Moving to the cloud? Make sure your business is protected with SASE

By Chandraduth Bullywon, Senior Technical Product Manager, Cloud and SDWAN Security

There are many good reasons to move your workloads and applications to the cloud, including greater agility and flexibility to adapt to rapid change, reduced costs, and a simplified IT process. Having a clear plan before you start migrating your legacy systems will help your cloud migration go as smoothly as possible.  

In this blog, we look at why secure access service edge (SASE) should be part of your cloud migration, and how to make sure it’s implemented the right way. 
 

What does it mean to move from legacy systems into the cloud? 

Legacy systems refer to on-premises hardware, workloads, and the applications that run on it, as well as the private network that connects an organization’s sites and data centres together. A stack of security appliances that are typically housed in a data centre protects these systems. This stack often includes a separate piece of equipment for every workload, each with its own management console and no interaction between them.  

All of this adds complexity, limits scalability, and reduces visibility across the organization’s systems and networks. However, because new hardware can be costly, many businesses continue to use outdated legacy systems, even though they are often less efficient and effective. It can also be challenging to maintain them as they approach end-of-life, with vendors no longer supporting them and replacement parts harder to source. 

When a business migrates its systems and workloads to the cloud, most on-premises hardware is no longer required. Managing and maintaining the whole ecosystem becomes much simpler, while authenticated users can access their applications from the office, home, or anywhere else.  

If you’re moving your workloads and applications to the cloud, it makes sense to move your security functions to the cloud as well. SASE helps bring the network and security together in the cloud, giving you a full view of your employees, guest users, and applications, as well as the security policies, rules, and protocols that protect it all. As a result, it’s easier to comply with regulatory requirements, you get greater flexibility and scalability, and your system is automatically kept current with the latest patches and updates.  
 

When should I start thinking about security for my cloud migration? 

Right from the beginning. It’s also important to have an idea of which applications you want to move and an understanding of what your cloud provider offers in terms of security. The requirements of certain applications or workloads may mean that you’ll have to keep them on premises. So you’ll need to plan for a hybrid environment that protects both your on-premises and cloud-based systems. 

The security stakes are even higher if your business handles personal or financial information. You need to comply with regulatory requirements throughout the entire migration process, which means your cloud-based security needs to be ready to go the moment that you “flip the switch” to move into the cloud.  

Plus, you can’t stop thinking about security once your migration is complete. Security needs are dynamic and ongoing, which means continually assessing and improving your security solutions to make sure you’re protected. 
 

How can a SASE provider help with my cloud migration? 

To design the right solution for your business, you need to understand both your current and future security and regulatory requirements as your business moves forward and grows. 

It’s never easy to predict the future.  An expert SASE provider can help identify your needs and design the right solution to meet and exceed them. The ideal provider can start by building the solution in a non-production environment as a proof of concept so that you can test it and make sure it covers all your requirements. Once you’re confident that the solution works as intended, it can be easily deployed. Your SASE provider can also ensure the environment is properly maintained and is kept up to date as the threat landscape evolves. 

You are not alone on your transformation journey. For guidance on how to best implement SASE to suit your business needs, reach out to your Bell representative, and one of our security experts will help you plan your next steps. You can also visit our SASE Solution page (Managed Cloud Security Gateway) to find out more.