By Harish Kumar GS
Sometimes, the cloud provides an excellent platform to deliver a wide range of services, but in other cases, it is important to recognize when an all-cloud approach may not be the most effective solution. According to Check Point’s Cloud Security Report 2024, the sharp rise in cloud security incidents, which represents a significant increase from 24% in 2023 to 61% in 2024, a whopping 154% increase, highlights the increasing complexity and frequency of cloud threats. In fact, according to a recent PWC survey, 52% of Indian organizations are most concerned about cloud-related threats.
That’s why Harmony SASE takes a hybrid approach. It provides secure internet access on the device, while still providing functionality in the cloud for those who want it. The result is a cybersecurity solution that keeps your workforce protected from online threats and maintains your connection speeds without compromising device performance.
Improve performance with Cloudless
A Secure Web Gateway (SWG) is a core component of secure Internet access. A Secure Web Gateway can be integrated into an on-premises gateway, but most often, it is part of a cloud-based gateway.
A cloud-based approach means you don’t have to worry about the so-called trombone effect where data travels from a remote user to a company’s data center on the other side of the world, and then to the website. Instead, you simply go directly to a nearby cloud provider for security checks before reaching the web.
This is a much better approach, but it still has some built-in latency that you can’t avoid, which slows down your connection performance. With Harmony SASE, we cut out the cloud and handle your web security needs right on the device, including web filtering and malware protection.
The results can be astounding with performance up to 2x faster than a traditional cloud-based approach. That’s the difference when you take the most direct path to your web destination without sacrificing security.
Need better privacy? Go to local site
But there are many benefits to a hybrid approach beyond just boosting internet speeds, such as security and privacy. Most secure internet solutions perform SSL scanning in the cloud to check for potential threats. This means your company’s traffic is decrypted in an uncensored location.
This may be fine on a day-to-day basis, but what happens when your cloud provider experiences a breach due to a misconfiguration, a zero-day in underlying technologies, or any other number of potential threats?
Suddenly, this secure cloud service became a treasure trove of data ready for hackers to do more damage.
With Harmony SASE, we perform SSL scanning on the end user’s device. This means that every SSL scan is performed locally in an environment under your organization’s control. Additionally, if you have any region-specific requirements for SSL scanning, they are automatically covered because the feature runs locally by default.
Location, location, location?
Hybrid SASE also means you're not distorting your browser's built-in geolocation, which is useful for more than just ordering lunch.
Imagine, for example, that you need to access a government service as part of your daily operations. The service in question requires an IP address that is native to your country, but the internet gateway closest to you does not. Now you have to disconnect from your security service just to access the site – which is not ideal given the sensitivity of the data you are about to access.
Better geolocation also helps streamline processes by presenting applications in the correct language or ordering office supplies using the correct location.
This may not seem like a big deal, but if you add in the number of daily translation requests that need manual adjustment, you'll find that this has a significant impact on productivity.
When it comes to Internet access, you don't want to sacrifice performance or productivity, and with Check Point, you don't have to.
Meet Harmony SASE
Secure, fast, local internet access is just one part of our offering. We also offer secure, private access for remote workers connecting to public cloud and on-premises servers.
Both Internet Access and Private Access don’t require hardware, which means we handle all of the security patches, OS updates, and other critical maintenance. Both services are bundled in an easy-to-use cloud console, making it easy for your IT team to integrate and increase operational efficiency, including one-click scalability.
Harmony SASE is part of the Harmony for Workspace suite. Harmony helps organizations of all sizes secure their workspaces with a suite of products including SASE, SaaS security, email security, endpoint and mobile security, and in-browser security.
(The author is Harish Kumar GS, Head of Sales India & SAARC, Check Point Software Technologies, Inc. The views expressed in this article are his own)
