Discover the five IT dynamics that drive SASE adoption, including cloud migration, aging network infrastructure, hybrid working, IoT proliferation, and growing threats.
Nowadays, with a cloud-first architecture, digital enterprises can no longer ignore SASE.
Secure access service edge (SASE) has become inevitable. Five powerful dynamics are reshaping IT and pushing organizations toward SASE:
Figure 1. The five key IT dynamics that drive SASE adoption
1. Cloud migration and sensitive data in SaaS apps
Applications are rapidly shifting to the cloud, with many enterprises adopting multicloud strategies. Businesses increasingly rely on SaaS apps such as Salesforce, Workday, and Microsoft 365, while also migrating custom applications to public clouds.
Sensitive corporate data now resides outside traditional environments, often within third-party services, which introduces risks of data breaches and accidental exposure. Shadow IT compounds the problem, leaving IT blind to unsanctioned apps, data flows, and user activity.
2. Aging network infrastructure
Many enterprises still rely on legacy MPLS architectures to connect branch offices. While once effective, MPLS is expensive, rigid, and ill-suited for cloud-centric environments. As applications are now hosted in the cloud, it is no longer efficient to backhaul cloud application traffic to the data center, negatively impacting performance. Modern organizations need agile, affordable networking that can handle high performance connections to cloud services.
3. Hybrid working
Hybrid work is now standard, but it introduces new challenges as employees connect from homes, airports, hotels, and on personal devices. VPNs, once the default solution, are showing their age. While they provide connectivity, they also grant broad network access, enabling lateral movement for attackers. VPNs also degrade performance, as traffic often detours through centralized concentrators.
The challenge is not limited to employees—partners, contractors, and third-party vendors also require access, but traditional approaches give these external users too much visibility into corporate networks.
4. IoT proliferation
The explosion of IoT devices—from smart sensors and cameras to medical devices and industrial systems—has massively expanded the enterprise attack surface. Unlike laptops or smartphones, IoT devices are typically lightweight, single-purpose, and cannot run security agents. This makes it nearly impossible to apply the same level of visibility, monitoring, and control that IT teams use for managed endpoints.
The challenge is even greater when it comes to enforcing zero trust principles. Zero trust requires strong identity verification and least-privilege access, but IoT devices often lack a built-in identity or the ability to authenticate in secure ways. Many connect with default credentials, outdated firmware, or weak protocols, making them highly vulnerable. Once compromised, they can become easy entry points for attackers or be used as part of large-scale botnet attacks.
Enterprises also struggle to segment IoT traffic effectively. Traditional networks often treat these devices like any other endpoint, allowing broad communication across the corporate LAN.
5. Growing cybersecurity threats
Cyberattacks are escalating in both frequency and sophistication, especially with the emergence of AI. Cloud migration, IoT adoption, and remote work all increase the potential entry points for adversaries. Endpoints face constant exposure to phishing, ransomware, and malicious web traffic. Many enterprises lack controls to block dangerous websites or enforce usage policies, leaving them vulnerable.
Why SASE?
Enterprises need a fast, flexible, and secure architecture that aligns with today’s cloud-first reality. SASE unifies SD-WAN with cloud-delivered security service edge (SSE), consolidating multiple point solutions into a single framework:
- SD-WAN: The foundation of SASE for a cloud-first architecture, reducing MPLS dependency and improving performance through best path selection and WAN optimization. It increases resilience by combining multiple links and intelligently steering traffic to the cloud or SSE, eliminating backhaul to the data center. Integration with cloud service providers helps organizations ruggedize the first mile between branch sites and hyperscaler backbones. With a built-in NGFW, secure SD-WAN replaces branch firewalls and consolidates routers, firewalls, and WAN optimization devices into one appliance.
- Zero trust network access (ZTNA): Unlike VPNs that grant broad access, ZTNA enforces least-privilege access by validating user and device identity and granting access only to needed resources. This reduces the attack surface, improves security, and avoids VPN inefficiencies. Agentless ZTNA extends secure access to third parties without exposing internal resources. Universal ZTNA, with cloud-native NAC, applies zero trust everywhere, securing managed and unmanaged devices, including IoT, with uniform policies.
- Cloud access security broker (CASB
CASB enforces enterprise policies between users and cloud services (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS), providing visibility into sanctioned and unsanctioned apps. It operates inline (proxy) to inspect real-time activity and block risky actions, or out-of-band (API) to monitor data at rest, detect misconfigurations, and prevent oversharing. CASB integrates with DLP to stop sensitive data leakage and ensure compliance with PCI DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR. - Secure web gateway (SWG
SWG filters and controls web traffic, blocking malicious sites, phishing domains, and unwanted content. It inspects encrypted and unencrypted traffic to detect malware and data exfiltration, while enforcing acceptable use policies across categories like gambling, adult content, or social media. - FWaaS (firewall as a service): FWaaS is a cloud-delivered firewall that protects traffic without on-prem hardware. It centralizes policy enforcement (access control, URL filtering, intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS), threat prevention) for all locations. In a hybrid mesh firewall model, FWaaS works with on-prem firewalls to provide unified visibility, management, and protection across distributed environments.
How does HPE enable SASE?
HPE simplifies the journey to SASE with a holistic, edge-to-cloud zero trust model. Unlike siloed zero trust products, our single-vendor approach integrates SD-WAN, cloud-native security, and NAC into one platform—enabling consistent policies across all users and devices, whether remote or on-premises.
Figure 2. HPE Aruba Networking delivers zero trust and unified SASE with a holistic approach, including a secure SD-WAN, a cloud-native SSE, and NAC
HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN delivers advanced networking capabilities—path conditioning, App Express, WAN optimization—while consolidating security functions such as NGFW, IDS/IPS, adaptive DDoS defense, URL filtering, and role-based segmentation. It integrates seamlessly with HPE Aruba Networking SSE for a unified SASE solution, or with third-party SSEs for flexibility. Our SSE provides ZTNA, SWG, CASB, and FWaaS. HPE Aruba Networking Central NAC extends zero trust to every device, including unmanaged ones, by providing AI-driven observability and authentication across multivendor environments. With role-based access and dynamic segmentation, it enforces zero trust policies even for IoT and BYOD.
To learn more, visit our HPE Aruba Networking SASE website.
Other resources
- Delivering SASE and universal Zero Trust from edge to cloud
- HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN webpage
- HPE Aruba Networking SSE webpage
- What is Unified SASE? (animated video)
- Zero trust from edge to cloud (animated video)
Meet the author:
Gabriel Gomane, Sr Product Marketing Manager
linkedin.com/in/gabriel-gomane-mba-b751b79/
Gabriel_Gomane
Gabriel Gomane has more than 15 years of experience in product marketing and product management, focusing primarily on networking, security and digital transformation. He has broad international experience, having held marketing positions based in Europe and in the US. Before joining HPE Aruba Networking, Gabriel worked for various high tech companies including Meru Networks and MEGA International. Gabriel holds a BS in engineering from Grenoble INP and an MBA from HEC Paris.
