What does it take to do SASE your way? – Cisco Blogs

Cisco SecureX can help transform your network and security

The concept of “the network” has changed dramatically over the last several years. Massive amounts of applications have transitioned to the cloud, while many workers have transitioned to…well, wherever they want or have to be. The pandemic has only served to accelerate this trend and the resulting demand on today’s networks.

The “new network” has to seamlessly connect any user to any application on any device, at any time and from anywhere. And it must do so securely. This strategy is known as Secure Access Service Edge, aka SASE (pronounced “sassy”).

On a basic level, SASE involves the convergence of networking and security technologies to be delivered together via the cloud – ideally from a single vendor. Why is a single solution important? Well, from our perspective, security is already too complex. Organizations are battling with dozens of point products just to fend off the latest threats.

When you add remote working and digital transformation to that mix, it just becomes too onerous and costly to manage if these tools come from a variety of different vendors. Cisco’s approach to SASE combines leading network and security functionality into an integrated architecture to help secure access wherever users and applications reside. It brings together cloud security from Cisco Umbrella, SD-WAN from Cisco Meraki and Viptela, zero trust network access from Cisco Secure Access by Duo, and observability from ThousandEyes to pave the way to SASE.

A platform approach to SASE

Cisco has been on a mission for several years to simplify security. That mission culminated in the launch of our Cisco SecureX platform, which integrates the entire Cisco security portfolio as well as additional security, networking, and IT technologies from both Cisco and third parties. It is included with all of our security products, so once you have one, you can begin using SecureX. By empowering disparate teams, technologies, and intelligence to work together for the greater good, SecureX streamlines and strengthens both threat defense and security operations.

SecureX enables organizations to secure the network, cloud, endpoints, and applications with unified visibility and control through one console. We’re not just integrating a couple security products; we’re integrating all of our security products – and more – to radically simplify the user experience.

Cisco SecureX brings together key security technologies considered fundamental for SASE in a way that is simplified, scalable, and flexible. It combines cloud security from Cisco Umbrella with zero trust capabilities from Cisco Secure Access by Duo. And it also enables customers to easily incorporate a wide range of other tools into the platform (such as SIEMs, firewalls, threat intelligence, and more) through pre-built integrations, an open architecture, and our vast partner ecosystem.

But let’s not forget about another core component of SASE, which is networking via SD-WAN. Cisco is the largest SD-WAN provider on the market, and through our integrated architecture, you can quickly deploy cloud security from Cisco Umbrella across your network of Cisco SD-WAN devices.

“Using the Cisco SD-WAN integration with Cisco Umbrella gives us effective cloud security throughout our SD-WAN fabric,” said Joel Marquez, IT Director at Tamimi Markets. “This added security protects our staff from the ever-present threats on the internet…. I’m thrilled with the many improvements we’ve made by choosing Cisco for our SASE architecture.”

Do SASE your way with Cisco

No two organizations today are at the same place when it comes to transitioning to SASE. That’s why a flexible approach that provides incremental wins along the way and a solid foundation for future innovation is critical. Since it is delivered via the cloud and included with all of our security products, SecureX helps you do SASE your way.

Whether you have one or many Cisco security products, you benefit from an integrated platform experience that can serve as the foundation for a SASE architecture. And our open platform allows you to protect previous investments by incorporating both new and existing technologies into your “network of the future.”

In addition to core SASE capabilities, we offer a broad set of security technologies – including email security, advanced malware protection, security analytics, and more – to help defend your network from emerging threats. All of this is integrated through the cloud-native SecureX platform, so when you’re ready for it, you can easily turn it on and enhance your security in minutes.

As the company that built the modern network, and a worldwide leader in cybersecurity, we have both the foundation and innovation to help you transform your infrastructure. Cisco is rapidly moving towards offering a single, comprehensive SASE solution, and we can help you reimagine your network regardless of where you are today.

New, more “SASE” innovations

This week at our virtual Cisco Live conference, we are furthering our commitment to helping customers modernize their networks. We’re introducing new SASE capabilities and making additional advancements across our SecureX platform. Cisco SecureX is bringing radical simplification to security, minimizing the complexity defenders often face with threat detection and response.

All of this feeds into our vision of providing the simplified security, comprehensive protection, and always-on security intelligence our customers need to keep pace with increasing user demands and ever-evolving attacks. Whether you’re highly immersed in the cloud, or still striving to provide more secure, reliable access to your remote workforce, we want to help you do SASE (and security) your way.

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