Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is the newest security offering our customer have been most interested in this year. SASE offers businesses the ability to consolidate multiple security functions such as ZTNA, DLP, and CASB into a unified platform, simplifying management and reducing costs. One of our favorite SASE providers to work with is Cato Networks. Impulse is an MSP level partner with Cato and has implemented many game changing Cato solutions for our customers.
One of the things that sets us apart at Impulse is our team’s deep core networking foundation, and we have found that Cato offers one of the best SD-WAN solutions via their unique Cato socket. A Cato socket allows a business to connect multiple WAN links (including LTE) and easily utilize all connectivity to the fullest. A super slick web interface lets customers easily manage what traffic goes out which link, provides QoS, and connects offices. The simplicity (or some would say the magic) of the Cato socket is that all networking, compute, and security are not handled locally; instead, it is all done in the Cato cloud. A Cato socket simply aggregates multiple Internet connections and creates a tunnel to the Cato cloud, where all functionality is handled, including DHCP and firewall rules.
For remote users on their laptops, smartphones, and tablets that are not behind a Cato socket, the Cato SDP (Software Defined Perimeter) client is used. Think of the SDP client as a super robust VPN, but instead of hauling your users all the way across the wild internet to a tiny Firewall in your closet, the SDP client connects your users to the closest Cato Pop, where they take advantage of all the same firewall rules and security policies that your offices use. Because there are over 85 Cato POPs across the world, the SDP client provides a significant speed boost compared to the classic user-hostile VPN client.
In addition to simplifying networking and providing robust SD-WAN features, Cato Networks meets all the security needs of a business, including:
- Single-Pass Inspection: Security tools simultaneously inspect all traffic in context and apply appropriate policies. This ensures a single-context view of threats, reduces blind spots, and eliminates false positives.
- Owning the Network: A private cloud network and critical infrastructure provide advanced global services to allow incremental deployment of new and enhanced capabilities with zero impact on service and reliability.
- Complete Visibility: Threat prevention, detection, and response benefit from in-depth visibility to accurately identify malicious activities and automatically apply appropriate policies to mitigate threats and protect critical business resources.
- Reducing the Attack Surface: Limits network and application entry points and protects critical resources with advanced access policies.
- Threat Prevention: Predicated on deep visibility gained across the network and an intelligence-based approach that acts as a “single brain in the cloud.” This combines advanced tools like IPS, DNS Security, and FwaaS with data analysis, machine learning, threat detection & response, and threat simulation.
- Detection and Remediation: Utilizes security sensors to provide a contextual understanding of malicious activities by inspecting traffic to detect common events and incidents. This allows SASE-Based Extended Detection and Response (XDR) to detect and remediate completely and accurately.
- Managing at Scale: Customer network and security operations are managed through a single application to generate coherent data and enable consistent policy enforcement across sites and remote users.
Here is a video interview with the IT director of the Towbes Group discussing how well Cato has worked for his team.
If you would like to learn more about Cato Networks please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Impulse team at sales@impulse.net or 805.456.5800.
