Cloud security posture management tools help in the identification and remediation of risks across cloud infrastructures, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS). These tools continuously assess the security posture across multi-cloud environments by maintaining a current inventory of the cloud assets for proactive analysis and risk assessment to detect any misconfigurations. Once these misconfigurations are identified, security controls are developed and implemented. CSPM solutions also integrate with DevOps tools, streamlining the incident response process and ensuring continuous compliance with regulatory requirements and security frameworks by providing visibility of the cloud environment’s security posture.
Gartner defines digital experience monitoring (DEM) tools as those that measure the availability, performance and quality of the user experience (human user or digital agent) of critical applications. This can include internal users (employees and contractors), external users (customers and partners) or a digital agent connecting to an API. In addition to performance, DEM technologies enable observability of user behavior and journey based on their interaction with applications.
Gartner defines operational technology (OT) as “hardware and software that detects or causes a change, through direct monitoring and/or control of industrial equipment, assets, processes and events”. OT security includes practices and technologies used to protect them, but these practices and technologies are now evolving into distinct categories to address the growing threats, security practices and vendor dynamics.
Gartner defines SD-WAN as functionality primarily used to connect branch locations to other enterprise and cloud locations. SD-WAN products provide dynamic path selection based on business or application policy, routing, centralized orchestration of policy and management of appliances, virtual private network (VPN), and zero-touch configuration. SD-WAN products are WAN transport/carrier-agnostic and create secure paths across physical WAN connections. SD-WAN products replace traditional branch routers and enable connectivity between enterprise branch locations as well as the cloud. They facilitate WAN connectivity’s evolution from Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)-centric to public internet-centric in support of enterprise traffic shifts from private data centers to public cloud and SaaS.
Gartner defines security service edge (SSE) as a solution that secures access to the web, cloud services and private applications regardless of the location of the user or the device they are using or where that application is hosted. SSE protects users from malicious and inappropriate content on the web and provides enhanced security and visibility for the SaaS and private applications accessed by end users. Security service edge provides a primarily cloud-delivered solution to control access from end users and edge devices to applications (private or delivered via SaaS) as well as websites (and to a lesser extent general internet traffic). It enables a hybrid workforce more efficiently than traditional on-premises solutions. Capabilities integrated across multiple traffic types and destinations allow a more seamless experience for both users and admins while maintaining a consistent security stance.
Gartner defines single-vendor secure access service edge (SASE) offerings as those that deliver multiple converged-network and security-as-a-service capabilities, such as software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN), secure web gateway (SWG), cloud access security broker (CASB), network firewalling and zero trust network access (ZTNA). These offerings use a cloud-centric architecture and are delivered by one vendor. SASE securely connects users and devices with applications. It supports branch office, remote worker and on-premises general internet security, private application access and cloud service consumption use cases.
Gartner defines zero trust network access (ZTNA) as products and services that create an identity and context-based, logical-access boundary that encompasses an enterprise user and an internally hosted application or set of applications. The applications are hidden from discovery, and access is restricted via a trust broker to a collection of named entities, which limits lateral movement within a network.