Gartner introduced the SSE concept in 2021 and defined it as a group of technologies that secure access to the web, cloud services and private applications regardless of the location of the user, their device, or where the application is hosted. SSE capabilities include threat protection, data security, access control, security monitoring, and acceptable-use control enforced by network-based and API-based integration.

In practice, Security Service Edge (SSE) combines diverse security functions and delivers them as a service from the cloud. The core modules include secure web gateway (SWG), zero trust network access (ZTNA), firewall-as-a-service (FWaaS), and cloud access security broker (CASB). These are supplemented by multimode DLP, DNS Security, remote browser isolation (RBI), sandboxing and threat intelligence. SSE helps enforce modern cybersecurity to radically reduce risk and improve the end-user and IT staff experience by addressing today’s challenge of safely connecting anything to anywhere.

IT and security teams are finding it challenging to secure increasingly dispersed employees, contractors, and partners. End users primarily connect to cloud-located SaaS applications or IaaS sources, as well as private applications, from anywhere that has an internet connection. As a result, more traffic flows outside of data centers and bypasses the traditional security perimeter. This magnifies the attack surface. The level and sophistication of threats constantly grows. Altogether, this expands security gaps that legacy security architectures aren’t built to handle.

SSE can protect your organization from cybersecurity threats, simplify the access procedures for hybrid workers, and reduce IT/Security complexity — no matter where employees log in.