In response to an increasing demand for cloud-centric infrastructure solutions that integrate network and security functionalities and address hybrid work challenges, Netskope, a provider of secure access service edge (SASE), has announced Next Gen SASE Branch.

The new infrastructure leverages Netskope's Borderless SD-WAN to provide better management of critical networking and security functions, optimizing enterprise branches on a global scale.

SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) has already influenced enterprise purchasing decisions. According to a report by Gartner (News - Alert), by 2026, 60 percent of new SD-WAN purchases will be part of a comprehensive single-vendor SASE offering— this is a large increase over the 15 percent recorded in 2022.

Branch infrastructures are often faced with issues surrounding legacy SD-WAN solutions and disjointed network security technologies that cannot handle the demands of cloud-first, hybrid work environments.

With Netskope Next Gen SASE Branch, empowered by Borderless SD-WAN, they’ll get a unified SD-WAN and security appliance, the Netskope SASE Gateway (News - Alert), combined with a context-aware SASE fabric, zero trust-based security, and a SkopeAI-powered cloud orchestrator.

"We've designed the Next Gen SASE Branch with the biggest needs of enterprise businesses in mind, both today and in the future," said Parag Thakore, SVP, Borderless SD-WAN at Netskope. "Organizations no longer need to manage a complex stack of solutions to properly operate their enterprise, nor do they need to sacrifice performance for security. With Next Gen SASE Branch, they can take full advantage of a one-platform, one-software, one-policy approach that's uniquely and fully enabled by Netskope Borderless SD-WAN."

The cloud-based offering will help optimize and secure traffic from all locations and users to cloud and on-premises locations.

"The era of the hyper-distributed enterprise - where workers can be anywhere and applications are everywhere - is causing organizations across the globe to transform their network and security strategies," said Brandon Butler, IDC (News - Alert) Research Manager, Enterprise Networks. "Key capabilities for next-generation architectures include deeply integrated networking and context-aware security, cloud-based management, and advanced automation enhanced by AI/ML. Netskope's Next Gen SASE Branch exemplifies the company's approach to SASE by combining the important elements of Borderless SD-WAN via NewEdge with a portfolio of cloud-native and context-aware security capabilities."