The Right Steps to SASE: Gain Awareness and Visibility

The following is an excerpt from Netskope’s recent book Designing a SASE Architecture for Dummies. This is the second in a series of seven posts detailing a set of incremental steps for implementing a well-functioning SASE architecture.

The first step in solving any problem is admitting there is one. Throughout Designing a SASE Architecture for Dummies, we discuss at length how enterprise security hasn’t kept up with the security and access needs of today, but has remained rooted in the traditional data center.

We note that more than half of enterprise app traffic and users are getting work done on networks the organization doesn’t control—and that was before the COVID-19 pandemic made work-from-home the new norm.

You and your organization need to come to grips not only with the severity and breadth of what has gotten away from your control but also the reality that all that stuff outside your control is how your business does business today.

From a practical perspective, you need visibility into what’s already going on in the cloud with respect to your users if you want to be confident in any solution you implement. But you also need your organization’s decision-makers on board. You get buy-in if those decision-makers can understand how your SASE project will be intrinsic to their success and that SASE will protect critical things they value but don’t realize are dangerously exposed. Millions, even billions, of dollars in value is derived from the work being done “out there.”

If you’d like to read the complete Designing a SASE Architecture for Dummies book, you can download a complimentary copy here!