Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) has demonstrated it can address many of the security concerns that arise at the intersection of on-premises, cloud and edge systems that many organizations need to combine to keep up their digital operations. But adopting SASE comes with its own challenges, and it's not a one-and-done process.
To build an effective SASE framework, organizations need to rethink security governance, shift the focus of their policies, retrain teams internally and build new relationships externally. This transition can last 6-18 months, maybe longer, and requires maintaining security on both legacy and SASE systems simultaneously.
Stage 1: A Comprehensive Infrastructure Assessment
This audit phase typically uncovers shadow infrastructure: older appliances that nobody remembers deploying, redundant security tools performing overlapping functions, or point solutions that are never fully decommissioned after purchases of broader platforms. Beyond inventory, organizations need to document network topology, traffic flows, application-to-application dependencies, and the compliance requirements that drive current security policies.
Doing this kind of self-assessment will help understand what aspects of SASE are most important for the organization and what it already has in place to achieve those ends, says John Grady, principal analyst at Omdia.
"Ask yourself where you want to be two and three years down the road," Grady says. "Take that assessment and build out your roadmap."