Hear from the Experts: Best Practices for Evolving from SD-WAN to SASE

The enterprise networking landscape is currently undergoing its most radical architectural transformation since the inception of the internet, driven by the obsolescence of the traditional division between connectivity and security. Historically, networking teams managed bandwidth "plumbing" while security teams maintained perimeter defenses. However, the dual pressures of cloud ubiquity and a distributed workforce have rendered this bifurcated model ineffective, forcing a convergence of these formerly distinct disciplines.

As organizations transition from rigid private circuits to agile Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN), they have gained cost-efficiency but inadvertently expanded their attack surface by pushing traffic onto the public internet. This tension has catalyzed the rise of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE). SASE represents a strategic philosophy that replaces location-based security with an identity-centric infrastructure, weaving protection directly into the network fabric to resolve the long-standing paradox between performance and protection. By moving rigorous security inspection to the cloud edge, enterprises can minimize latency while maximizing defense.

This evolution is being further accelerated by the integration of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. As modern network environments reach levels of complexity that defy manual human intervention, the industry is pivoting toward "intent-based" systems. These advanced architectures are designed to be self-healing and self-optimizing, capable of autonomously adjusting to performance fluctuations or emerging security threats in real time. Ultimately, this shift marks the end of the standalone network, replaced by a unified, intelligent service delivery model.
 

Join EMA’s Chris Steffen and experts from Coevolve, Versa Networks, and Zscaler to explore new WAN transformation research findings and the trends reshaping enterprise networking.