As business globalises further, access and commensurate threat blankets have become more widespread and complex. To address these issues facing businesses, Zenarmor has advanced the distributed enforcement model of its SASE Anywhere Architecture to support modern hybrid workforces and cloud-native infrastructure, enabling sovereign secure access service edge (SASE) deployments.
Putting the launch into perspective, Zenarmor said that as organisations adopt hybrid work models and increasingly distributed application environments, many find that cloud-only SASE architectures can still introduce performance trade-offs, operational complexity and reliance on supplier-controlled infrastructure.
The launch is intended to enable enterprise security enforcement to run directly in partner or customer infrastructure rather than relying on centralised cloud inspection points across partner and customer-operated infrastructure.
The expanded SASE Anywhere Architecture looks to address the challenges faced by modern businesses by placing security enforcement directly in the traffic path, allowing inspection to occur closer to users, applications and workloads without relying on centralised cloud inspection points.
Expanding the distributed SASE architecture to mobile endpoints enables roaming users to receive the same inspection, policy enforcement and threat protection regardless of where they connect. It also ensures sovereign deployments across partner-operated and customer-controlled infrastructure, including managed service providers, network operators and enterprise environments. This architecture enables security enforcement to run directly in partner or customer infrastructure rather than relying on centralised cloud inspection points.
Unlike traditional SASE architectures that depend on centralised cloud points of presence (PoPs), the new SASE solution is attributed with enabling sovereign SASE deployments where security enforcement runs directly within partner or customer environments.
This distributed enforcement model is designed to replace centralised PoP inspection resulting in eliminating traffic backhaul, entirely reducing latency and preserving operational control over security infrastructure.
Zenarmor gateways are said to now function as both secure internet exit points and “comprehensive” inspection engines for roaming iOS and Android devices. Mobile users can securely connect to the nearest Zenarmor gateway, where traffic is inspected inline before reaching the internet or corporate resources.
This also allows businesses to apply Zenarmor’s security capabilities to mobile users across any network. Key features include: application-aware security policies that follow users across networks; advanced threat protection including malware detection, phishing prevention and command-and-control blocking; content filtering and web categorisation to prevent access to risky or inappropriate sites.
It also offers full visibility into application usage, bandwidth consumption and security events, and employs intelligent routing to the nearest Zenarmor gateway for optimal performance.
Also drawing a comparison between itself and cloud-only SASE providers that require traffic to traverse centralised vendor-operated inspection points, Zenarmor said that it can allow organisations to deploy security enforcement wherever it makes operational sense, including in their own data centres, branch locations, cloud environments or directly on user endpoints. Mobile users can connect to their organisation’s infrastructure, preserving both performance and operational control.
Containerised gateway deployment means Zenarmor gateways can run as Docker containers across cloud-native environments and edge infrastructure. This enables organisations and service providers to deploy inline security inspection directly within Kubernetes clusters, ephemeral networks, development platforms and distributed edge locations without requiring dedicated appliances or centralised cloud inspection infrastructure.
“Traditional SASE architectures introduce integration challenges and operational blind spots due to their dependence on cloud-based PoPs,” said Shamus McGillicuddy, vice-president of research at IT research and consulting firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA). “By eliminating PoPs and enabling direct, point-to-point secure connections with inline inspection, Zenarmor’s latest advancements reinforce a next-generation SASE architecture that reduces latency, accelerates deployment and lowers operational complexity.”
Some companies are already making use of the system. Eelco Akker, ICT consultant overseeing network and security infrastructure at Netherlands-based accounting and advisory firm De Hooge Waerder Accountants, said: “Many organisations struggle to introduce modern security capabilities without disrupting existing network deployments. Zenarmor’s latest architecture advancements allow security to be inserted directly into the traffic path with minimal disruption.”
