As secure access service edge (SASE) continues to make inroads into networking and security markets, a key to early adoption is simplifying network security management and eliminating redundant vendors, according to Gartner.

The analyst firm coined SASE in a 2019 report as the convergence of network access and security in cloud-native environments. Gartner survey data showed that by the end of 2022, 90% of organizations will be pursuing a security vendor consolidation strategy, up from 29% in 2020, according to Analyst Neil Macdonald.

Macdonald described the SASE architecture as necessary for the management of networks and security as workloads move away from data centers and into the cloud. Macdonald explained SASE includes “not only WAN edge and network-as-a-service capabilities, but also security services edge (SSE) capabilities.”

The firm’s definition specifies that a complete SASE offering combines network edge capabilities like SD-WAN, and a set of cloud-centric SSE capabilities, including secure web access gateway (SWG), Cloud Access Security Broker, Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS), and zero-trust network access (ZTNA). In the 2022 CIO and Technology Executive survey,  Gartner listed SASE in the top three deployment of emerging technologies along with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and distributed cloud.

According to Gartner, choosing a SASE vendor strategy is not only a first step on the road to SASE, it’s also one of the most important. That said, as SASE adoption continues across industries there has been a particular emphasis on single-vendor SASE.

While many vendors still can only supply components of SASE, Gartner recognizes nine that offer complete solutions with both networking and SSE capabilities – Cato Networks, Cisco, Citrix, Forcepoint, Fortinet, Netskope, Palo Alto Networks, Versa Networks, and VMware.

But Macdonald said even as enterprises focus on vendor consolidation, they should be open to working with more than one SASE provider.

The single-vendor strategy makes sense for midsized enterprises with networking and security teams that often work together, he added. Organizations that have not yet selected an SD-WAN solution also benefit from single-vendor solutions, as they don’t have to change any existing networking infrastructure to adopt a unified SASE vendor’s technology.

However, choosing two vendors is a valid decision for some enterprises, Macdonald said.

“We see this typically in larger enterprises that have siloed teams, one team for networking and one team for security, and they each have their favorite vendor,” he explained, adding that as long as the two vendors “have explicit partnering, that’s a reasonable strategy.”

By 2025, Gartner predicts 65% of enterprises will have consolidated individual SASE components into one or two explicitly partnered SASE vendors, up from 15% in 2021.

“You can reduce complexities – the number of vendors, the number of consoles, the number of ways we define security policies,” Macdonald said. “This is a significant motivating factor in the adoption of SASE: Make my life simpler as an IT administrator – and honestly, make my life better as a user.”