![\"Employee](\"https:\/\/zpesystems.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/SASE-vs-SSE-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ da_disable_devices=”off|off|off” global_colors_info=”{}” da_is_popup=”off” da_exit_intent=”off” da_has_close=”on” da_alt_close=”off” da_dark_close=”off” da_not_modal=”on” da_is_singular=”off” da_with_loader=”off” da_has_shadow=”on”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
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Security Service Edge. Is it just another fancy networking term? After all, we\u2019ve already got SASE<\/a> (Secure Access Service Edge), so why throw another buzzword into the mix?<\/p>\n The truth is, there\u2019s a big difference between Security Service Edge (SSE) and SASE. SSE is a foundational element of SASE, but there\u2019s another necessary component you need to be aware of. In this article, we\u2019ll break down the differences between these two acronyms so you can understand how to achieve better security for your distributed users and devices.<\/p>\n But first, let\u2019s quickly recap why networking and security have become decentralized.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The modern workforce is increasingly distributed. In fact, Gartner research<\/a> shows that demand for remote work will increase 30% by 2030, as Gen Z fully enters the workforce. Another factor is the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has forced companies worldwide to accommodate off-site staff.<\/p>\n But the need for distributed networking goes back much earlier than the previous 18 months.<\/p>\n Connectivity and network architectures used to be simple. In the 1990s and 2000s, companies centralized data in the data center, connected branch offices to the data center, and set up simple security measures in between. Most staff worked from the office, which made it easy to provide secure access to and from these enterprise locations and resources.<\/p>\n As technologies advanced, companies and their employees discovered that it was becoming easier to work outside of the office. Cloud, SaaS, and edge offerings emerged to create a hybrid infrastructure, as everything moved from being centralized to highly distributed. Now data, security, networking, and computing are everywhere and comprise a complex web of services \u2014 owned by enterprises themselves as well as third parties. Securing it all has been an impossible feat for more than a decade.<\/p>\n Fortunately, Security Service Edge and SASE are models that can address this challenge.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Security Service Edge is a main component of SASE. In the simplest terms, SASE is the architecture that organizations strive to build. It involves delivering networking and security via the cloud, directly to the end user, device, office, etc. instead of having to backhaul through the company\u2019s data center. Aside from SSE, the other main component of SASE is the access portion, which allows the edge services to be deployed and managed. This access portion includes the physical hardware required to connect \u2018network\u2019 the edges and services.<\/p>\n Therefore, SASE breaks down into two main components:<\/p>\n Keep reading for a detailed explanation of each and why they have been separated out into two pieces now.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Security Service Edge (SSE) is the security component of SASE. As Gartner states<\/a>, SSE ensures secure access to the web, cloud services, and applications. SSE is delivered via the cloud and offers several capabilities, including threat protection, security monitoring, and data security.<\/p>\n Security Service Edge capabilities are available from companies who provide NGFWs (next generation firewalls), SWGs (secure web gateways), and CASBs (cloud access security brokers).<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n In order to use the capabilities of Security Service Edge, you need the physical hardware to deploy services at your locations. This hardware is the access component, and includes SD-WAN capabilities. When deployed, it connects your location to a variety of services (NGFWs, SWGs, CASBs mentioned above) in order to make those services available to your location.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n A simple way to think about the SASE concept and its components is to imagine a skyscraper.<\/p>\n Imagine SSE capabilities live in the clouds, and you\u2019d like to bring them down to your enterprise. You\u2019ve got the blueprints to build a skyscraper (SASE) that can connect you to these cloud-based capabilities. But before you can do any of that, you need a sturdy foundation (the access portion) on which to build it all. In other words, your investment in cloud services needs a solid access onramp to those services.<\/p>\n With the right access component, your employees can shuffle in and out of your skyscraper, and easily perform their job functions using SSE capabilities in the cloud. And if you deploy a more robust access solution such as ZPE Systems\u2019 Nodegrid, you\u2019ll be able to maintain your SASE architecture no matter how the clouds change.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n When you\u2019re considering implementing SASE architecture, you might be inclined to go to a SASE company to buy everything. But Gartner states that companies that offer the two segments have more mature offerings.\u00a0<\/p>\n Therefore, you should focus on purchasing the right solution for the access portion, since it serves as the foundation of your infrastructure at the edge, and then marry this to the right SSE solution for your company. This separation of vendors gives you flexibility to manage several IT systems, and eliminates vendor tie in.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The Nodegrid SR family of edge routers<\/a> serves as the access portion in your SASE architecture. A single Nodegrid SR device is a powerful, cost-effective solution to connecting sites to Security Service Edge providers.<\/p>\n The onboard Intel CPU and Linux-based Nodegrid OS offer speed and flexibility. Orchestrate freely across vendors to activate service licenses, spin up VMs, and get your SSE solutions up and running automatically. Additional RAM and storage also help you deploy edge computing for data thinning, de-duplication, monitoring, and other edge workloads.<\/p>\n On top of this, Nodegrid gives you out-of-band management<\/a> capabilities so you can remotely manage your SASE architecture from anywhere. If you need to optimize bandwidth, investigate data logs for security, or simply power cycle an edge device, you don\u2019t have to get out of your pajamas. Nodegrid gives you secure access to everything via your web browser.<\/p>\n To summarize, the reason SSE has been separated from SASE is that many SD-WAN vendors began to confuse the market by advertising that they offered SASE. This prompted Gartner to point out that there are security-savvy companies that give you more mature security solutions, and to consider such solutions from vendors like zScaler, Netskope, and Acreto, for example. Regarding the Access component, vendors like ZPE Systems provide more capable and robust solutions for connectivity to cloud services, when compared to SD-WAN companies that claim to offer SASE.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t miss out on valuable SSE content. Make sure to sign up for our newsletter using the form below.<\/p>\n If you have questions or would like to speak with an expert, feel free to contact us<\/a>.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.17.6″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Security Service Edge. Is it just another fancy networking term? After all, we\u2019ve already got SASE (Secure Access Service Edge), so why throw another buzzword into the mix? The truth is, there\u2019s a big difference between Security Service Edge (SSE) and SASE. SSE is a foundational element of SASE, but there\u2019s another necessary component you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":22336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" It\u2019s Friday morning, and you\u2019re bringing a new site online with <\/span>zero touch provisioning<\/span><\/a>. Your remote branch devices arrived the night before, and all you want the store manager to do is plug them in. A few minutes later, your job is finished and you\u2019ve still got your entire day left. What are you going to do with all your free time?<\/span><\/p> This is the picture that\u2019s commonly painted of zero touch provisioning. And why not? When <\/span>compared to manual provisioning<\/span><\/a>, zero touch brings drastic improvements and efficiency to deploying networks. Its biggest benefits include:<\/span><\/p> With zero touch, you don\u2019t have to be on site for days or weeks manually configuring individual devices. You also shrink the risk of human error that can unwind all your deployment progress and force you to start over. And when it comes to scaling, it eliminates so many of the shipping costs and technician expenses, and instead lets you spin up new sites in a single day.<\/span><\/p> The trouble with zero touch provisioning is that it usually comes with hidden obstacles that vendors don\u2019t tell you about. Zero touch promises to make deployments quick and easy, but these obstacles can eat up your time savings and make you vulnerable to attacks.<\/span><\/p> Here are 3 big drawbacks you need to know about zero touch provisioning.<\/span><\/p> Imagine you\u2019re on location setting up a plethora of devices from different vendors. You plug in your zero touch solution, but you still have to manually configure three other vendor devices that make up your stack. This is the first major drawback to zero touch provisioning.<\/span><\/p> For the most part, zero touch is limited to one vendor\u2019s solutions and doesn\u2019t extend to devices or solutions from other providers. This is usually to encourage purchasing multiple solutions from or standardizing on one vendor.<\/span><\/p> Why is this a drawback?<\/span><\/i> This is just another approach to vendor lock-in. It limits your freedom when trying to leverage zero touch provisioning, which can be a major drawback especially in custom, multi-vendor environments. When you\u2019re choosing a zero touch solution, consider how much of your stack it can actually automate and how much time you\u2019ll still have to spend on manual provisioning.<\/span><\/p> What happens if you set up your site with zero touch provisioning, only to discover that your network is already under attack? You wonder how it could have happened, but then you remember all of the preconfiguring required to make zero touch possible. This is another major drawback.<\/span><\/p> Most solutions do live up to the promise of being \u2018zero touch,\u2019 but only after you\u2019ve performed extensive preconfiguring of your devices. This is a major security concern because you\u2019re loading up your stack with sensitive information about your network. <\/span>Recent reports<\/span><\/a> show that ransomware claimed a victim every 10 seconds in 2020.<\/span><\/p> Why is this a drawback? <\/span><\/i>With your network attack surface more distributed now, especially during the pandemic, it\u2019s critical to minimize your exposure to threats. But having to preconfigure your devices for zero touch provisioning makes it easier for you to become a victim. Even if you can keep careful watch over your devices to ensure no physical attacks occur, hackers can easily exploit your systems through something like an open port that one of your employees forgot to close. In a nutshell, preconfiguring puts you at unnecessary risk.<\/span><\/p> The ultimate goal of using zero touch provisioning is to add convenience to deployments and management. You want to save time and effort all around by eliminating manual work. But another major drawback to zero touch is that it puts a limit on how much and how many of your processes you can orchestrate.<\/span><\/p> Automation is when you can automate simple tasks, while orchestration is when you can automate entire processes and workloads. Most zero touch solutions allow you to implement a little bit of both automation and orchestration, but limit or simply lack support for orchestrating across devices and environments.<\/span><\/p> Why is this a drawback? <\/span><\/i>The more manual work you have to perform, the less value you get out of zero touch provisioning. And most solutions require you to manually bootstrap VMs, activate service licenses, run Docker apps, and even update device firmware as new patches are released. Though zero touch might save you time and effort on initial setup, consider how these savings might evaporate in the long run.<\/span><\/p> Imagine you\u2019re setting up a new network. Your environment is tailored specifically to your needs, which includes a custom-built monitoring application, Palo Alto NGFW, data thinning workloads, and a host of other solutions meant to optimize operations. And the best part is, you don\u2019t have to worry about vendor lock-in, security gaps, or limited orchestration. All you need to do is plug in your devices, and the entire environment will build itself in just a matter of hours. Everything just works so you don\u2019t have to.<\/span><\/p> That is what true zero touch provisioning feels like, and it\u2019s something we\u2019re passionate about at ZPE Systems. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve spent years building zero touch convenience features into our Nodegrid solutions. You don\u2019t have to put up with these major drawbacks any longer.<\/span><\/p> Nodegrid\u2019s zero touch provisioning extends across vendor solutions, even to devices that don\u2019t support automation. This means that you can automate and push configurations to whatever you connect to Nodegrid \u2014\u00a0including legacy switches, routers, and other equipment.<\/span><\/p> Nodegrid\u2019s zero touch provisioning also eliminates the need to preconfigure devices. ZPE Cloud serves as your repository for configuration files and allows you to remotely push these files to 100% factory-default devices. Physical attacks no longer pose a threat, while built-in security features and alerts automatically block and pinpoint attacks.<\/span><\/p> Because Nodegrid OS is Linux-based, it gives you the freedom to orchestrate across devices and environments, with a rich API library and your choice of tools like Ansible, Chef, Puppet, and REST. You can save time and effort on deployments and ongoing management. This means that you can implement a zero touch provisioning solution that automatically spins up VMs, deploys Docker containers, activates service licenses and configures service chaining, updates firmware, and carries out any number of workloads you need.<\/span><\/p> When you\u2019re choosing a zero touch solution, carefully consider how these drawbacks will impact your deployment and management efforts. To help you, download <\/span>The Definitive Guide to Zero Touch Provisioning<\/span><\/a>, and when you\u2019re ready to implement your solution, use our <\/span>4-Step Checklist for Setting Up Zero Touch Provisioning<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p> For regular updates to help you streamline enterprise networking, sign up for our newsletter using the form below.<\/span><\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[103,96,35,90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-improve-network-security","category-sd-wan","category-sase","category-vendor-neutral-platform"],"yoast_head":"\nSecurity Service Edge: An evolving need<\/h1>\n
![\"Network](\"https:\/\/zpesystems.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Simple-networking-1024x468.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Network](\"https:\/\/zpesystems.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Complex-networking-1024x405.png\")
<\/p>\nSASE vs Security Service Edge (SSE)<\/h1>\n
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Security Service Edge<\/h3>\n
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Access for Security Service Edge<\/h3>\n
SASE = Security Service Edge + Access<\/h1>\n
How to implement SASE: Focus on Access<\/h1>\n
Nodegrid puts the Access in SASE<\/h1>\n
\u00a0<\/h3>\n
![\"Business](\"https:\/\/zpesystems.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Business-person-using-laptop-300x169.jpeg\")
<\/p>So what\u2019s the problem with zero touch provisioning?<\/b><\/h1>
Drawback: Zero touch provisioning is limited to one vendor<\/b><\/h1>
Drawback: Zero touch provisioning isn\u2019t secure<\/b><\/h1>
Drawback: Zero touch provisioning limits orchestration<\/b><\/h1>
Can you avoid these drawbacks?<\/b><\/h1>
Get free resources to help you deploy zero touch provisioning<\/b><\/h1>