Harmonizing Networking and Security to Make SASE Easy

In an era where the experience is everything, digital transformation can be hard for IT organizations, creating increased operational complexity. When we talk about experience, it’s important to remember that there are two sides to the experienced coin – the IT admin experience and the end user experience. Delivering an unparalleled experience on both sides means IT organizations need to transform their networks and design for scale, agility, resiliency, and security. This is not a small feat when skill resources are thin and investments are precious.

78% of global CIOs and IT decision-makers agree that experience is the measure of businesses’ success and that it is important to empower a distributed workforce with seamless access to applications. So, what is the path to delivering exceptional experiences? Bringing together network and security domains, the path can be found in Secure Access Service Edge (SASE). SASE provides the required architecture and framework to securely and seamlessly connect users to applications in a hyper-distributed environment.

Where two roads converge

Many customers have not been able to realize the full benefits and potential of SASE because many of the solutions in the market are complex, failing to deliver on the true transformation promise of SASE which involves converging network and security together in a unified solution. This convergence requires a strong SD-WAN foundation, that combined with a solid Security Service Edge (SSE) component, enables IT organizations to be successful and realize the outcomes and benefits of SASE.

We believe the answer lies in unified SASE. This means a more complete convergence of networking with security, leveraging a single platform with a streamlined operational model to make the visibility, management, and control of the solution as simple as possible. This simple operating model also provides IT teams with the most visibility and control over the network environment, making the experience easy for them to manage.

A complete, turnkey SASE solution

When we launched Cisco+ Secure Connect in June of last year, we made the simple assertion that network and security convergence is key to a successful SASE implementation. Indeed, we’ve proven again and again with our customers that Cisco+ Secure Connect is the blueprint for SASE made easy, and a unified solution can help network and security teams successfully navigate and accelerate their SASE journey.

Today, I’m excited to announce that we’re making this turnkey approach to SASE available to even more customers.

Through an integration with Cisco SD-WAN powered by Viptela technology, customers can now enjoy all the benefits of Cisco+ Secure Connect. This new integration gives any Cisco SD-WAN customer access to fast, secure private applications and internet access, enabling them to deliver a secure experience, anywhere work happens.

For customers that are looking to secure internet access from their branches, or if they want to securely connect their remote workers to the resources they need, Cisco+ Secure Connect gives them the flexibility to SASE their way with the option to choose the use case that works best for them. This provides them the benefits of unified SASE, including:

• Centralized management for policy and monitoring
• Global Availability for secure internet access from branches
• Streamlined onboarding
• Bandwidth enhancements
• 24/7 unified SASE support

No matter where you are in your network transformation journey, Cisco+ Secure Connect can help you accelerate your SASE implementation. It removes the complexity of SASE by interconnecting everything as well as delivering intelligent distributed enforcement and controls from endpoints, premises, and the cloud to further enhance the end-user experience. With Cisco+ Secure Connect, you can effectively protect all your IT investments with no need to rip and replace existing technology, empowering you to “SASE your way.”

See how converging networking and security can help make SASE work for you with this on-demand webinar

References

​​Future of Technology Report, Cisco​

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