What are the primary SASE Challenges?

Short answer: The main challenges in adopting SASE are building an architecture that scales, integrating agents and cloud gateways, getting separate networking and security teams to work together, choosing the right vendor, and avoiding tool sprawl. SASE is a change of process as well as technology, so test any solution against your own security and deployment needs.

SASE (pronounced Sassy) is changing the way we understand security. We have previously spoken about what exactly SASE means. But a little flashback.

Gartner coined the term in 2019 for an emerging cybersecurity concept: networking and security capabilities delivered as a service, based on the identity of the user or device, real-time context, enterprise security and compliance policies, and continuous assessment of risk and trust during each session. Those identities can belong to people, branch offices, devices, applications, services, IoT systems or edge locations.

Enterprises and businesses who are considering adopting SASE, need to consider that this will be a paradigm shift for them. Even with SASE being the go-to technology for many, and despite its many benefits, SASE comes with its own set of drawbacks and challenges.  

IT organizations and enterprises that aren’t completely prepared for a change this magnitude may face some roadblocks along the way while adopting SASE.

What are the major challenges businesses face while adopting SASE?

• SASE Architecture – The SASE architecture provided must provide businesses with top application performance. It should be scalable, not only for data plane, but for the control and management of planes, as well as for cloud-native solutions.
• Integration and interoperability – It is crucial that SASE providers have well integrated features. SASE end-point agents should simplify deployments with other agents and cloud gateways of various flavors.
• Cultural challenges of SASE – Many organizations have had a separate security and networking team. But SASE warrants these teams to revisit their roles and responsibility. It can be a jarring experience which requires teams to collaborate and relearn the importance of cooperation.  
• Vendor Selection – A step that requires great care. Enterprises need to make sure that a SASE solution fits their needs and encompasses all security and networking solutions. They should familiarize themselves with the vendor’s abilities to provide specific features that the enterprise is looking for.  
• Navigating the tooling landscape – SASE is an amalgamation of various tools and methodologies, which sometimes can get confusing for businesses to navigate. Failing to perform proper tool consolidations can lead to tool sprawl, disjointed capabilities and an incoherent enterprise architecture. Which leads to team members having many side effects like burnout, fatigue and frustrations, leaving enterprise security at risk of failing.

SASE is not just a product or a service; it is a significant change. It is a change of process that requires a combination of networking and security specialists. While adopting SASE, it is important that businesses thoroughly go through the SASE solution testing to ensure it fits the organization security and deployment needs.

Related: SASE vs SD-WAN vs SSE, Nexapp SASE capabilities and Nexapp SSE and ZTNA.

Frequently asked questions

What is SASE?

SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) combines networking such as SD-WAN with security services such as ZTNA, SWG and CASB, delivered as a service based on the identity of the user or device. Gartner introduced the term in 2019.

What are the biggest challenges of adopting SASE?

The common hurdles are scaling the architecture, integrating agents and gateways, aligning networking and security teams, selecting a vendor that covers all needs, and avoiding tool sprawl.

Why is vendor selection hard for SASE?

SASE covers many networking and security functions, and not every provider offers all of them. Buyers must check that one solution covers the features they need under one policy.

How can a company reduce SASE tool sprawl?

Consolidate networking and security functions onto one platform with a single policy engine. Nexapp combines SD-WAN, NGFW and SSE/ZTNA, including SWG, CASB, DLP and FWaaS, on one platform.

To learn more about SASE, book a demo with Nexapp.