By Andrew Winney, Global Head of Product Management – SDWAN, SASE, SSE at Tata Communications
The definition of enterprise security has evolved beyond recognition. Traditionally enterprises used to secure their applications, data and users within their physical locations from external threats. However, enterprise boundaries have moved beyond these physical walls due to emergence of emergence of hybrid work models, multi-cloud environments and expanding ecosystems partners. This new enterprise perimeter involves sharing enterprise resources between multiple devices, applications, clouds, and geographies that is no longer confined to traditional data centres. As these connections increase exponentially, the security control becomes elusive.
Traditional perimeter-based models relied heavily on castle-and-moat strategies—protect everything inside, assume the outside is dangerous. But in the cloud era, that model crumbles. Today’s enterprise needs a security framework that travels with the user, adapts to application behaviour, and integrates security into every edge of the network. Enterprises require a reimagination of their security architecture as they move from castle-and-moat strategies to ‘Zero Trust Framework’ to secure this new enterprise perimeter, paving the way for Secure Access Service Edge (SASE). SASE is not a new technology, but ‘platformisation’ of multiple technologies with unified policy enforcement. It is a representation of a fundamental rethink of how organisations approach connectivity and security.
Why the Shift to SASE is Inevitable
The push towards SASE is not only driven by trend, but by its necessity. Considering that nearly 60% of enterprise data is now created and processed outside a traditional data centre. This decentralisation has outpaced the capabilities of its legacy infrastructure. As a result, organisations face rising operational complexity, inconsistent security enforcement, and fragmented visibility. SASE addresses these areas by converging networking (SD-WAN) and security functions (like FWaaS, ZTNA, SWG, CASB) into a single, cloud-native service.
We are seeing a transition from reactive controls to proactive defence. SASE enables identity-aware, context-driven access to applications, irrespective of location or device. It brings coherence to chaos.
Evolving threats for this New Perimeter
With data flowing freely between cloud environments, remote endpoints, and on-prem systems, the attack surface has exploded. Threat actors are no longer brute-forcing firewalls; they are exploiting weak access controls, misconfigured APIs, and user trust assumptions. It’s no surprise that 80% of security breaches now involve compromised credentials or misused access rights.
SASE responds with a zero-trust mindset. Assume breach. Verify everything. This approach moves security decision-making closer to users and devices—ensuring protection is always-on and dynamically adapted to risk context. Whether it’s a remote employee accessing SaaS apps over public Wi-Fi, or a user from a branch office accessing sensitive files, SASE provides continuous posture assessment, threat inspection, and access enforcement.
Making the Transition: It’s Not Plug-and-Play
For all its advantages, implementing and managing SASE is not without hurdles. SASE transformation is generally not a single step change for most enterprises and require a clear roadmap of adoption of different features to constantly secure their attack surface.
During the adoption phase, with the transition to ‘zero trust model’, enterprise require a fundamental reimagination of policies, instead of just migrating existing controls. Many organisations underestimate the complexity involved with integration existing systems such as Identity tools, data classifiers and detection and response tools, which are critical to deliver Zero trust model. In addition, they struggle to design the right architecture that ensures the user experience is enhanced (or maintained), while implementing the right security controls. It’s less about deploying a tool, more about redesigning security thinking.
Beyond the adoption phase, ‘Zero Trust model’ is not a one-time deployment. It requires expertise to relook and update the security controls periodically, as enterprises business priorities and therefore their enterprise architecture is constantly evolving. It is also critical to deploy the right tools to measure and improve the user experience across the enterprise. In addition, the cloud-native platform, features and signatures are constantly upgraded in frequently – This requires a sandbox to validate the impact to production roll-out.
How Enterprises Can Win with SASE
- Choose a Platform, Not Just a Product: The SASE promise is best realised through an integrated platform that unifies networking and security. Single-vendor architectures reduce latency, increase visibility, and minimise management overhead.
- Make Zero Trust the Default: Identity-based access, posture checks, and least-privilege principles must be embedded in the framework. Ensure right integration to achieve this.
- Operationalise with Intelligence: Modern enterprises need more than dashboards. They need actionable insight engines that leverage AI to translate traffic data into actionable intelligence. This is critical for early threat detection and rapid response.
Conclusion:
In fact, for many organisations, SASE is the missing piece to secure their larger digital puzzle. As workloads shift to the cloud, and employees connect across kitchen tables, coffee shops, or across continents, traditional models struggle to keep up. The USP of SASE lies in its ability to offer both structure and flexibility to security controls and user experience, streamlining operations while respecting the nuances of modern hybrid businesses. It enables IT teams to act with speed, reduce risk, and reclaim control without sacrificing user experience. As such, it’s becoming a strategic enabler, not just a technical upgrade.
The future of enterprise security lies in adding more point solutions and unifying them. SASE offers a foundational shift, from fragmented protection to holistic resilience. A SASE-first approach can be the cornerstone of sustainable, scalable, and secure operations as enterprises get ready to chart their next phase of digital transformation.
Organisations don’t need to navigate the SASE journey alone. Managed Services providers with integrated platforms, AI-powered threat detection, and edge-native architecture can serve as trusted partners in building secure, scalable networks.
