COMMENTARY: As the world continues to turn up the dial on digital transformation, businesses need faster, more agile, and secure solutions to support evolving operations. Traditional legacy infrastructures are increasingly inadequate as organizations integrate new technologies and roaming identities into existing networks, creating complex, layered architectures that expose them to new security risks. Combined with the rising costs of maintaining traditional networking, these systems are becoming increasingly unsustainable.
A Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution offers the promise of a unified and cost-effective approach to modern networking: Enhancing security, performance, and scalability to meet dynamic business needs. By merging networking and security requirements, SASE protects remote access points, providing secure hybrid work environments whilst improving the performance of SaaS-based apps and network performance. SASE solutions, whether single-vendor or multi-vendor, bring many benefits to organizations, however, implementing a SASE solution is a strategic decision that goes beyond simply upgrading network security. It requires detailed planning and an outcomes-based approach to ensure that the implementation meets both operational and security needs. Here are five key steps MSPs should bear in mind when approaching a SASE deployment.
Define Core Objectives
Whilst this sounds like an obvious first step, in our experience, it is not given the attention it deserves. When embarking on a SASE project, requirements and outcomes need to be considered from a networking and security perspective simultaneously. Unfortunately, this is often overlooked, underestimated, or hastily pulled together at the start of the project and not reviewed until post-delivery – at which point it is too late. Oversights such as these can lead to security gaps, poor performance for its intended use, and further costs from having to rectify these issues.
This will help better guide your SASE solution's design and implementation. By anchoring the project in clear, business-driven objectives, MSPs can create a vision of the ideal SASE setup, ensuring that it aligns with broader digital transformation strategies. Important factors to consider include any hybrid/remote work setup and cloud adoption, including whether the organization plans to integrate any further technologies and databases or change their work structure, as these decisions will impact the SASE solution you ultimately deploy.
Recent findings from Xalient’s global research, ‘Why SASE is the Blueprint for Future-Proofing Your Network in 2025’, which surveyed 700 organizations that have already implemented a SASE solution, identified that the main driving factors for SASE implementation were addressing performance issues with business-critical SaaS apps (15%), securing remote access for the hybrid/remote workforce (14%), and addressing the rising cost of traditional network architecture (13%). However, security was also a key concern, as 99% of organizations had suffered a security breach in the last 12 months, and 44% identified remote, hybrid, or roaming workers as a leading risk factor for these breaches. These findings indicate that business strategies must be aligned with IT security and networking goals before embarking on the procurement journey.
Assess Existing Infrastructure and Identify Gaps
Once business objectives are defined, the next step is to evaluate the current IT infrastructure, as organizations need to identify gaps that could hinder the implementation of SASE. A further benefit from this exercise is identifying areas where SASE can add value. Whilst addressing the existing infrastructure, teams should also consider their current security policies and any upcoming regulations that may affect them, such as NIS2 or DORA, to identify any further areas for improvement. In this context, MSPs will be equipped with the information required to customize SASE architecture to ensure compliance and to fit the specific needs of the organization.
Pilot with a Proof of Concept
Before deploying SASE across the organization, it's helpful to test the solution on a small-scale pilot with a limited number of sites, applications, or users to ascertain whether the correct solution and approach have been selected. This proof of concept not only minimizes disruption but allows teams to showcase the outcomes and benefits of a SASE solution to key stakeholders. Whilst needs and benefits will vary from organization to organization, Xalient’s global research indicates that the top benefit experienced by 30% of organizations was improved performance of business-critical SaaS apps. This was followed by updated threat protection without hardware and software upgrades (28%), and the third most common benefit was improved security surrounding breaches with consistent policies (27%).
Scaling SASE Throughout the Organization
Once the pilot phase is completed and validated, the next step is to scale the SASE solution across the organization. This requires a phased rollout to avoid disrupting operations and to balance the pace of change with operational risk. Implementing SASE broadly means expanding coverage to additional sites, applications, and users, ensuring that policies are consistently applied across the entire infrastructure to ensure compliance is woven through every process.
Ongoing management of SASE
The final essential step all organizations must consider is that SASE is not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. Once deployed, the system requires ongoing monitoring, policy adjustments, and lifecycle management to ensure that it continues to deliver value and maintains the flexibility to respond to any upcoming laws and regulations. MSPs and IT teams must regularly assess network performance, security posture, and user experience. Through this, MSPs and IT teams can ensure that their SASE investment remains relevant and effective in the long term.
Taking an outcomes-based approach to SASE implementation ensures that both business and IT security objectives are met and that organizations can tackle current and future challenges with confidence. Additionally, by following a structured and phased deployment, organizations can derive maximum value from their SASE solutions, achieving improved security, better network performance, and enhanced user experience. Partnering with a specialist MSP who has implemented SASE solutions for other organizations may be beneficial to help address these five steps. The MSP’s expertise can be leveraged to help organizations navigate the complexities of SASE deployment with confidence.
In today’s modern hybrid environment, SASE is the future of networking and security.
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