However, the real value is in the data protection services that ensure data is not exposed when it is copied or downloaded from the cloud. The SSE technologies that may be most familiar are Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and Secure Web Gateway (SWG). This is where the SASE promise comes in, converging key networking technologies, such as Software-defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN), with technologies that secure both access and data which Gartner calls SSE. As a result, most organizations have lost the ability to secure their data as they migrate to the cloud. But security controls have been deployed with disparate on-premises tools that are anchored to data centers. With apps and data increasingly residing in the cloud, users now expect seamless access from anywhere and on any device. Protecting data when remote work and cloud services circumvent perimeter security In this blog I’ll break down why SSE matters and the types of data security capabilities a SSE platform should have.

SSE isn’t just about having the right alphabets in your soup, it’s the idea of consolidating security technologies in the cloud to reduce complexity and enhance data security as employees access the web, cloud services and private apps from anywhere. In July 2021 Gartner introduced SSE in its “ Hype Cycle™ for Cloud Security, 2021”, wherein “security leaders can evaluate the emerging technologies on this Hype Cycle to secure cloud computing.”* As Lookout Head of IT Joel Perkins told us, implementing SASE is a journey that will take time. These cloud technologies include software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, such as Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Google Workplace, and enterprise apps running in infrastructure-as-a-service platforms (IaaS), such as Amazon Web Services, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. When SASE was conceived in 2019, we saw organizations struggling with new data security requirements that emerged from the increasing adoption of cloud technologies - a trend that was accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic. If this looks mighty similar to Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), it’s because they are closely related. There’s a new acronym in town: SSE, which stands for Security Service Edge. Written by Sundaram Lakshmanan, CTO of SASE Products at Lookout.

This blog was originally published by Lookout here.

Hype cycle for cloud security 2021