In 2023, the world of secure access service edge (SASE) has seen widespread enthusiasm, benefited from a flurry of developments and also faced challenges as networks and security converge.

This year, our coverage of the top 10 SASE stories covered various aspects of this evolving field, from vendor dynamics to broader cybersecurity implications.

Among the stories we've highlighted this year are recommendations for adopting SASE technologies, insights into the competitive vendor landscape and a deep dive into evolving industry standards.

We also covered the cybersecurity industry's push toward consolidation, the single-vendor vs. multivendor SASE debate and new product announcements from major vendors.

As we look ahead to 2024, the question on everyone's mind is whether SASE will continue to be a hot topic in cybersecurity conversations. Before we check our crystal balls, here are the top 10 SASE stories we covered this year, based on aggregate page views:

Implementing a mature, comprehensive and measurable zero-trust program can be a daunting journey, filled with noise and hype. Gartner Distinguished VP Andrew Lerner explained how to use the firm’s latest Hype Cycle for Zero-Trust Networking to help navigate your zero-trust and SASE journey. Read more.

According to SDxCentral reader metrics, it’s clear that Enterprise and service provider interest in SD-WAN and SASE has never been higher.

As evidence of that interest, SDxCentral has experienced 25% growth in SD-WAN and SASE-related topics. That includes growth in quarterly page views, and over 10,000 event registrations, webinars attended and PDFs downloaded from the site. Read more.

MEF unveiled its SASE Product and Services Certification, aiming to provide much-needed clarity and confidence to a market often clouded by uncertainty and inconsistency. “This is the most comprehensive, first-in-the-industry [SASE certification] that brings confidence to the market,” MEF CTO Pascal Menezes told SDxCentral.

“It’s a third-party validation that tests the SASE offering by providers or vendors to say: yes, it works out a score. And that score is continuously changing because the threat landscape is changing. And everybody’s trying to race to the top to get better and better scores over time,” he added. Read more.

With its potential VMware acquisition, Broadcom has the opportunity to meld Symantec’s security portfolio with VMware’s SD-WAN capabilities.

By integrating Symantec, VMware SD-WAN and some of Carbon Black’s security capabilities, Broadcom could enter the single-vendor SASE market and boost its overall SASE market share and revenue, if executed well. Read more.

Several industry analysts have pointed out the lack of a unified experience for Cisco’s SASE solution and the vendor is rolling the management into its Meraki console to address this concern.

In the latest Forrester Wave for zero-trust edge (aka SASE) solutions report, the firm identified Cisco as one of the contenders, noting the vendor’s struggle to integrate and unify its SASE portfolio that includes several product lines or platforms such as Secure Connect, Umbrella and Meraki. Read more.

During the company’s recent earnings call, Zscaler Chairman and CEO Jay Chaudhry defended the vendor’s multivendor secure SASE and SSE approach, distinguishing itself from the recently noted single-vendor SASE trends. He also touted Zscaler’s head start advantage over Microsoft‘s late entry into the SSE market.

In Gartner’s first-ever Magic Quadrant for Single-Vendor SASE, the firm expects a more than 50% increase in the number of vendors by 2025. Palo Alto Networks was listed as the only leader in the report and Zscaler was notably absent. Read more.

Fortinet introduced its new FortiGate 120G SASE appliance, featuring its Security Processor 5 custom Application-Specific Integrated Circuit for processing acceleration and performance boost. The vendor also partnered with Google Cloud to expand its SASE points-of-presence (POPs) footprint.

The Security Processor 5 chip can accelerate many SASE elements, Nirav Shah, VP of products and solutions at Fortinet told SDxCentral in an email. For example, the FortiGate 120G SASE appliance delivers 3 Gb/s of SSL inspection, which is six times faster than the industry average for visibility into encrypted traffic at scale, while it also can provide 13 times more firewall throughput compared to the industry average, and can run 54 times as many concurrent sessions as the industry average, he touted. Read more.

Palo Alto Networks introduced a new artificial intelligence- (AI-) powered, zero-trust-based management tool, dubbed Strata Cloud Manager. The tool is designed to streamline and unify management and visibility for the vendor’s network security and SASE offerings.

“Most customers have different tools for SD-WAN, different tools for access. Within access, they have different tools for Internet access, private access [and] monitoring and it’s just a nightmare,” Anand Oswal, SVP and GM at Palo Alto Networks, told SDxCentral. Read more.

Cato Networks CEO Shlomo Kramer cofounded the company in 2015 with a vision of security and networking converging in the cloud, which later became the revolutionary SASE. Kramer told SDxCentral that SASE is the third form factor of network security, replacing the previous two generations, and some network security vendors are struggling with the transition.

Kramer, referred to by some as the “Godfather of SASE,” also cofounded Check Point Software and Imperva. “I am not only the founder of Check Point, I actually with Gil Shwed [cofounder and CEO of Check Point Software] coded the first commercial firewall and put it on a floppy disk,” he said. Read more.

SASE is the Taylor Swift of Enterprise technologies. IT audiences can’t seem to get enough of it. Seizing the enthusiasm surrounding the architecture, technology analysts, consultants and, yes, the media are jumping on the topic and keeping IT professionals immersed in news, analysis and best practices for it. Naturally, tech vendors from the giants to startups are ready with an offering.

Of course, like any N-PoP star, what you see on the surface doesn’t always reflect what’s happening behind the scenes. SASE brings challenges. Mike Anderson, Netskope’s chief digital and information officer, told SDxCentral that SASE brings cost and complexity. Read more.