This week Juniper Networks announced its new Secure Edge product, which is a cloud-based firewall-as-a-service (FWaaS) solution. The new product will be part of its secure-access service edge (SASE) portfolio, which currently includes application control, anti-malware, identity and access control, intrusion prevention, threat intelligence, zero trust, and secure web access. All the features available in Juniper’s on-premises SRX next-generation firewall (NGFW) are now available from the cloud.
Historically, SASE deployments had been tied to SD-WAN because customers required a different security model to protect a wide-area network that utilizes internet transport instead of private IP services, such as MPLS. SD-WAN deployments stalled when people were sent to work from home as companies started to rethink branch-office connectivity.
Also: How Juniper is using AI in SD-WAN to differentiate itself
SASE enables businesses to give home workers business-grade security ZDNet Recommends
This is when SASE purchasing shifted from secondary to primary. Securing home workers is a non-trivial, expensive task with traditional security devices. Businesses would need to connect workers to a corporate location via a VPN, aggregate the connection and secure them through a next-generation firewall, and then workers would connect to the internet through a single connection.
Most home workers use cloud apps, obviating the need
