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Articles / Sponsored / Syndicated


TOP 10 SIGNS YOU NEED A NEW SSE SOLUTION

Sponsored by Versa Networks Dan Maier, Chief Marketing Officer, Versa Networks
July 18, 2024 5:08 PM
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In today’s hyper-connected digital landscape, enterprises need to have a robust
and cost-effective Security Service Edge (SSE) solution to combat increasingly
sophisticated cyber threats and to support digital transformation. While the
foundational technologies behind SSE, such as Secure Web Gateways (SWG), cloud
access security broker (CASB), and zero-trust network access (ZTNA), have been
around for over a decade, their integration into comprehensive SSE solutions has
become more prominent and sophisticated over the past five years or so.

But as the market has evolved and expanded to over 30 vendors, some cracks and
shortcomings are starting to show. A number of these SSE offerings and vendors
are starting to create technical or business challenges for their customers. So
if you are using a “legacy” SSE product (or even if you just have a couple of
standalone point products), how do you know when it’s time to upgrade or replace
your existing SSE solution?


IS YOUR SSE SOLUTION OR VENDOR FALLING SHORT IN ANY OF THESE AREAS?

Top 10 signs it might be time to switch:

 1.  Increased security incidents: The rapid evolution of cyber threats means
     that SSE solutions must continuously update and adapt. Vendors that are
     slow to respond to new threats can leave their customers vulnerable. If
     your organization experiences a rise in security breaches, malware
     infections, or other cyber threats, it may indicate that your current SSE
     solution is no longer effective. This may be particularly true if you are
     still using a first-generation VPN solution to manage remote access.
 2.  Latency and poor user-to-application experience: Many SSE solutions
     centralize their security inspection processes in specific PoPs. If these
     PoPs are not optimally located relative to the users, the result is
     increased latency due to “hairpinning” or “tromboning” of traffic
     (basically sub-optimal routing/traffic management). In addition, when an
     SSE provider has a limited number of PoPs, or they are unevenly
     distributed, traffic is forced to travel longer distances for security
     checks, exacerbating these routing inefficiencies. And finally, many SSE
     solutions route traffic over the public internet for inspection and policy
     enforcement, with no ability to guarantee acceptable performance. Note
     that, while several SSE vendors offer a Digital Experience Management
     capability to identify traffic problems, very few of them can take any
     actions to rectify these issues. If your SSE solution exhibits persistent
     slow network performance and you’re hearing from frustrated end users, it
     could be a signal that your legacy SSE is insufficient for your needs.
 3.  Fragmented architecture – A number of SSE solutions are built on
     fragmented, bolted-together architectures, which can create a range of
     problems. For example, one vendor uses separate products and networks for
     ZTNA (hosted on AWS) and internet security (hosted on Equinix), leading to
     management complexity, data sovereignty concerns and inconsistent security
     enforcement. Each product requires its own management console, increasing
     the burden on admins, and each network requires separate authentication,
     complicating the user experience. And because the ZTNA solution has limited
     security capabilities, this leaves private applications vulnerable to
     malware spreading across the network via lateral movement from infected
     endpoints. So if your vendor’s SSE is bolted together from piece parts, and
     not built on a unified platform architecture, it may be time to find
     another solution.
 4.  High total cost of ownership: There are a number of very high-cost brands
     in the SSE market – after all, you have to pay for that fancy marketing
     somehow! Stories abound about inflexible and inflated pricing, hidden fees,
     complex licensing models that combine per user and per bandwidth elements,
     frequent licensing changes, and unexpected cost increases at renewal time.
     And for reseller or integrator partners, sometimes they suddenly find that
     the renewal has been taken over by the vendor, and they are cut out the
     relationship. If the cost of your SSE solution is high, but does not
     deliver proportional value in terms of security, performance, and support,
     it may be worth considering a switch to a more cost-effective vendor.
 5.  Inadequate support and response time: Slow or unhelpful customer support,
     particularly during critical incidents, suggests that the vendor may not
     prioritize your needs effectively. Customers have reported challenges with
     technical support services for several vendors in the industry, including
     long resolution times, insufficient guidance, and a lack of responsiveness.
     These factors collectively contribute to a negative support experience and
     overall dissatisfaction. If you are having problems with slow response
     times, insufficient technical guidance, or a lack of responsiveness during
     critical incidents, maybe it’s time to look around at other solutions.
 6.  Weak backbone/POP network – A strong PoP backbone network is essential to
     ensure low latency, high availability, and consistent security enforcement
     across diverse geographical locations. But PoP coverage is a mixed bag in
     the SSE market. Some vendors just have fewer PoPs than you would expect;
     some vendors limit the number of PoPs their customers can use; and a number
     of vendors do not run all their services on all their PoPs. In addition,
     many SSE vendors run their PoP backbones primarily over public clouds like
     Google or AWS, which limits their ability to deliver assured performance
     and data sovereignty. If your vendor has a weak PoP network, this might be
     a reason to evaluate other alternatives.
 7.  Complex deployment and management: Deploying some SSE solutions can be
     complex and time-consuming, requiring significant effort to integrate with
     existing systems and infrastructure. For example, some products require the
     customer to create a huge number of Internet protocol security (IPSEC)
     tunnels to connect offices and branches; others only provide support for a
     limited set of authentication mechanisms or lack single sign-on (SSO), and
     still others require the deployment and maintenance of multiple different
     VMs for application connectivity and functional support. Many SSE solutions
     lack a unified console and control plane for administration, instead
     requiring multiple consoles for different solution components, each with
     disparate UIs and management approaches. If your SSE solution doesn’t
     provide easy deployment and management, then it could be time for a change.
 8.  Lack of innovation and modern features: Most SSE solutions incorporate a
     basic set of security capabilities, including secure SaaS and private
     application access, threat protection, and data protection. But not every
     vendor is investing in the innovation needed to keep these capabilities on
     the cutting edge. A surprising number of vendors lack common SSE features
     such as sandboxing, advanced DLP functionality, Digital Experience
     Management (DEM), and customizable reporting. Even fewer support advanced
     capabilities like security for dynamic protocols (SIP, H.323, etc.),
     AI-based threat detection, security across 5G and satellite networks, and
     support for clientless use cases like BYOD, IoT devices, and OT networks.
     If your legacy solution lacks these features, it may be time for an
     upgrade.
 9.  Insufficient reporting and analytics: You can’t secure what you can’t see.
     Many vendors only provide limited visibility into security events, and poor
     reporting capabilities make it challenging to assess your security posture
     and respond to threats appropriately. SSE vendors with disparate products
     are unable to unify user, device and application risk to present a singular
     view of what’s happening in their enterprise networks. So customers end up
     with fragmented “risk insights” that are not useful for security teams. For
     effective SSE security, it’s important to see the entire security fabric,
     including users, devices, cloud gateways, and how traffic is traversing the
     internet. If your vendor struggles to offer detailed visibility and
     analytics, you might want to consider alternatives.
 10. Weak secure access service edge (SASE) roadmap – SASE represents the future
     of SSE because it offers a unified, scalable, and flexible approach to
     securing and managing modern enterprise networks across all environments.
     SASE combines SSE and SD-WAN to deliver cost efficiency and improved
     performance while addressing the complexities of today’s digital landscape
     – it’s an important consideration to “future-proof” your network and
     security infrastructure. That said, many SSE vendors either lack a SASE
     story or have a weak one. Some vendors offer simplistic “toy” traffic
     forwarders that they call SD-WAN, but are simply not enterprise class. Many
     SSE vendors don’t support key connectivity use cases required by
     enterprises, like site-to-site connectivity, zero trust in the branch,
     lateral movement prevention in the branch, and dynamic protocol security.
     Still others have bolted together disparate SSE and SD-WAN solutions, and
     slapped their logo on the products, but essentially are still delivering a
     fragmented solution. So if your SSE vendor has not embraced the concept of
     SASE and provided a compelling convergence roadmap, you may want to find a
     different vendor.

As you see the renewal date for your SSE solution approaching, you may want to
think about whether you’re getting what you need from your platform. If you feel
that your legacy SSE meets any of the criteria listed above, it may be time for
you to look for your “next generation” solution. There are definitely some good
products on the market – we of course feel partial to Versa SSE, but at the end
of the day you need to find the solution that fits your requirements, resources
and budget.

Here are a few resources that we think might be able to help you make your
decision:

 * Versa SSE Buyer’s Guide
 * Gartner Magic Quadrant for SSE
 * Top 10 Signs You Might Need a New SSE Vendor – Webinar

Good luck!

Read the original blog post with links to additional resourced here


The views and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the sponsor
and do not reflect the views, nor is endorsed by SDxCentral.


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FEATURED ARTICLE

Sponsored by Versa Networks

A tightly coupled SD-WAN and SASE solution can solve many modern networking and
security problems at once.

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