organizations can solve for some of the
most pressing security, compliance and performance associated with cloud migrations and
connectivity.
