The inevitable shift of security towards Edge

The inevitable shift of security towards Edge

Security leaders believe that as the Edge becomes the platform for Web app security, DDoS mitigation, and other controls, SASE will be the best management platform for managing them all

Most organizations will implement Secure Access Service Edge to mitigate the security threats faced in the current times. The solution is capable of offering solutions to many obstacles faced by most enterprises. These include the obstacles faced during maintenance of security posture during digital transformations, location shifts of employees, shift towards a zero-trust architecture, and business protection while they migrate into DevSecOps.

Security controls had begun to perform inspections closer to the end-users, way before the term SASE was introduced. Enterprises witnessed the migration of security-relevant to customer-facing apps from the enterprise data center to the Edge. It was meant to shift security inspection closer to end-users instead of forcing traffic to travel to a fixed location when security appliances were implemented.

Read More: Top Data Privacy Predictions to Watch out in 2021

In the present age, the Edge is the predominant location for distributed denial of service mitigation (DDoS), web application security, and other relevant controls for public-facing applications. Such migration provides knowledge on how organizations shift workforce security to the Edge.

CISOs say that the SASE architecture and the shifts that it predicts make perfect sense. We now witness similar trends, like the migration of users away from the corporate offices, the shift of applications away from the corporate data center, all taking place in workforce application consumption habits. Such forces are similar to those that shifted Web-focused security inspection away from bolt-ons or hardware appliances to load balancers present in the corporate data center switching to the same point in modern security infrastructure, the Edge.

Application migration

Security leaders point out that the majority of the security architects will be initially attracted to the SASE model as it enables them to deploy security controls at the best locations in their rapidly changing network. The optimal location is the Edge of the internet that will be proximal to any infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) or co-location facility that the organization uses currently or may in the future. An efficient edge deployment model provides agility for hybrid multi-cloud enterprises and is compatible with IaaS vendor changes or new locations from acquisitions and mergers.

Read More: Cyber-security in 2021 – Leaders Are Focusing on Reset and Reinforcement of Security Status

CISOs say that the flexibility of implementing security inspection at the Edge entails security inspection that can be performed at any local edge node regardless of changes in the location of compute. It enables optimized routing of traffic and prevents the unnecessary cause of latency to inspection engines embedded in enterprise data centers.

Since multi-cloud is the most common architecture, implementing security at an analogous edge happens to be more logical than developing consistent controls by leveraging heterogeneous features present at different cloud security providers (CSPs).

Another major reason for adopting SASE is the shift of end-users outside of the conventional corporate offices. Over the years, there has been a slow trend that enabled road warriors, remote employees, and also remote contractors. Last year, the trend rapidly accelerated with the near abandonment of corporate offices by organizations due to the mandatory remote work model.

Employees were moved far from the traditional security devices used in the enterprise data center or corporate office. However, regardless of the employee location, the most proximal Edge Point-of-Presence (POP) is never too far. Security controls can be effectively deployed close to the end-users when they are migrated to the Edge.