Juniper Networks Secure Edge Offers Seamless, Secure SASE Transition

A cloud or bust mentality is contagious as the enterprise adapts to WFH – work from anywhere, frankly. And while SD-WAN was a scintillating first course of cloud, SASE is a heaping helping, converging networking and security functions and setting the course for the future.  

SASE is a journey; not a destination. Juniper Sr. Director of Security Product Marketing Kate Adam explained in a recent interview, “SASE makes sense because many customers have been moving to the cloud over the last decade…it’s where next steps take us.”

Last May’s Security Director Cloud release marked Juniper’s first official SASE foray. For Juniper this was a critical entry point, as with the management piece now solidified, Adam noted “All components that follow are easy to implement and easy for customers to migrate.” 

Building on this foundation, Juniper announces Juniper Secure Edge, a cloud delivered security solution with three key areas of focus: securing the remote workforce, consistent security policy for users on and off network and making the migration to SASE as simple as possible.

Adam continued to note, “Change invites chaos and as much as possible we try to limit that chaos.” Secure Edge offers users the same UI, with familiar navigation, policy building, configuration and day to day maintenance. And as customers continue to deploy devices, Secure Edge ensures consistent policy.

With the perimeter shifting, and attack vectors aplenty, Juniper’s Connected Security Strategy addresses threats to infrastructure, applications, users and devices. Adam explained, “It’s really about protecting data, moving from app to app, data center to data center, and the edge. At the end of the day we’re protecting access to that data. It’s all about the data.” 

The Juniper Threat intelligence hub offers an environment for the firm to dig deeper into malware sandboxing, collating threat feeds, and provides customers with access to glean insights into network behavior and lean on an industry leader to protect resources from malicious intent.  Juniper SRX in the cloud can leverage these resources to assess the risk at the time of connection – for any device – connecting security at every point of connection, and as Adam put it, “Creating a truly threat aware network.

There are options to skinning the SASE cat. Organizations are looking to make the leap right to “SASE” with security as a priority, but we must remember Rome was not built in a day, and neither will your future-forward, high-flying cloud architecture. Keeping the SASE customer journey simple, one stride at a time is important, so starting with secure web access then firewall-as-a-service is a natural evolution. 

Alternatively, others choose SD-WAN as a SASE Jump-off. The addition of 128T‘s Session Smart SD-WAN into MIST cloud, brings together secure vector routing, zero trust micro segmentation (segmenting at routing vector) and session authentication.

Adams noted, “We’ve got the SD-WAN piece with 128T now with cloud delivery. We have secure web access and firewall as a service. We’re able to answer who is this user, are they who they say they are, what is risk,” continuing, “that’s something Juniper Secure Edge can work with. Our threat detection and mitigation are some of the best in the industry.”

Adam explained how for Juniper, making sure it delivers on customer security requirements is crucial, with regular auditing to ensure if there’s a chink in the armor it is addressed. Juniper promises security second to none, and “not sacrificing security effectiveness for ease of use.”

For example, Security Director Cloud has a single policy framework for everything it manages, and manages all virtual and containerized SRX, granting customers full visibility into the data center and at the edge – All within a simple, single interface.

Adam shined a spotlight on Security Director Cloud’s automation capabilities in regard to rule count, highlighting how it audits rule sets and changes policy taking customers with upwards of 9,000 rules down to 1,000.

Courtesy of a rise in attacks and mainstream media coverage, the past two years accentuated the need for adept security. According to Adam this challenges IT to do more with less, or “A team of four managing a network that requires 20.”

Innovation is core to Juniper, and in the coming months, new features and use cases will join the Secure Edge portfolio, “This is not where we stop with SASE.”

As customer demands migrated to the cloud, and the edge took center stage, Juniper is putting simplicity, ease of use and security on a cloud pedestal. History tells us, it can be trusted to deliver what’s needed.

How SASE is your organization?