The 5 Hottest SASE Technologies To Know In 2021

The SASE space is heating up as vendors are all getting into the game, from longtime security leaders, to SD-WAN specialists and upstarts. Here are the hottest SASE offerings that solution providers should know about right now.

A New Approach To Networking

Secure access service edge (SASE) isn’t just a new product, and it’s not merely an evolution of SD-WAN. It’s a cloud-based approach to networking and security that is coming at a time when businesses need a secure connectivity boost in more locations than ever before, including for teleworkers and to accommodate new IT needs at the edge of the network.

In practice, SASE means improved security and network performance for less money compared with stand-alone SD-WAN, routing and security solutions for customers. Perhaps most importantly, it’s a consolidated approach to networking and security that will help customers and solution providers as they grapple with increasingly complex and distributed IT requirements, as well as users and applications in brand-new places. Vendors know that the SASE trend can’t be ignored, and providers of all kinds are getting into the SASE space, from the largest networking and security leaders, to startups that struck gold in the SD-WAN space and are now maturing their portfolios.

Here are five of the hottest SASE technologies that are turning heads in 2021 that solution providers should know about.

Cato Cloud

Cloud networking provider and self-proclaimed SASE specialist Cato Networks comes to the market with Cato Cloud, an offering that brings together SD-WAN, a global private backbone, a full network security stack and support for cloud resources and mobile devices.

Via Cato Cloud, customers can connect physical locations, cloud resources and mobile users through a single, self-service console. The company’s globally distributed cloud service gives enterprise networking and security capabilities to all edges, according to Tel Aviv, Israel-based Cato Networks.

Cato CEO Shlomo Kramer has said that while the market has seen many network security companies that are now assembling SASE solutions, Cato is “the first and only pure SASE platform that was built from the ground up.”

FortiSASE

Security leader Fortinet has recently emerged as a leader in the SASE space by building on its legacy of providing consistent, enterprise-grade protection across each network edge based on the company’s “security-driven networking” strategy.

FortiSASE is a scalable cloud-delivered security as a service that provides flexible secure access for remote users. The product uses FortiOS and the Fortinet Security Fabric to provide frictionless orchestration between cloud-delivered next-generation firewalls, web security, intrusion prevention systems, Domain Name Systems (DNS) and sandboxing.

Unlike many SASE providers that rely on public cloud providers instead of investing in their own global network, Fortinet’s offering is delivered on the company’s own elastic multitenant cloud architecture. This strategy makes it possible for Fortinet to deliver the complete promise of SASE with the flexibility and consumption model that the modern enterprise demands, according to the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company.

Palo Alto Prisma Access

Thanks to its purchase of SD-WAN specialist CloudGenix for $420 million in 2020, platform security vendor Palo Alto Networks is moving squarely into the SASE market. The vendor’s SASE offering is called Prisma Access 2.0.

Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma Access gives businesses a cloud-first approach to networking and security by connecting and securing mobile users, branch offices and retail locations. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based platform security vendor delivers protection from more than 100 locations in 76 countries around the world through a uniform, cloud-based infrastructure. The platform’s functions include firewall as a service, a cloud-based secure web gateway, zero trust network access with encrypted application access, authentication, and policy management and threat detection.

Prisma Access also offers security services, including advanced threat prevention, web filtering, sandboxing, DNS security, credential theft prevention, data loss prevention and next-generation firewall policies, according to Palo Alto Networks.

Perimeter 81 SASE Platform

Three-year-old Perimeter 81 has been focused on cloud-based networking and security since its inception. Recently, the company entered the SASE arena and is ready to compete with the market heavyweights, the company told CRN in February.

Tel Aviv, Israel-based Perimeter 81’s SASE platform is a combination of all of the company’s networking and security solutions, including zero trust network access, zero trust application access, DNS filtering, plus two new solutions that will be introduced at the end of the quarter, the company told CRN. Perimeter 81 is offering SASE in the form of a unified, global cloud-based service for enterprise customers and is actively working on putting more of its business through channel partners.

Versa Titan

Versa Networks, a security and SD-WAN specialist, is one of the leading players in the SASE space right now if its leadership position in the Gartner Magic Quadrant report for WAN Edge Infrastructure is any indication.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company this month is injecting SASE functions into its popular SD-WAN offering for smaller customers, Versa Titan. Now, the platform includes Secure Web Gateway (SWG) and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), which have been added to Titan’s existing SD-WAN, routing, Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), IDS/IPS, Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware, Role-Based Access Control, and User and Entity Behaviour Analytics. Versa Titan is helping to make SASE more accessible to small- business customers, one Versa partner told CRN.

Also on the SASE menu, the company in June picked up on its customers’ needs around remote access management in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and introduced its software-based Versa Secure Access, which gives channel partners a scalable, remote access service that lets customers securely connect to applications in both private and public clouds. The offering requires no physical appliances or VPN concentrators that have to be shipped to employees’ homes, Versa told CRN.