Microsoft announced the general availability of its Entra Suite, marking its official entry into the rapidly evolving security service edge (SSE) market. “The smaller SSE vendors will have to retire, run for cover, or reinvent themselves,” Forrester analysts noted.

The tech giant introduced its zero-trust network access (ZTNA) and secure web gateway (SWG) services under its Entra suite last July. SSE typically includes components like ZTNA, SWG, cloud access security broker (CASB), and firewall-as-a-service (FaaS).

Microsoft's suite includes its Entra Private Access ZTNA platform, Entra Internet Access, Entra ID Governance, Entra Verified ID and Entra ID Protection.

“Perhaps acknowledging market leader Zscaler’s dominance in ZTNA right now, Microsoft’s local software agent is built in such a way as to coexist with Zscaler’s ZTA [zero-trust access], and presumably everyone else’s ZTNA, too,” Forrester Principal Analyst David Holmes wrote in a blog post.

The Microsoft Entra Internet Access is the vendor’s version of a cloud-delivered SWG and Entra ID Governance (an identity governance and administration offering), Entra ID Protection, and Entra Verified ID (a facial check) are the three identity offerings included in the Entra Suite, Holmes added.

The Entra suite is designed to unify identity and network access security and converge policies across identities, endpoints, and private and public networks with a unified access policy engine. Microsoft claims the SSE solution is aligned with its zero-trust security strategy across identities, endpoints, networks, applications, data, and infrastructure.

Microsoft disrupting the SSE Market Gartner's latest Magic Quadrant for SSE named Netskope, Palo Alto Networks, and Zscaler as “leaders” in the market; Fortinet as a “challenger” in the space; Skyhigh Security and Lookout as “visionaries” within SSE; and Versa Networks, Cloudflare, Broadcom, and iboss as “niche players.” Microsoft was bestowed an honorable mention. Notably, the report was released in April when the Microsoft Entra Suite was not yet generally available.

Microsoft's entry into the SSE market is expected to create substantial pressure on existing vendors.

“Microsoft’s domination of the enterprise software market means that many organizations will 'end up' with Microsoft solutions, even if that’s not what the CIO or CISO really wanted,” Holmes said.

In addition, the Entra Suite's competitive pricing and feature set could compel smaller SSE vendors to rethink their market strategies.

“The general availability release of Entra Suite will put massive pressure on all the SSE vendors,” Holmes said. “The smaller vendors will have to run for cover: Expect fire-sale acquisitions to larger infrastructure vendors, bankruptcies, and radical specialization in particular verticals such as operational technology or health care.”

“Clients who are looking at SSE solutions should use the market pressure to get good deals with the large, existing SSE vendors. Those considering a smaller SSE vendor should take pause and ensure that they can back out of that solution if it can’t weather the coming storm,” Holmes added.

secure access service edge (SASE) users should ‘stay the course’ Organizations that are adopting the SASE architectures might opt to continue with their current vendors for the time being, Holmes noted.

They “should ignore the Microsoft product (for now) and stay the course,” Holmes wrote. “SASE has massive network capabilities and requirements, and Microsoft has nothing here yet, nor is it likely to do anything more than technical partnerships.”