Enterprise Strategy Group Study Finds Strong Interest in Elastic Cloud Gateway Architectures as an Approach to Implement SASE

MILFORD, Mass., July 22, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), a leading IT analyst, research, and strategy firm, today released new research that found significant interest in converged, cloud-delivered network security architectures. The new study, which surveyed 376 IT and cybersecurity professionals responsible for network security technology decisions, found that the threat landscape, network complexity, and ineffectiveness of siloed point tools are driving organizations to consider alternative network security approaches.

Secure access service edge, or SASE, solutions have generated significant market attention as a new model for network security. However, the convergence of not only network security tools, but also network services, data security, and application security tools raises questions about where end-user priorities lie, how the different parts of the IT organization collaborate in this model, and ultimately what functionality is considered critical.

ESG's concept of an elastic cloud gateway architecture represents an architectural approach to SASE, reflecting the fact that most organizations will not adopt a single-vendor model in which tens of tools are consolidated overnight, but will take an iterative approach that balances the current tools in place, critical areas of need, and overall business goals. Among the study's key findings:

• The network security market is poised for a transition to cloud, with the number of organizations with at least 40% of their perimeter tools being cloud-delivered expected to double over the next 24 months.
• There is high-level interest in SD-WAN and network security consolidation, but no consensus on the type of vendor these solutions will be procured from, and limited anticipation of the required IT organizational changes to support this converged approach.
• The vast majority of organizations anticipate using an elastic cloud gateway architecture across their entire environment, as opposed to more limited deployment models specifically supporting branch office or remote work use cases.

"ESG's research shows that organizations are struggling with solutions designed for defending static perimeters in today's dynamic enterprise environments," said John Grady, cybersecurity analyst at ESG. "The broad interest in elastic cloud gateway architectures is encouraging and shows there is a critical need for a new approach. These organizations expect improved security, performance, and efficiency through solutions providing centralized management and distributed enforcement across the entire environment."

For a summary of the report, please visit ESG's website.

About ESG
Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) is an integrated technology analyst, research, and strategy firm providing market intelligence and actionable insight to the global technology community. ESG is increasingly recognized as one of the world's leading and most influential independent analyst firms.

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc.