Considerable investments observed in BFSI, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail
International Data Corporation reveals that over 54 per cent of large enterprises in India are planning to implement SD-Branch and ZTNA as a part of a drive towards SASE adoption.
As we move beyond the boundaries of primitive working style with multi-cloud and multi-device adoption, and remote work support, we also face the risk of expansion of the attack surfaces. Securing our remote workers, especially with the proliferation of devices, has become challenging with traditional network and security architectures in place. With cybercriminals pursuing multi-vector approaches to target enterprises, there is a need to embrace the concept of network and security convergence, also sometimes referred to as secure access service edge (SASE). SASE is a combination of Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) and Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS) that converges network and security capabilities to be delivered onto a single, unified cloud-native architecture enabling security not only at the traffic flow but also treating each asset that lies within as an identity.
“Adoption of SASE-as-a-service model leads to exemplary business benefits. Enterprises can increase focus on technology innovations by outsourcing network and security management, reduce business and security risk of using multiple clouds, fasten innovation by accelerating cloud adoption, provide predictable application experience in line with the evolution of business strategy, reduce TCO of network and security operations, and much more,” says Sakshi Grover, research manager, future of trust and work, IDC India.
Findings from the IDC, India Digital Transformation Survey, 2022, also reveal that 77.8 per cent of enterprises in the BFSI vertical have already implemented solutions and policies enabling software-defined perimeter, whereas 52.2 per cent are looking towards adopting and investing in SD-Branch components, and 54.4 per cent are planning to implement a zero-trust network architecture and invest in related security solutions.
“The implementation of SASE is driven by the increasing trend of remote work and cloud adoption, as it provides organizations with a unified solution for secure access and protection of applications and data located in the cloud. SASE merges conventional network security functions, such as firewalls and VPNs, with modern security technologies such as zero-trust security and Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs), to deliver a streamlined and efficient security solution. The adoption of SASE is anticipated to escalate in the future as organizations strive to enhance their security posture in response to the changing threat landscape and technological advancements,” says Neha Gupta, Senior Research Manager at IDC India.
Data listed here is detailed in the report IDC Perspective: Network and Security Convergence: The Journey Ahead, December 2022, fwhich covers the core components of SASE, the business and technological benefits expected out of a SASE framework, and where are India enterprises, especially, legacy and data-sensitive industries investing in, when it comes to the increasing adoption of SASE frameworks.
