What is SASE?

SASE Convergence Roadmap
SASE has never been more relevant. The accelerated and sustained transition to a hybrid workforce has made converged cloud networking and cloud security a necessity.
Benefits of SASE
Enterprise Agility
VMware's cloud-first solution enables quick, reliable, and secure delivery of applications anywhere and provides organizations operational flexibility to adapt to change.
Reduce Security Risks
Incorporate contextual awareness into access decisions and protect activities from breach and compliance risks.
Enhance Digital Experiences
Ensure user access and an optimized experience for mission-critical applications, even with a single link and degraded network conditions.
Improve TCO
With self-healing and a single management plane, VMware SASE helps customers reduce time to manage network and security operations by 50%*.
Empower the Hybrid Workforce
SASE Components
SD-WAN
Decouples networking services from the underlying networks, allowing application traffic to be carried independently of the underlying physical or transport components.
AIOPs
Reduce network troubleshooting and optimization and improve the end-user experience through network analytics, problem isolation, and actionable remediation enabled by AI/ML.
Zero Trust Network Access
Shifts from network-centric security to an approach based on identity, location, and context that “trusts no one,” granting authorized resources on-demand.
Cloud Web Security
Provides a set of cloud-based security services that include a secure web gateway (SWG), cloud access security broker (CASB), data loss prevention (DLP), and remote browser isolation (RBI).
VMware Products for SASE
VMware SD-WAN
Platform to connect users anywhere to applications anywhere with assured reliability and performance
VMware Edge Network Intelligence
Actionable and automated insights on network health and app delivery
VMware Cloud Web Security
Cloud-based security for web threat protection, compliance, and SaaS control
VMware Secure Access
Enable secure access for remote users within VMware Workspace ONE
Enhanced Firewall Service
Eliminate legacy firewalls at the branch while improving security
Use Cases

Work from Anywhere
Work is no longer conducted at just one place. The branch has evolved, and the “trusted perimeter” has dissolved. Both users and applications are everywhere—now more than ever. This new normal requires secure and optimized access to the data center and cloud services for users to enable a productive, anywhere workforce.

Ease Migration to Cloud and SaaS
Highly distributed workloads and users require a software-defined and converged architectural approach for secure, agile, and optimal application access from branch and campus locations. Combining cloud-delivered SD-WAN with security services, SASE is the ultimate architecture to provide you with the agility, simplicity, security, and scale you need to embrace cloud and SaaS.

Connect, Secure, and Optimize the Branch
Better resiliency is crucial when you have many small branch offices. With limited bandwidth at remote locations, you need cost-efficient and high-performing connections that are easy to deploy and manage.

Edge Operations Transformation
Edge-native applications requiring high bandwidth and ultra-low latency deliver new experiences and improve business operations. SASE optimizes and secures connections to the edge and integrates with edge compute.
Related Resources

Networking and Security are Converging in the Cloud
In this white paper, Frost & Sullivan discuss the market and technology trends driving the need for SASE, as well as the power of SD-WAN and security together.

SASE-Ready WAN Edge for the Work-From-Anywhere Era
Dell’Oro Group discusses the work from anywhere trend and why traditional wide area network (WAN) and virtual private network (VPN) approaches no longer work.

VMware SASE Solution Overview
Discover how organizations can effectively make the leap to the new normal of work from anywhere with VMware SASE.
Frequently Asked Questions
SASE stands for Secure Access Service Edge.
An ideal SASE solution provides consistent, secure access from anywhere, but not all vendors are up to the challenge. Look for a SASE vendor that can deliver integrated networking and security to reduce operational complexity. A SASE solution should also take a cloud-first approach, offer robust intrinsic security capabilities, including Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and scalable network capabilities like cloud-based SD-WAN.
Adoption of SASE enables benefits such as better application performance and improved data security, enabling consistently optimized network access from anywhere. In addition, the best SASE solutions deliver operational simplicity and are based on a cloud-first approach.
SASE solves many challenges, such as operational complexity and compromised cybersecurity. However, since SASE combines networking and security, it can be a challenge to implement when teams are siloed. Selecting vendors can also be an issue, especially when multiple products or vendors are required.
Businesses are moving applications to the cloud while allowing users to access them remotely. At the same time, companies must protect themselves from ever-evolving security threats. SASE allows IT to support these changes by providing the same experience whether users are in the office or outside it. SASE combines network and security services to enable a unified edge and cloud service model.
If you're ready to adopt SASE, make sure your IT teams are prepared. Since SASE combines networking and security functions, siloed networking and security teams present a hurdle to adoption. It's also important to find a vendor that offers flexibility and ideally stick to one or two vendors to reduce complexity.
Capabilities of SASE include:
- Cloud-native, multitenant platform for on-ramp to public and private cloud.
- Unified secure access for branch, campus, and mobile users.
- Contextual access based on user identity, device location, and security posture.
- Web and security policy control.
SASE is delivered as a cloud service with a multitenant architecture. Direct cloud access is offered through globally distributed points of presence (PoPs).
SASE is cloud-delivered networking with security. SASE components include software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN), Secure Access, Cloud Web Security and Cloud Firewall.
Security Services Edge (SSE) is a subset of a SASE that includes just the security components. A full SASE solution requires both network and security functionality to connect distributed users to distributed applications securely, quickly, and reliably.