Gartner released its six trends anticipated to have a significant impact on infrastructure and operations (I&O) over the next 12 to 18 months, with secure access service edge (SASE) at the top of the list.

The analyst firm forecasts that total worldwide end-user spending on SASE will reach $9.2 billion in 2023, a 39% increase from 2022. Gartner coined SASE as a technology framework for the convergence of network access and security in cloud-native environments.

VP Analyst Jeffrey Hewitt attributed the fast adoption of SASE to “the need to secure the access of devices and elements at the edge,” as well as hybrid work and a “relentless shift to cloud computing.”

Hewitt noted the primary benefits of the framework are that it allows users to securely connect to applications and improves the efficiency of management.

“Leaders are going to be looking at this and saying, we want to implement this,” he told SDxCentral. “They're going to be assessing and determining what providers can offer.”

I&O teams implementing SASE should prioritize single-vendor solutions, Hewitt said.

Earlier this year, Gartner released its first Market Guide for Single-Vendor SASE, revealing to I&O leaders that interest in the framework has exploded since its introduction in 2019 – and particularly toward single-vendor solutions.

Still, Hewitt noted SASE is still an “immature” market and technology framework. “It’s not something that you can just run out and have a large list of vendors – at this point – that you could select from,” he said.

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.

The biggest benefits of a single-vendor solution are improved security posture, administrative simplicity with fewer consoles to manage and troubleshoot, and traffic efficiency due to single-pass encryption and optimal routing decisions instead of needing to integrate between two pieces, Analyst Andrew Lerner told SDxCentral in an earlier interview.

Lerner recommended I&O leaders look for single-vendor SASE offerings that provide single-pass scanning, a single unified console, and data lakes covering all functions to improve user experience and staff efficacy.

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.