What’s the news? AT&T is delivering a new, global managed Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) offering. AT&T SASE with Palo Alto Networks is an integrated solution that brings together software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) technology, security capabilities and fiber-based network connectivity. The comprehensive solution, with expertise in design configuration, deployment, and 24/7 management from a single provider, helps enterprises and state and local governments to modernize their networks, provide robust security, and improve user experience and visibility.
Why is this important?
Network and security management is challenging for many organizations, especially those in industries such as healthcare that rely on remote locations to serve patients or require remote access for telehealth services. Using separate network and security solutions from different vendors to connect and protect staff is not efficient.
Legacy remote connectivity solutions are struggling to keep up with the increased demands of concurrent users and often provide access to an entire network segment, which may needlessly expose sensitive data. Networks based on hub and spoke architectures require the users to be on the network to enforce security policies, which introduce latency for cloud-destined traffic. Shadow IT is also a constant concern as employees utilize unsanctioned web applications that could bring serious security risks around compliance violations, data leaks, and more.
What makes this new SASE solution different?
With a rich heritage of innovation and expertise in managed network and security services, AT&T is delivering a converged, managed solution. AT&T SASE with Palo Alto Networks helps businesses to optimize their network performance at the edge while securely connecting remote users directly to the internet to surf the web or access cloud-based applications without having to backhaul traffic to the data center. Visibility is centralized across users, devices, and locations to apply granular, consistent security policies that follow users whether they are on or off the network to deliver a consistent, productive experience and reduce security risks. Additionally, AT&T and Palo Alto Networks have agreed to collaborate to develop an application that provides deeper threat insights that could be integrated to the AT&T USM Anywhere platform.
The AT&T SASE with Palo Alto Networks service helps support organizations through each step of their journey to the cloud, allowing them to roll out SASE technologies through a single managed services provider (MSP), per their business needs. The cloud-delivered solution is highly scalable, allowing organizations to expand or contract as business needs change to add new users, locations, or acquisitions.
AT&T SASE with Palo Alto Networks is further enhanced by the capabilities of AT&T Cybersecurity Consulting. As more enterprises look toward SASE as a crucial component of their digital transformation, AT&T Cybersecurity Consulting offers professional services to help customers navigate through every phase of their SASE journey including a SASE readiness assessment, development of a three-to-five year vision for SASE transformation, and design, engineering and deployment of the solution.
When will this new SASE solution be available?
AT&T SASE with Palo Alto Networks is immediately available through AT&T Business.
Craig Robinson, Program Director, Security Services, IDC
“Applications drive core business processes today and ensuring the performance and protection of those applications is critical to a business’ growth and resiliency. This is why approaches like SASE have become appealing because they help organizations centrally manage access, policy management, and network performance in one platform. However, many are still struggling with how to deploy SASE in their hybrid environment – especially as legacy network and security architecture won’t disappear overnight. Managed security service providers like AT&T will play an important role as businesses move forward, guiding organizations on their transition and supporting the day-to-day management of those controls, where needed.”
Rupesh Chokshi, VP, AT&T Cybersecurity
“To drive innovation throughout the hyper-connected enterprise, customers are looking for a simplified solution for network and security. As one of the largest MSSPs, AT&T is collaborating with Palo Alto Networks to offer a comprehensive, managed SASE solution that helps enable new user experiences at the edge.”
Kumar Ramachandran, SVP Products, Palo Alto Networks
“More and more organizations are moving to Zero Trust architectures to deliver a continuous and consistent security experience that covers data, devices, and end-users who are in the office, at home, or on the go. By bringing Palo Alto Networks’ SASE solution together with AT&T Cybersecurity’s managed security services, we are delivering an integrated solution to help organizations achieve optimal access with the highest levels of security.”
Source: https://about.att.com/story/2021/att_sase_palo_alto_networks.html