Accelerate your SSE journey. Join Netskope at RSA.

  • Security Service Edge Products

    Protect against advanced and cloud-enabled threats and safeguard data across all vectors.

  • Borderless SD-WAN

    Confidently provide secure, high-performance access to every remote user, device, site, and cloud.

  • Platform

    Unrivaled visibility and real-time data and threat protection on the world's largest security private cloud.

Netskope Named a Leader in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for SSE Report

Get the report Go to Products Overview
Netskope gartner mq 2022 sse leader
Gartner® Quick Answer: How Does Netskope’s Acquisition of Infiot Impact SD-WAN, SASE, and SSE Projects?

Get the report
Gartner quick answer
Netskope delivers a modern cloud security stack, with unified capabilities for data and threat protection, plus secure private access.

Explore our platform
Birds eye view metropolitan city
Make the move to market-leading cloud security services with minimal latency and high reliability.

Learn more
Lighted highway through mountainside switchbacks
Prevent threats that often evade other security solutions using a single-pass SSE framework.

Learn more
Lighting storm over metropolitan area
Zero trust solutions for SSE and SASE deployments

Learn more
Boat driving through open sea
Netskope enables a safe, cloud-smart, and fast journey to adopt cloud services, apps, and public cloud infrastructure.

Learn more
Wind turbines along cliffside
  • Our Customers

    Netskope serves more than 2,000 customers worldwide including more than 25 of the Fortune 100

  • Customer Solutions

    We are here for you and with you every step of the way, ensuring your success with Netskope.

  • Training and Certification

    Netskope training will help you become a cloud security expert.

We help our customers to be Ready for Anything

See our Customers
Woman smiling with glasses looking out window
Netskope’s talented and experienced Professional Services team provides a prescriptive approach to your successful implementation.

Learn more
Netskope Professional Services
Secure your digital transformation journey and make the most of your cloud, web, and private applications with Netskope training.

Learn more
Group of young professionals working
  • Resources

    Learn more about how Netskope can help you secure your journey to the cloud.

  • Blog

    Learn how Netskope enables security and networking transformation through security service edge (SSE).

  • Events & Workshops

    Stay ahead of the latest security trends and connect with your peers.

  • Security Defined

    Everything you need to know in our cybersecurity encyclopedia.

Security Visionaries Podcast

Episode 10: Building Security Relationships Through Transparency
In this episode, Mike and Andreas discuss aligning with works councils, forging business relationships through transparency, and embedding security into value streams.

Play the podcast
Building Security Relationships Through Transparency
Read the latest on how Netskope can enable the Zero Trust and SASE journey through security service edge (SSE) capabilities.

Read the blog
Sunrise and cloudy sky
Netskope at RSA

Join Netskope at RSA Conference this year and be part of the real conversations on SASE and Zero Trust. Stop by our booth in South Hall, chat with an expert, register for our speaking sessions, and unwind by joining us at one of our events!

Learn more
RSA logo
What is Security Service Edge?

Explore the security side of SASE, the future of network and protection in the cloud.

Learn more
Four-way roundabout
  • Company

    We help you stay ahead of cloud, data, and network security challenges.

  • Why Netskope

    Cloud transformation and work from anywhere have changed how security needs to work.

  • Leadership

    Our leadership team is fiercely committed to doing everything it takes to make our customers successful.

  • Partners

    We partner with security leaders to help you secure your journey to the cloud.

Netskope enables the future of work.

Find out more
Curvy road through wooded area
Netskope is redefining cloud, data, and network security to help organizations apply Zero Trust principles to protect data.

Learn more
Switchback road atop a cliffside
Thinkers, builders, dreamers, innovators. Together, we deliver cutting-edge cloud security solutions to help our customers protect their data and people.

Meet our team
Group of hikers scaling a snowy mountain
Netskope’s partner-centric go-to-market strategy enables our partners to maximize their growth and profitability while transforming enterprise security.

Learn more
Group of diverse young professionals smiling

The Environment as an Imperative

Jan 31 2023

About 15 months ago we made a prediction.

“COP26 has been the most urgent we have seen yet, with governments, businesses, and individuals all hearing and responding to scientists’ calls for expedient action to protect our ways of life. We will see this imperative running through RFPs and procurement choices in 2022, and I predict that Cloud Service Providers (CSP) will be required to share a metric of their carbon footprint and details on their green agenda.”

There were already plenty of clues pointing us towards this assertion. SAP had found that the thousands of organisations it polled were “overwhelmingly motivated” to take environmental action. And Gartner’s 2022-23 CEO priorities report told us that, for the first time ever, CEOs were placing environmental sustainability in their top 10 business priorities. In fact, 74% agreed that increasing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts attract investors towards their businesses, and among the 80% who intended to invest in new or improved products over the next two years, environmental sustainability was cited as the largest driver.

But 2022 was an unexpectedly tricky ride for many organisations (Neil has written here before about the triple squeeze—high inflation, talent scarcity and supply chain issues), so does it still matter at all?

Deep into 2022, Capital Group was still hearing that 90% of the companies that it polled were adopting ESG solutions, which was a marked increase from previous years. And in our day-to-day conversations with European businesses, the appetite to improve sustainability posture has never really abated. 

In fact, while some predicted that more tricky economic times would lead to a reduction in resources available for sustainability efforts, I am hearing that leaner times are actually having the opposite effect. Business leaders are working out that what’s good for the planet may actually be good for them too. Strong environmental credentials appeal to consumers, driving sales. McKinsey reported that more than 70% of consumers would pay more for products with good environmental credentials. And reductions in energy usage (particularly in a world where energy costs are spiraling) impact positively upon both environmental targets and the bottom line. Sustainability efforts can also reduce operational costs, making it a wise business focus, through uncertainty in the economy.

Of course when we are talking about organisational environmental efforts we are talking about cross-departmental targets, but let’s not underplay the centrality of IT.  

Globally, data centres account for more than 3% of the global electricity supply. That’s more than the UK’s entire annual electricity consumption. And cloud computing has a larger carbon footprint than the airline industry; a surprising fact for many who eschew long haul flights but give no thought to the impact of their social media addiction. 

So what exactly are organisations starting to do? We shall tell you a few things, but do not expect a straightforward answer.

  1. Organisations are reducing their environmental impact by moving to the cloud. What? Didn’t we just tell you that cloud computing has a huge carbon footprint?  Yes, we did, but if we were to move all that data, services and processing back out of the cloud and run them in private data centres and on local devices, the situation would be significantly worse
  1. Many data centres are turning up the thermostat and allowing the space to become warmer. The argument has long been held that warmer temperatures do not materially impact hardware performance and so there is little justification for air cooling below 20 degrees Celsius (some of the hyperscale data centres are now sitting as high as 30 degrees). However, this discussion isn’t yet resolved as there is now some evidence that while energy consumption drops because of a reduced requirement for extensive air conditioning, computing hardware does in fact draw more energy when it is warmer. This one will rumble on for a while yet, and Peter Judge at DataCentre Dynamics covers the latest thinking pretty thoroughly here.  The other data centre technology to keep an eye on from a sustainability perspective is closed loop cooling, which is replacing raised floor systems in many cases. In a closed loop system, the cooled air is recycled. It is more effective to run, uses significantly less energy, and is also actually more efficient in transferring heat away from sources of emission.
  1. Both of the points above show the complexity of environmental discussion and prove that benchmarking and measurement are key to improvement. Savvy CIOs are starting to realise the centrality of their role in collecting, sharing, and analysing accurate and traceable data, to drive sustainability efforts. Without strategic data collection and management, we will all be operating in the dark when trying to determine if all our best efforts are making the slightest difference. 
  1. The final thing I am seeing emphasised is waste reduction. Sometimes that means reducing packaging or reconditioning and donating end-of-life hardware (reducing landfill waste). Sometimes it’s looking at your supply chain and asking critical questions about where things are coming from—and where you need them to go (got a single remote worker on a different continent? Maybe avoid a hardware solution that requires global physical distribution…).  Bear in mind that the biggest gains can often be achieved as part of a transformation project, and may be driven by a different primary goal. Could re-architecting your security and networking infrastructure reduce waste?

Neil’s prediction from 2021 has dated well, but we have no doubt that the finer details of these more specific points will run into greater challenges in their efforts to remain up to date by the back end of 2024. Yet it is worth keeping up with the experiments and successes of peers. All the science points to a shortening timeframe available for us to get things right and start making the requisite changes before our way of life is irreparably damaged. 

If you’d like to learn more about the ESG efforts at Netskope, read this blog about our recent Silver Medal rating from EcoVadis

author image
Neil Thacker
Neil Thacker is a veteran information security professional and a data protection and privacy expert well-versed in the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR).
author image
Jennica Sims
Jennica Sims is the Global Head of ESG at Netskope.