Netskope executives claim their network is the most well-connected with the most data centers and network adjacencies of any other security vendor. Specifically, 50 data centers and 335 network adjacencies — these come from cloud, content delivery network (CDN), and software-as-a-service (SaaS) partnerships — now support its NewEdge architecture.

“Besides FAANG [Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google], the cloud guys, we’re the largest, most interconnected security infrastructure on the internet,” said Joe DePalo, senior VP of platform engineering and operations at Netskope.

This becomes especially important as the secure access service edge (SASE) wars heat up, and both security and networking vendors alike jockey to build out a comprehensive SASE platform with a distributed network and cloud security stack. Unlike some SASE and security vendors, Netskope’s network does not rely on public cloud infrastructure of virtual points of presence.

“There’s a lot of folks out there who were more focused only on having a well-connected network, but they weren’t security vendors,” said Netskope CEO Sanjay Beri. “Or, they sell security software but it’s on prem and they didn’t know how to build in the cloud, let alone build the most well-connected network.”

Netskope marries the two, he added. In addition to “the most performant, interconnected network of any security vendor out there,” Netskope provides visibility and real-time data and threat protection across cloud services, websites, and private apps, Beri said. This visibility, which he calls Layer 8 visibility or Cloud XD, stems from the company’s cloud access security broker (CASB) roots.

It means customers can “run all of our Layer 8 services with best-of-breed data protection. And it runs on all of our footprints, everywhere across the world, and at blazing speed,” Beri said. “It marries the most well-connected network with what we have always had on the security side.”

In addition to Netskope’s CASB, these security services include secure web gateway, cloud security posture management, zero-trust network access, machine learning to detect and prevent data exfiltration, and threat protection. It delivers these at every service point on its NewEdge network.

Netskope first announced its NewEdge distributed network infrastructure last year, and brought on DePalo specifically to build this network. DePalo was previously the global head of internet services for Amazon Web Services (AWS) where he was responsible for the AWS Global Network and the Amazon carrier strategy.

This distributed network infrastructure is a big deal because “it’s guaranteed performance across the globe for our customers,” DePalo said. “There’s no trade-offs being made.”

Typically, adding a security product increases network complexity and latency and decreases network performance. Netskope’s distributed edge infrastructure solves this problem because it deploys compute at every service point for inline traffic processing, which means no performance trade-offs, DePalo explained. “By ensuing highly performant networking and interconnection, we offset the trade-off being made by adding a security appliance, so the customer doesn’t not have to suffer,” he said. “The NewEdge topology eliminates the trade-off.”