Cisco streamlines, upgrades its SASE bundle

Cisco's Secure Access Service Edge products may now be purchased as a subscription service, allowing for its solutions to be provided in an integrated package accessible through a cloud dashboard, Network World reports. Cisco's Security Business Group Senior Vice President and General Manager Gee Rittenhouse said the package encompasses the company's Viptella and Meraki SD-WAN software products, remote access components Duo and AnyConnect and its Umbrella network security solution. Experts say enterprises continuously seek integrated security packages in the market, as "[e]ighty percent of organizations want to reduce the number of security vendors and products to create a more integrated protection/incident-response," according to Gartner Research Vice President Peter Firstbrook. In addition, Cisco upgraded several of the package's components, such as Umbrella security's new remote browser isolation, data loss prevention and cloud malware detection capabilities; passwordless authentication on Duo; and a new single interface for threat detection and remediation for its SecureX cloud-based platform. The company also unveiled the new SASE Developer Center channel in its DevNet community with resources for developing SASE implementations that incorporate SASE's various components.