SBN

Perspectives: Gartner’s Strategic Roadmap for SASE Convergence

6.2.21 Gartner Blog Social 1 (edit)

Gartner recently published the 2021 Strategic Roadmap for SASE Convergence, outlining the migration to a Secure Access Services Edge (SASE) architecture. In it, the document acknowledges that the transition to a complete SASE model will take time. Beyond the practical challenges that come with refresh cycles, staff expertise, and the maturity of SASE offerings to truly harness the collective power of a converged architecture; it reflects a broader point of guidance: teams need to develop a three- to five-year roadmap for SASE. That guidance coincides with a period when organizations are beginning to plan for their future after one of the most disruptive global periods in recent history.

As with most approaches, we encourage you to consider the required outcomes of what your requirements will be in the future; considering a 3-5 year horizon. Most notably, Bitglass tends to hear the following:

The increased footprint of BYOD / unmanaged devices. This past year has not only accelerated the adoption of BYOD but the likelihood that they will coexist with company issued / managed devices is likely here to stay.

  • The coexistence of on-premise, data center, SaaS applications and unmanaged / web traffic. These signal a need for an approach that has “no exceptions” and requires the same measure of data loss protection, threat protection across each vector.
  • Performance will become an increasingly important requirement. While early premonitions of a “100% remote workforce” are unlikely to be the case, a form of a hybrid workforce will likely remain, creating a highly dispersed workforce which would include.
  • Consider the composition of your workforce. Whether it is an increase in contractors, 3rd party service organizations or users from the gig economy. These will have strict implications on where your data resides, what devices are used, and the type of policies that will balance security and productivity.

As an addendum, once you know your future requirements, how do we then get to SASE? My colleague Shane Moore recently published thoughtful commentary on a “Crawl, Walk, Run” approach observed by our community of customers.

Want to read the full document from Gartner? Click the button below to gain access.

Read Report

Gartner, 2021 Strategic Roadmap for SASE Convergence, 25 March 2021, Joe Skorupa, Lawrence Orans, Neil MacDonald, Nat Smith.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Bitglass Blog authored by Kevin Sheu. Read the original post at: https://www.bitglass.com/blog/gartner-top-strategic-tech-trends-2021-0