The new Prisma SASE combines Prisma Access’ security capabilities and Prisma SD-WAN into a converged service that provides Zero Trust Network Access, Cloud Secure Web Gateway, CASB, Firewall as a Service and SD-WAN into a single solution managed with a unified dashboard.
The ION 1200
Palo Alto Networks has announced Prisma SASE, which the company believes takes SASE to its full potential for the first time by bringing together the five elements Gartner defines as essential for SASE: SD-WAN; zero-trust network access [ZTNA], secure web gateway, cloud security broker [CASB], and firewall-as-a-service [FWaaS]. They do this by integrating their Prisma Access security platform and their Prisma SD-WAN into an integrated cloud-delivered service. They are also announcing enhancements to the components, including integrating 5G into new SD-WAN appliances,
“Today, there are two huge trends in the industry,” said Anand Oswal, senior vice president of products, Firewall as a Platform at Palo Alto Networks. “Everyone is SASE, and everyone is Zero Trust. Nobody else in the industry has all five of the elements identified by Gartner as encompassing all of SASE, however, although some claim they do. We have the five components seamlessly delivered as a cloud service through a cloud dashboard, where things are managed uniformly, not bolted on. SASE is no longer a concept for us. And in terms of being able to do this through a single dashboard, common analytics and insights, none of our competitors have that today.”
Palo Alto Networks’ recent State of Hybrid Workforce Security 2021 report found that 61% of organizations have struggled to provide the necessary remote security to support work-from-home capabilities.
Anand Oswal, SVP of products, Firewall as a Platform at Palo Alto Networks
“We have responded to this trend by accelerating the work on SASE around enterprise hybrid deployments,” Oswal said. “We are also reacting to the trend of applications continuing to move to the cloud, and to the transformation of the branch, the latter by simplifying it and making it software-defined. Since the acquisition of CloudGenix in particular, we have been working hard on this.”
Prisma SASE will be available as a single SKU which converges SD-WAN, ZTNA, SWG, CASB and FWaaS into a single solution.
“We will add more things and capabilities as we move forward,” Oswal noted.
These new things begin with the announcement of a new SD-WAN appliance with integrated 5G, the ION 1200, which provides the ability to deliver 5G WAN connectivity to branch networks as part of the Prisma SASE solution, including the ability to run active/active 5G WAN interfaces for carrier redundancy.
“Our older appliances are also supported by Prisma SASE, but the new ones have the integrated 5G,” Oswal said.
The company is also announcing new integrations for CloudBlades, their platform that gives organizations the ability to integrate various cloud services into the Prisma SASE solution via APIs. The new ones include ServiceNow, Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
Palo Alto Networks also announced the availability on Prisma SD-WAN of their SASE-native Autonomous Digital Experience Management, introduced earlier in 2021 to mobile users on Prisma Access.
“What this does is improve visibility in performance by determining connection profile, and whether a problem is being caused at the level of the home network, the carrier, the cloud, or Exchange,” Oswal said.
The Integrated Cloud Secure Web Gateway has also been upgraded with reimagined configuration workflows, providing very simple and easy-to-define web security rules with predefined recommendations.
All of this is of major importance to Palo Alto Network’s channel partners, Oswal emphasized.
“Partners today are looking for a single consumption model, and this enables them to easily transact and get things gone,” he said. “It accelerates their journey as they move customers to a fully hybrid workforce.”
