What is Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)?
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) combines network security and management functionality into one, cloud-native package. This integration simplifies security management and enhances efficiency and effectiveness. Additionally, the cloud-native design offers greater scalability and flexibility than other solutions.
What is Security Service Edge (SSE)?
Security Service Edge (SSE) is the security side of SASE. By combining multiple security functions into a single, integrated solution, SSE helps to eliminate security and visibility gaps and decreases the overhead of security management.
SASE vs. SSE: The Biggest Differences
When choosing between the two solutions, some key considerations include the following:
- Security Capabilities: SASE and SSE offer the same range of security functions as SSE is the security side of SASE. The primary difference between the two offerings is that SASE includes network optimization capabilities, while SSE doesn’t.
- Network Performance: SASE incorporates software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) functionality, which optimizes network performance and routing across multiple different transport links. SSE lacks the networking capabilities of SASE.
- Access Control: Both SASE and SSE incorporate zero trust network access (ZTNA) functionality, which manages access to corporate resources in accordance with zero trust principles, such as the principle of least privilege. However, SSE lacks network-level control, meaning that it can manage access to corporate resources but may lack network-level visibility and control.
- Compliance and Filtering: SASE and SSE both incorporate the same security functions, offering robust protection for all traffic flowing over the corporate WAN. This integration also has the benefit of simplifying compliance management and reporting since visibility and control are centralized into a single platform.
- Management: SASE incorporates both network and security functionality, enabling centralized management of both functions. SSE integrates only security functionality, which enhances security management but leaves network management as an independent task.
- Scalability: Both SASE and SSE are designed as cloud-native solutions, enabling them to take advantage of the massive scalability of cloud infrastructure. However, the integration of network management and optimization capabilities into SASE solutions enables them to scale both network and security functions, while SSE only provides scalability benefits for an organization’s security architecture.
- Deployment: SASE incorporates both network security and network optimization functionality, while SSE only includes network security capabilities. As a result, deploying SASE is likely more involved for an organization as it transitions from its existing networking solution to SASE’s integrated SD-WAN capabilities.
- Cost: SASE incorporates a greater range of capabilities, including both security and network optimization. As a result, it likely costs more than SSE, which only offers a subset of SASE’s features.
Choosing Between SASE and SSE
When choosing between SASE and SSE, there are multiple stakeholders whose opinions may be relevant, including:
- Security Professionals: SASE and SSE both incorporate certain security solutions, and their security integration simplifies security management and can enhance an organization’s protection against advanced attacks. One relevant difference is that SASE includes SD-WAN and network optimization capabilities as well, enabling a tighter integration between security and networking than is possible with SSE.
- IT Managers: The choice between SASE and SSE is also relevant to non-security IT managers due to the fact that SASE incorporates SD-WAN, while SSE doesn’t. IT managers will need to weigh the benefits of greater integration between networking and security and security scalability against the cost and complexity of replacing existing networking solutions with SD-WAN.
- C-Suite Executives: New regulations such as NIS2 give C-suite executives more personal responsibility for their organization’s cybersecurity, so SASE’s greater security capabilities may be desirable. Additionally, the greater efficiency provided by SASE’s integration of both networking and security functionality has the potential to decrease operational expenditure in the long term.
Secure Your Network with Harmony SASE
For organizations with a remote or hybrid workforce, SASE is the right choice to provide secure remote access for employees and contractors. Harmony SASE integrates SD-WAN — offering enhanced network speed and greater network security — alongside an enterprise-grade network security stack.
Learn more about the benefits of deploying SASE with Check Point Harmony SASE with a free demo.
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