SME Thinking About SASE?

You’ve got people working from home, from the office, on the road, on personal devices. Apps are scattered across SaaS, public cloud, and the odd server still whirring away on-prem. Managing it all, securely, has become a juggling act.

So it’s no surprise that SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) is popping up in conversations more and more. But what is it? And does it make sense for your business?

Not Just Another Buzzword

SASE (pronounced “sassy” if you want to use vendor-speak) is about combining networking and security into a cloud-delivered model. Think firewall, VPN, web filtering, ZTNA, CASB, and SD-WAN all rolled into one, delivered as a service.

It’s not magic. It’s about reducing the patchwork of tools and giving users secure access to whatever they need, wherever they are, without routing everything through HQ just to tick a security box.

The Mid-Sized Business Dilemma

If you’re running IT in a medium-sized business, chances are you’ve already got bits of this in place. Maybe a firewall here, a VPN there, an endpoint solution someone swears by, and a few cloud services in AWS or Azure.

The challenge isn’t starting from scratch; it’s figuring out what not to keep.

• Is your current setup working, or just working around limitations?
• Are users complaining about sluggish VPNs or blocked resources?
• Is managing policies across environments taking more time than it should?

SASE isn’t about replacing everything overnight. It’s about bringing a bit of sanity and consistency to a world where complexity has crept in.

Questions Worth Asking

A few practical questions are worth thinking about, before reaching out for demos and product sheets:

• Do we need a better way to secure remote access without the VPN headache?
• Could we simplify user access to SaaS, cloud, and internal tools securely?
• Are we spending too much time managing disjointed security tools?
• Would consolidating vendors save us effort (and money)?

And here’s a big one: If we had to rebuild our network and security setup from scratch today, would we do it the same way?

Probably not.

You Don’t Have to Boil the Ocean

The good news is you don’t need to commit to a full-blown SASE architecture all at once. Many IT teams start with one piece, like replacing legacy VPNs with ZTNA or simplifying branch connectivity with SD-WAN - there is no ideal place to start.

If you’re already working in AWS, the Marketplace makes it easier to trial solutions from the big players (Netskope, Palo Alto, Cato, Fortinet, and others) without getting locked into a long procurement cycle.

Final Thought

SASE isn’t a one-size-fits-all. But if you’re juggling security, remote work, cloud migration, and network complexity, it might be time to explore whether consolidating around a single secure access model could make your life a little easier.

Not because it’s the latest shiny thing, but because complexity isn’t scalable, and simplicity (when done right) will win in the long run.

Find out more about SASE

This guide from Amazon Web Services (AWS) whitepaper series in partnership with the SANS Institute, explores the rationale behind adopting SASE.

Security experts detail the critical design criteria for implementation and address operational challenges and optimisation strategies.

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