SASE is everywhere. Recently, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) has taken off, seemingly overnight. This term, coined by Gartner, describes the convergence of networking and security into an architecture that brings applications and services closer to end users. Like any shiny new toy, many vendors have jumped at the opportunity to be the SASE provider – because being first to market is a tangible advantage.
However, these vendors have neglected the cardinal rule of security: unified visibility and management. With SASE, many have broken that promise and gone back to the dark ages of stand-alone security silos.
In the rush to claim first-to-market for SASE, these vendors are breaking continuous visibility, enforcement, and management. It may seem trivial – it’s certainly not “sexy” – but it’s something that teams will live with for years beyond the initial sale, and it informs the effort needed to maintain the tools that deliver their new SASE architecture.
Juniper Leans In to the SASE Market with Juniper® Security Director Cloud
This is why Juniper Networks is leading its efforts in the SASE market with Juniper Security Director Cloud, our customers’ portal to SASE, managing on-premises, cloud-based security and cloud-delivered security – all within one User Interface (UI). Customers will be able to use Security Director Cloud to make sure their security policies follow users, devices, and applications as they move locations, facilitating a seamless and secure shift to a SASE architecture, never breaking visibility or protective measures against threats. With Security Director Cloud, security policy can be created once and extended to any user, device and application regardless of location changes. Further, Juniper’s services and solutions are specifically designed to perform comprehensive in-depth analysis, custom reporting and provide recommendations on security exposure and security policies to help customers mitigate risks, maintain business agility and reduce operational costs.
Security Director Cloud provides:
- Validated protection from attacks that is more than 99% effective against client- and server-side exploits, malware and C2 traffic, regardless of where the users and applications are located, ensuring consistent security enforcement.
- The ability to create policies once and apply them anywhere with unified policy management, including user- and application-based access, IPS, anti-malware and web access policies.
- Easy deployment and configuration for new sites, including ZTP, auto-rule placement and policy-based routing, all powered by JunOS.
- 360° of security visibility in customizable dashboards and reports, including Security Director Insights, which correlates detections from Juniper and third-party security tools into incidents and prioritizes them based on risk. Security Director Insights is a core feature of Security Director Cloud, which means customers don’t pay extra for it.
- The ability to manage all security deployments — physical, virtual and containerized SRX for traditional deployments and the transition to a SASE architecture.
- Bi-directional sync between Security Director Cloud, on-prem and individual firewalls to provide a cohesive management experience that supports a seamless transition to the cloud.
- Unified policy management provides easy-to-use, consistent security policy that follows the user, device, and application – no need to copy over or recreate rule sets.
Security Director Cloud brings Juniper officially into the fold with SASE, with what we believe is the best approach to SASE:
SASE is an architecture
SASE is the embodiment of networking and security converged in a distributed, cloud-delivered architecture and is comprised of different networking and security services that combine to deliver secure access, low-latency and threat protection aligned to the Zero Trust framework. It is not only a secure web gateway (SWG) or cloud access security broker (CASB). SASE represents a simplified network and security architecture – this sort of simplification cannot be done successfully without unified visibility, enforcement, and management throughout the entire journey.
SASE is an “and” strategy for customers, not an “or” strategy
No two networks are the same and one size does not fit all. Although the cloud is where many organizations have set their sights for the future, dependence on hardware is not going to completely disappear. On-premises devices are likely to stay in the local data center, especially for larger enterprises with highly sensitive and custom applications. Security Director Cloud accommodates this by providing the means to manage all types of deployments simultaneously. It syncs with on-prem management and individual firewalls so that the transition to SASE isn’t so painful or chaotic. Instead, it makes life that much easier for customers already strapped for IT resources.
Network transformation takes time
Transitioning to a SASE architecture is a journey and requires every organization to take a thoughtful approach to remain secure. This journey encompasses how an organization chooses to design, build, and maintain the network architecture to optimize user experience and secure services and data. However, to focus on these things, organizations cannot spend their time trying to manually integrate different solutions or translate rule sets. Security Director Cloud meets customers where they are in their journey to SASE by facilitating the transition to this new architecture at the pace that’s best for them and delivers the automation capabilities that Juniper customers already know and love.
The Juniper Connected Security Strategy
Juniper Connected Security is our strategy for converging networking and security. This convergence is essential to enable a threat-aware network and extend visibility, intelligence, and enforcement to every point of connection on the network, from client to application both on-prem and in the cloud. Juniper Connected Security is SASE. And now, it’s seamlessly managed by Security Director Cloud.
SASE represents a major change in the way the network and security stack are architected. Security Director Cloud is helping to drive that change for Juniper customers seamlessly and securely so they can deliver the network for the next decade.
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Security Director Cloud Early Access
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this blog concerning Juniper Networks’ prospects, product availability, future products and expected performance, and expected benefits of our products to users are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act that involve a number of uncertainties and risks. Actual results or events could differ materially from those anticipated in those forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including delays in product availability, incompatibility of technologies, and other factors listed in Juniper Networks’ most recent report on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All statements made are made only as of the date of the initial publication of this blog. Juniper Networks undertakes no obligation to update the information in this blog in the event facts or circumstances subsequently change after the date of this blog. Any future product, feature, enhancement or related specification that may be referenced in this blog are for information purposes only, are subject to change at any time without notice and are not commitments to deliver any future product, feature, enhancement or related specification. The information contained in this blog is intended to outline Juniper Networks’ general product direction and should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision.
