Many Enterprise leaders today can say “yes” when asked if they support multicloud architecture, but most will admit their multicloud implementations could benefit from simpler cloud connectivity.

Just as pressing are the new security risks that come with expanded multicloud implementations, bringing threats that keep many hardworking IT, network virtualization (NV) and security teams up at night.

This has proved a seed bed for interest in secure access service edge (SASE) technology that combines aspects of security and NV in a single-pass design meant to simplify the complexity of multicloud connections, while also ensuring top-notch protection of communications.

In a real way, the demands of edge security are influencing the development of cloud.

[ Related: Multicloud brings both opportunity and complexity — how to strike a balance ]

The SASE architecture, typically working in tandem with SD-WANs, allows traffic to be processed once. It is a re-think of established secure-networking schemes that required multiple processing steps, and that is welcomed by businesses that are using multiple cloud platforms. Remote and branch office users can benefit as they access public cloud applications directly, without going through a main corporate data center.

Security tooling has been constantly evolving, right along with the evolution of cloud computing and the skill sets of security hackers that work their dark art. Enterprises have come to deploy SD-WAN endpoints into clouds to enable connectivity of branch offices and corporate sites with a host of cloud providers.

This can provide a bedrock for SASE development, which gained noted momentum with the rush to remote work practices driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Numerous cloud-based security tools and platforms will come to be integrated via SASE and SD-WANs largely with the intent to simplify operations, according to Shamus McGillicuddy, analyst, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA).

“multicloud introduces complexity. The more clouds you work with, the more complexity you get. At the same time, SASE reduces the complexity of security, which is the number one thing that people are worried about when they implement a multicloud Network,” he told SDxCentral.

SASE is going to provide the “on-ramp into the different clouds a company might be using,” McGillicuddy said. As such, it can provide safe access to global points of presence (POPs), route traffic via SD-WANs, and apply services such as secure web gateways, cloud Application security brokers,  firewall services and some things that you may not see on today’s hype cycles.

SASE vendor scorecard, moves

The SASE vendor ranks are well populated, and companies in the mix often piggyback SASE on traditional SD-WAN offerings. A list of SASE players includes Aryaka, Cato Networks, Cisco, Cloudflare, Fortinet, HPE Aruba, Netskope, Palo Alto Networks, Versa Networks, Zscaler and others.

Closely watched, the segment has been the scene of numerous alliances, fundings, mergers and acquisitions. That is important because the needed network and security tooling for SASE implementation proves quite extensive. As covered in SDxCentral’s page, examples of recent vendor moves include the following:

Behind all this, according to analyst firm Dell’Oro Group, is a need to implement new NV and security services “in the mobile- and cloud-first era.” And that drives activity.

Dell’Oro set the rise in revenue for the overall SASE market – including SD-WAN and security services edge (SSE) solutions – for Q2/2023 at 38% year-over-year. Dell'Oro estimated that quarterly revenue, which has doubled in the last 10 quarters, surpassed $2 billion.

Meanwhile, research firm Futuriom said Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in SD-WAN/SASE deployment models will remain the order of the day. Best-of-breed combinations garnered support among 34% of respondents, while much-touted single-vendor offerings  were supported by 23% in Futuriom’s 2023 SD-WAN/SASE Managed Service Survey of over 190 network and security technology managers.

Network and security merging

“When public clouds first came out, few companies had a multicloud strategy, as it just wasn't easy to run the same workload in multiple clouds,” according to Derek Granath, independent data NV consultant. “Now companies want to be able to do that – for resiliency, but also for cost.” For vendors and for users, that search for resiliency affects implementation.

Experience has shown that putting security in the cloud is more efficient and effective than trying to run it on perimeter devices, Granath told SDxCentral. “There really ain't no perimeter anymore,” he declared.

Still, setting up SASE is not trivial. That complication comes at least in part due to the cross-organizational approach SASE can require of users. Many teams are still finding their way through the new approach.

“Security and the NV teams, for the most part, still act as silos. But, more and more, they are having to come together to make architectural design decisions and vendor decisions,” Granath said. “NV and security, when it comes to the wide area, are really converging.”

A key debate facing these teams now centers on vying single-vendor versus multivendor approaches to SASE, he said. Individual vendors not long ago had one or the other part of the equation. They either had the cloud security and didn’t have the SD-WAN, or they had the SD-WAN and they didn’t have the specialized security tooling, he said.

Spanning those gaps is the driver for many recent vendor acquisitions aimed at checking boxes with one type of tooling or another.

In search of multicloud consistency

The multicloud NV security space is exceptionally diverse. And that rubs against a major goal for users, which is consistency, to hear EMA’s McGillicuddy tell it.

“Whether it is a firewall, a Load Balancer or a Domain Name System service – anything – when users start going multicloud, they realize their second and third cloud providers' tools are different, and don’t work with each other,” he said.

Users now look to have more consistency across providers, and “they go to their Enterprise vendors to get the features they need in, for example, a firewall,” he said.