‘Amazon AWS’s Public Cloud revolutionised computer, storage, data and how people build applications. At Netskope we have the opportunity to revolutionise networking and security for the industry. Revolutionise how Enterprises securely connect to the modern cloud. That’s the vision SASE represents for us.’
The voice of Jonathan Mepsted, Netskope’s Regional Director for UK and Ireland.
SASE, pronounced ‘sassy’ (obviously), is what Netskope is doing, and being for that matter. They’re going data-centric, cloud-smart and fast.
Then…
Traditionally, Netskope has focused their attention on their capabilities as a Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) – an acronym coined by Gartner analyst Neil Macdonald – which provides control and visibility into cloud and web app usage through an organisation.
In the last couple of years Netskope added Secure Web Gateway (SWG) capabilities to their ever-expanding portfolio which scans and protects against malicious websites and more and more, phishing threats embedded into social media posts from the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Most recently they have added the capability to monitor public cloud instances for misconfigurations and what they call ‘unusual activity’ (IaaS).
Until last week they saw themselves as a single pane of glass looking into cloud, web and IaaS.
Now…
WARNING – This next section is packed full of more acronyms than in the section you’ve just read.
In the last couple of weeks, Gartner released a report including future predictions and trends on where cloud security is heading as we move closer to the third decade of the 21st century. They coined CASB and now they’ve coined SASE. A sassy bunch…
Of the organisations using cloud services, over 75% indicate they have a ‘cloud first’ strategy*
[Gartner] predicts that through 2020, 95% of cloud security failures will be the customer’s fault*
Source: gartner.com
SASE is a (particularly good, considering the awful ones in the IT industry) acronym for Secure Access Service Edge and they (Gartner) are suggesting that two things will happen (words from our very own Stephen Dorling) –
Firstly, it’s worth noting that the traditional corporate network is vastly different to how it was five years ago (and of course will be vastly different to how it is five years from now). Many companies already use, or are moving towards Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) or Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) with both being referred to as a software-defined-perimeter (SdP) instead of traditional networks/MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) for securely connecting an increasingly mobile workforce to their corporate applications.
Now, as a result of the above point, network security needs to be re-imagined.
How, we hear you ask.
Here’s The Now And The How…
It doesn’t make any sense to use older methodologies to manage the security of remote workforces via the likes of VPN (Virtual Private Network) access or proxying traffic via NGFW, or next-gen firewalls like Palo Alto and the like, and instead, security will be delivered within a single platform that co-exists, or even comes as part of an SdP – remember that one from earlier?
Gartner suggests that the components of an SASE platform will be CASB (traditional Netskope), Secure DNS – domain name system – covered by Netskope’s Secure Web Gateway Product and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) which Netskope can do by applying contextual access policies by combining with identity providers like Okta or Azure AD to facilitate secure access to known employees and devices only or restricted access to known employees using unknown devices.
SASE will also include Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) capabilities.
Netskope don’t yet have RBI but they do have more components than any other CASB in the market.
In line with this, Netskope have redefined themselves as data-centric, cloud-smart and fast.
What Else Are They Up To?
They’ve just launched a new product that is currently only in Beta (with general availability anticipated for the end of 2019) called Private Access. In their own words, it ‘provides zero-trust, secure access to private enterprise applications in the public cloud and data centres. Netskope’s private access product is a cloud-native service that is part of the Netskope Security Cloud.’
In Stephen’s words, it ‘is their zero-trust component and can be used as a traditional VPN alternative to provide secure, remote access into private applications whether they’re in a public or private (traditional DC) environment.
The last word must go to Jonathan Mepsted, Netskope’s Regional Director for UK and Ireland and true company man!
‘What Netskope has today – OneCloud – with NewEdge – contains more of the pieces of the ultimate SASE vision than anyone else in the industry. It means that Netskope is further along in this journey and has executed and solved problems that others don’t even know exist. Our competitors are still tying to cobble the pieces together into a coherent story.
We hope this particular story has been as coherent as Netskope’s service offering…
Contact us today on info@koncisesolutions.com or call 020 7078 0789 and we’ll talk cloud security, how to prevent data breaches, cutting-edge IT solutions or what’s better, the pound, the dollar or the Angolan kwanza…
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