Listen to "Unpacking SASE with Cisco Solutions" on Spreaker.
In the new age of remote work taking over, security should be a top priority—old methods of data protection no longer fit the bill for fully-remote or hybrid models. SASE reduces complexity through three main components: connectivity, control and convergence.
Shelby Skrhak speaks with
Kinney Yee, solutions architect at
Cisco, about:
- The importance of connectivity
- How control enables higher security
- Why convergence supports reduced complexity
The importance of connectivity
SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) is an approach that’s been in practice without us realizing it. With the recent shifts around remote work and hybrid models, the entire paradigm of traditional networking and connectivity expands the need for security and security frameworks—that’s where SASE comes in.
“As far as connectivity goes, we want to look at what's called Software Defined Wide Area Networking, aka SD-WAN.” Kinney explains, “SD-WAN is really about creating that connectivity, using the internet as the backbone.”
If we think about the different elements we're connecting, we have branch locations still connecting to enterprise headquarters. Each remote user is a branch of one. SASE connectivity provides direct internet access and ensures the best performance in a remote location while maintaining secure connections to disparate cloud applications.
How control enables higher security
Today, cloud-managed, cloud-security solutions that are easy to deploy, manage and analyze are in high demand. Meeting that need requires tight control.
“Before we make any connections to any applications out there, the first thing that we do is called DNS—Domain Name System.” Kinney shares, “It resolves the common name to an IP address. Before I even make a connection, I have to create a DNS resolver and resolve that website name into an IP address so my system can get to that website. When we implement DNS layered security, I'm ensuring that the request is not malicious.”
This approach blocks unwanted destinations before completed connections and creates a secure endpoint.
Why convergence supports reduced complexity
IT security expertise is almost unlimited, and Cisco strives to provide easy accessibility to solutions. Convergence is more than transparency for the user; it extends to administrators.
“How do I gather all correlated information and defend against all of these attacks that are constantly ongoing?” Kinney shares, “That's the convergence part of the connectivity and the control portion of it. That's the convergence, bringing those two together, making sure that it's very easy to create that connectivity, very easy to control, administer and manage that environment.”
Cisco balances keeping security personnel and end users satisfied in equal measures and does so consistently.
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