Analyst firm GigaOm this year released its “Radar for Secure Service Access,” dropping yet another acronym – SSA – into the networking security space and ranking solutions from leading vendors.

Encompassing secure access service edge (SASE), zero-trust network access (ZTNA), and extended detection and response (XDR), GigaOm claims SSA “shifts the focus of security consumption from the data center or network edge to ubiquitous users, apps, and devices everywhere."

Similar to Gartner’s SASE, SSA solutions are designed to provide cloud-based network and security to the distributed enterprise. SSA requires many of the same capabilities as SASE, including ZTNA, firewall-as-a-service (FWaaS), secure web gateway (SWG), cloud access security broker (CASB), and SD-WAN.

But the primary difference is that SSA solutions also require XDR, endpoint detection and response (EDR), and network detection and response (NDR), with security provider Check Point noting "a single solution may tick the boxes for several of SSA, SASE, and SSE. However, certain solutions may be designed for particular use cases and offer a subset of the possible features."

GigaOm said the emergence of SSA -- much like SASE -- represents a shift toward replacing “multiple security vendors with a single, integrated platform offering full interoperability and end-to-end resiliency.”

“While some vendors deliver a single integrated platform offering full interoperability and end-to-end redundancy, others are repackaging existing point products or developing a common UI and going to market with an SSA solution,” GigaOm said.

The GigaOm Radar examined the vendor landscape based on table stakes the firm said are “mature, stable solution features common across all vendors,” including cloud-native, user-centric, location-independent service delivery, and distributed policy enforcement capabilities.

Cato Networks, Palo Alto Networks, Versa Networks, and Zscaler earned SSA Leader designation on the GigaOm radar.

Fellow SASE providers Cisco, Citrix, Cloudflare,  Fortinet, Netskope, and VMware were poised outside the leader tier as challengers.

“Though many of these vendors have well-known point solutions recognized as leaders in their respective categories, we look at all capabilities in the context of an overarching SSA solution, with convergence and integration being crucial factors in establishing leadership,” GigaOm explained.

“While all the vendors included in this report have SSA roadmaps, the speed at which they will be able to integrate their point solutions varies considerably, affecting their positioning as a leader or a challenger.”