Monthly Archives: July 2024

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) for Hybrid Work Environments

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In 2020, the way people worked changed, likely for good. Instead of being in the office most of the time, employees worked at home. Although some workers have come back to the office, hybrid work is here to stay. Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), pronounced “sassy”) is ideal for hybrid work, with its cloud-native architecture, centralized access policies and support of access based on device identity. Read on to learn more about this architecture and what it can bring to hybrid offices.

 

Benefits of SASE for Hybrid Work

 

The cloud-native architecture of Secure Address Service Edge can combine the flexibility and scalability of cloud with the connectivity of Software-Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN). Add to this centralized access policies based on user device identity. Data does not need to travel from one source to the data center, and back again–lessening the chances of it being lost or intercepted in transit. Access is verified at specific endpoints when a user logs in, and data can travel along SD-WAN pathways to these endpoints, once verification occurs. SASE can address the needs of hybrid offices for security and connectivity. 

 

Key components of SASE include:

 

  • Secure Web Gateway: a cloud-based proxy that enforces standards for communication applications like Microsoft Teams, which are frequently used by hybrid offices. 

 

  • Firewall as a Service (FWaaS): Cloud-based firewall that provides a standard security experience and eliminates the need for an on-premises firewall.

 

  • Cloud-Access Security Broker: Extends rules and policies to software and infrastructure not owned by your company.

 

  • Zero-Trust Network Access (ZTNA): Anytime a user or device (such as a remote worker’s laptop) requests access to the network, it is evaluated to ensure that it has a right to access the network, and access is granted–or denied, if suspicious. 

 

Considerations for Adopting Secure Access Service Edge

 

While SASE is an effective architecture combining SD-WAN’s connectivity with various security controls, it is not a substitute for cybersecurity policies. Hybrid offices, with some endpoints beyond the office’s perimeter, are still subject to social engineering attacks like phishing. Employees still need to know how to spot and report a phishing email and prevent malware from entering the network. Companies still need to assess the offerings of SASE and how it aligns with business goals (including hybrid work). Other technologies, like endpoint detection and response (EDR) and/or Managed Detection and Response (MDR) may need to be deployed alongside SASE. 

 

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) can help give your hybrid work environment the connectivity it needs, as well as support security policies. For more information on using the SASE architecture in your company, contact your trusted technology advisor today. 

Put Artificial Intelligence to Work for Your Business

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What will your company do with artificial intelligence, now that it’s a key technological trend? Artificial intelligence (AI, for short) holds the potential to revolutionize how your business meets its goals. Fueled by the natural language model of generative AI, automation of processes, data analysis, and streamlining tasks have all helped businesses work more efficiently. Read on to learn more about specific use cases for different aspects of your business.

 

Multiple Use Cases for Artificial Intelligence

 

With AI working behind the scenes to automate tasks, and the release of ChatGPT in the fall of 2022, new capabilities and use cases have opened up–content generation, development of artwork, and other creative applications are available. Microsoft also entered the picture by integrating Co Pilot with their popular office productivity suite in early 2023. Use cases are plentiful for C-level staff, operations, sales and marketing, human resources and more.

 

C-Level Executives: More business data is generated daily, and harnessing it can be overwhelming. Artificial intelligence can analyze data and distill insights from it in a way that mere human effort cannot match. Market trends, customer behavior, and financial metrics can all be derived from the vast amounts of data a business generates, as well as internet content. Moreover, they might get ideas for ways other departments can use AI.

 

Financial: Finance Departments can use AI for document search and synthesis, enabling them to understand contract information and regulatory filings. Artificial intelligence can also analyze and synthesize transactional data, identifying anomalies that might indicate possible fraud. Automated bots can perform mundane data entry and reconciliation tasks. Financial analysts realize productivity gains by using AI to set up complex spreadsheets for financial analysis.

 

Human Resources: AI can help streamline recruiting to help your company search out the ideal candidate, simplify documentation for on-boarding, and gather employee feedback to improve their experience. Big data from large language models (LLMs) can help your human resources department make informed decisions and also streamline benefits and compensation. AI is also ideal for creating job descriptions.

 

Operations: Drawing up meeting agendas and synthesizing insights from meeting notes; automatically inviting attendees, summing up information for attendees arriving later; preparing timelines for rollouts of new products.

 

Sales/Marketing: AI can be used to prepare for an upcoming meeting by summarizing emails and researching customer information from internal systems.  AI can also help with generating proposals, creating powerpoints and more.

 

Customer Service: AI can help customer service representatives quickly pull up customer data; summarize interactions, prompt for next best answers and empower live chat to enhance customer experience.

 

With all of these benefits, be sure to use AI responsibly and securely in your organization.  Ensure you have an acceptable use policy and train your employees properly. In addition, identify and tag sensitive information to avoid unnecessary data leaks.

 

For all departments, tools like CoPilot can help generate and augment content, allow the writer to try different styles and ask questions for more information. Artificial intelligence can be a game changer for your business; to learn more, contact your trusted technology advisor today.