Cisco Secure Access: SSE That Enables the Business – Source: www.databreachtoday.com

Cloud-Delivered Security Service Edge Solution Gives Efficient Hybrid Work Security

Jeff Scheaffer, Vice President of Product Management (SSE, SASE and Security Cloud)

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August 8, 2023    

Users and IT teams are struggling with the complexities of securing hybrid and remote work.

Companies and workers that need secure connectivity across their multiple devices from an array of constantly shifting locations are creating new challenges for IT teams. Cisco Secure Access is our latest innovation to create one experience when accessing any application – web, SaaS or private – from anywhere, whether it’s a corporate facility, a home office or any other remote location.

Bad Connection Experiences Are a Big Issue

In the hybrid working world we live in, users face different and inconsistent experiences when connecting to the wide range of private and public applications or resources that they need to be productive.

Some applications may just work, while others may require multifactor authentication. Some apps may behave differently based on how the user is connected. Some might require a VPN with a multistep process that creates a slow connection or impedes the use of other applications, and the process may vary by device. The result is frustrated users who take shortcuts to avoid additional security steps and slow performance. But in doing so, they increase the risk of a successful attack.

As the IT team has added more security tools and processes over time, it has become increasingly difficult to handle all the deployment, configuration and integration tasks required. Meanwhile, IT teams struggle to train users on the complex set of decisions, products and steps

they must use for various applications and connection scenarios. When users run into issues, it becomes difficult for IT teams to troubleshoot from a remote location. This causes a lot of frustration for both groups. Phones ring, email boxes fill up, and IT teams have to continually train, maintain and troubleshoot.

The unfortunate result is a cumbersome hybrid work environment that slows users down and lowers their productivity – impeding business growth and hurting the top line. This complex environment with “security tool sprawl” is also very difficult for IT and security teams to fund, implement and manage, which increases costs and hurts the bottom line.

What’s needed is a network security solution that’s better for users, simpler for IT and safer for everyone. The technologies that enable a positive and consistent experience for users and fewer headaches for IT teams sit at the intersection of networking and security. This is a solution that Cisco is uniquely capable of providing. As a world leader in both networking and security, nobody understands secure, high-performance connections the way Cisco does.

Introducing Cisco Secure Access

Cisco Secure Access is a security service edge – or SSE – solution that helps end users securely access whatever they need to do their best work from anywhere.

With extensive security capabilities converged in one solution, Cisco Secure Access mitigates security risk by applying zero trust principles and enforcing granular security policies. These capabilities include zero trust network access or ZTNA, secure web gateway or SWG, cloud access security broker or CASB, firewall as a service or FWaaS, DNS security, remote browser isolation or RBI, and more.

Cisco Secure Access is:

• Better for users: It delivers seamless, frictionless connections to any application via any port or protocol with optimized performance and continuous verification and granting of trust.
• Easier for IT: It leverages a single, cloud-managed console to enable hybrid work through a simplified policy creation process, increased visibility and aggregated reporting.
• Safer for everyone: It tightens security and control by enabling DevOps to build security from the start and empowers SecOps to enforce zero trust principles across a distributed environment.

Let’s look at how Cisco can simplify an organization’s move to a more efficient and secure zero trust process for remote access. Cisco Secure Access delivers a new ZTNA Relay architecture that solves the challenges of last-generation ZTNA solutions. Last-generation ZTNA vendors do not support all application architectures, such as multichannel applications, peer-to-peer applications or server-initiated communication. And last-generation ZTNA vendors often struggle with the thousands of enterprise and long-tail legacy applications.

Cisco Secure Access ZTNA Relay architecture, which is based on industry-leading protocols MASQUE and QUIC, supports all applications, ports and protocols. And by combining ZTNA with a fallback VPN as a service – or VPNaaS – in a single client with identity and posture checks, Cisco Secure Access transparently delivers the most secure connection possible for all applications. End users can easily access what they need – internet, SaaS or private applications – with no hassle and no friction. They just log in and get to work.

This unique combination of remote access-as-a-service capabilities in one solution dramatically simplifies the journey to ZTNA from traditional, on-premises VPN. Cisco Secure Access facilitates a smooth evolution from traditional VPN to VPNaaS and enables the organization to move individual applications to ZTNA in a stepwise fashion, at whatever pace is comfortable.

For users and IT teams, it’s common sense, making working and connecting simpler and more transparent with less risk within the most modern network architecture available.

Cisco believes that if we connect it, we’re obligated to protect it. We take that very seriously.

Learn more about how Cisco Secure Access can create a better hybrid work environment for your organization.