The concept of traditional perimeter network security is no longer viable in today’s hyper-distributed world. Employees transact and perform their work in the cloud, accessing data and applications anytime, any place.
This digital transformation, cloud adoption and rise in remote work have softened physical perimeters. "The legacy perimeter must transform into a set of cloud-based, converged capabilities created when and where an enterprise needs them — that is, a dynamically created, policy-based secure access service edge," explains Gartner in the 2021 Strategic Roadmap for SASE Convergence.
The industry response to this has given rise to Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platforms, which promise to address the challenge with streamlined network access and enhanced security. But implementing this isn’t always as easy as it sounds.
As with many emerging technologies, the issue is that not all SASE vendors are equal. Features and capabilities in many cases are still being refined. This means it can be difficult for enterprises looking to implement SASE to find a solution that best fits their environments. Implementing SASE isn’t simply about buying the right products – implementing and maintaining a SASE approach is a journey. As such, some organizations might not feel ready to undertake the SASE journey on their own. This is where a service provider with the right solution and consultancy services can help.
To help enterprises get the most out of SASE, Orange Business Services has enhanced its partnership with Palo Alto Networks to offer Prisma Access and Prisma SD-WAN as an integrated solution. The combination of Prisma Access and Prisma SD-WAN delivers the industry’s most comprehensive SASE platform. It consolidates all the networking and security capabilities organizations need into a single cloud-delivered platform to support the needs of digital workforces. Further, the Orange consultancy services help organizations in their SASE journey by designing a SASE roadmap and assessing various adoption models, ranging from DIY and co-managed to a fully controlled and orchestrated solution.
The Orange Business Services and Palo Alto Networks partnership around SASE is focused on business value instead of simply selling a product. "SASE isn’t a tick box exercise. It has to be viewed as a journey, and we are there to help customers every step of the way," explains Eddy Youkhanna, VP Sales at Orange Business Services, North America. "One of the biggest issues organizations have today is addressing how fragmented their environments are. Customers often struggle with which use case to adopt for this journey, which is why consultancy is so important." Orange Labs, a part of Orange Business Services that focuses on research and innovation, offers enterprises the opportunity to analyze business cases in a contained environment and help them decide their SASE approach.
This is in line with Gartner’s analysis of the SASE Migration Plan: "Enterprises can’t flip a switch and adopt SASE. The vast majority of enterprise SASE adoption will occur over several years, prioritizing areas of greatest opportunity in terms of cost savings, eliminating complexity and redundant vendors, and risk reduction through adoption of a zero trust secure posture."
However SASE is implemented, it should be a digital enabler within the organization, providing security, speed and agility.
"SASE is an opportunity to consolidate many point products that are performing very similar functions while getting users to their resources securely no matter where they are logging in from," continues Youkhanna.
Prisma Access reduces the costs and complexities of securely connecting users and devices to any service required, anywhere. Its cloud native architecture ensures an on-demand and elastic scale of comprehensive global networking and security services.
Four core security capabilities are consolidated into Prisma Access and natively delivered into a single service edge. They are Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS), cloud-secure web gateway (SWG), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and a cloud access security broker (CASB). The latter natively provides inline visibility and control of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications.
A key differentiator for Prisma Access is its ability to thoroughly inspect all traffic bidirectionally, including SSL/TLS encrypted traffic, whether communicating with the Internet, cloud or data center, or between branches. This capability can reduce the possibility of a breach by 45%, according to "The Total Economic Impact of Palo Alto Networks for Network Security and SD-WAN" by Forrester Consulting.
Additionally, Prisma SD-WAN is a next-generation SD-WAN solution that simplifies management with automation using machine learning and data science, enables app-defined SD-WAN policies and delivers a secure, cloud-delivered branch.
"The powerful combination of Prisma Access and Prisma SD-WAN enables organizations to transform their infrastructures with the complete SASE offering while realizing a market-leading ROI of up to 247%," says Anand Oswal, SVP and GM at Palo Alto Networks.
Multinationals are already exploiting the power of the Orange Business Services and Palo Alto Networks SASE offering. A fast-moving consumer goods company looking to better control costs and improve agility across its complex global operations is one of the first deployments.
The multinational wanted a single point of contact to improve efficiencies as part of its digital transformation. Orange Business Services leveraged its multisourcing service integration (MSI) model to address the present and future states of the network and security migration, ultimately delivering an end-to-end SASE solution.
Another multinational company has chosen Orange Business Services as its global security partner and is investing in Prisma Access to transform its firewall capabilities and to support and handle remote and branch office requirements. The multinational is also looking to implement new network security management via Palo Alto Networks Panorama to improve security management and provide a higher visibility level through analytics.
The complexities of traditional architectures with their many layers introduce issues such as latency, excessive management difficulties and the necessity for continuous reconfigurations as services change. A SASE approach has the power to significantly reduce these problems by moving the security process to the network edge. Therefore, it is little surprise that, according to Gartner, "by 2025, at least 60% of enterprises will have explicit strategies and timelines for SASE adoption encompassing user, branch and edge access, up from 10% in 2020."
While a SASE approach prioritizes automation as a means of scaling secure access, it works best when provided as part of a service-based proposition. "Companies must fuel their security-aware network with quality data that highlights emerging threats from malicious actors. They must also monitor network operations constantly to watch for signs of compromise and respond accordingly. Our Orange Cyberdefense Atlanta-based Security Operations Center (SOC), supported by our worldwide network of CyberSOCs and our in-house CERT, can support organizations to better monitor and respond to threats," says Yury Geluykens, International SOC Director at Orange Cyberdefense.
Interoperability and integration are critical factors when considering a global SASE solution. Enterprises need to carefully evaluate a solution that comes with the ability to successfully manage these challenges. "We have built everything around flexibility. Customers can be assured that we’ve created a springboard between our two organizations, Orange Business Services and Palo Alto Networks, to create the right type of outcomes and the operational environment they ultimately wish to operate in, with a focus on innovation," says Oswal.
As the SASE evolution continues its wide adoption within the enterprise, please explore our capabilities and learn more about how we can help enterprises get the most out of their SASE journey.
This blog was originally posted by Orange Business Services.
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