5 Ways to Strengthen Zero-Trust Security with SASE

Applying zero-trust principles across a wide array of IT assets can be challenging because disparate systems don’t always have tight integration. This means IT teams can’t enable identity management or monitoring when there’s no way to link two different systems together.

The Canadian Cybersecurity Study’s findings uncovered the following key challenges of zero-trust adoption.

As per the Canadian Cybersecurity Study, 57.9 percent of organizations reported stronger zero-trust alignment as the primary driver behind SASE adoption.

This is because SASE converges security and networking onto a single platform that can govern multiple systems at once. With SASE, IT teams can monitor traffic flowing through various resources and apply consistent, identity-driven policies.

This reduces integration overhead, eliminates gaps between tools and ensures that access enforcement decisions are coordinated in real time.

As organizations plan to bring SASE onboard, they must understand the key zero-trust areas they want to improve. From stronger IAM enforcement to better branch networking, here are five SASE component solutions from our technology partners that can help address zero-trust gaps.

Access control is foundational to zero trust, because it acts as the primary control plane for verifying who or what is requesting access. In a zero-trust model, administration panels like IAM help authenticate the users based on methods like two-factor or multifactor authentication.

Cyberattackers can gain access to account information if IAM is not properly configured. This can lead to credential-based attacks and breaches or session hijacking and phishing risks that result in a compromised security perimeter.

Cisco Secure Access simplifies IT operations with the help of a single, cloud-managed console which features a unified client and AI-assisted centralized policy creation alongside aggregated reporting.

It comes with extensive security capabilities such as ZTNA, SWG, CASB, DLP, FWaaS, DNS security, remote browser isolation, digital experience monitoring and more, converged into one platform.

The solution also helps protect AI application and API use with app discovery, prompt and response DLP, hazardous use guardrails and blocking controls.

By integrating identity signals, device posture and contextual access controls, the solution helps enforce consistent identity-based policies. It further integrates with existing identity providers using standards like SAML, allowing organizations to extend zero-trust access without disrupting current IAM investments.

To simplify deployment and ongoing operations, CDW Canada offers managed Cisco Secure Access services, including 24x7 monitoring, threat analysis and remediation. This helps organizations maximize their Cisco investment while maintaining a strong zero-trust posture.

• Unified identity and access enforcement: Applies consistent, identity-based policies across web, SaaS and private applications.
• Reduced attack surface with ZTNA: Replaces traditional networks with granular, application-level access controls, minimizing exposure.
• Integrated visibility and threat response: Combines centralized policy management, analytics and Cisco Talos threat intelligence to improve detection and remediation.

For most organizations, a web browser is the main entry point for web access. This makes the browser both an essential component of the security framework and a key vulnerability.

Secure web gateway (SWG), a key component of the SASE framework, helps protect the web browser from malicious attacks. It enforces security policies for all web traffic and browser-based activities.

Improper SWG configuration can lead to inconsistent policy enforcement, opening up ways for cyberattackers to leverage security gaps. Additionally, misconfigured gateways often lack in-session visibility, meaning they cannot detect threats that are dynamically generated within the browser, such as AI-driven phishing pages.

Our partners at Palo Alto Networks offer the Prisma SASE platform, which comes with the Prisma Browser. The browser boosts SWG capabilities by embedding security controls directly within the user experience, where users access important portals and work apps.

At its core, Prisma Browser is designed to secure the last mile of access, the point where users interact with web apps, SaaS tools and AI workflows.

The solution enhances SWG capabilities by shifting enforcement closer to the user session. It performs real-time inspection inside the browser, analyzing content as it renders, rather than relying on external proxies.

It also uses AI-driven analysis to detect phishing pages, malicious scripts and impersonation attempts in real time.

• Extends SWG enforcement to the browser layer: Moves security controls closer to the user by applying real-time inspection and policy enforcement directly within browser sessions, closing visibility gaps left by traditional gateways.
• Protects modern workflows and AI interactions: Secures SaaS, web and Gen AI usage with inline monitoring and data protection.
• Delivers continuous, context-aware security: Combines identity, behaviour and session-level context to enforce adaptive policies in real time, aligning tightly with zero-trust principles.

As per the Canadian Cybersecurity Study, continuous authentication and authorization was reported as a zero-trust implementation challenge by 39.7 percent of organizations.

The ability to authenticate and authorize rapidly is enabled by zero-trust network access (ZTNA). This ensures that users are checked before granting access to applications without exposing the underlying network.

When ZTNA is not properly implemented, it can introduce both security and operational challenges. Poor configuration may result in latency, inconsistent access policies or excessive authentication attempts, creating friction for users.

Additionally, organizations may over-permission their access controls, allowing users to reach applications they aren’t allowed to.

Our partners at Cloudflare address ZTNA challenges with their Cloudflare Access solution. It’s designed to replace legacy access architectures with a cloud-delivered, identity-aware access model that authenticates and authorizes users quickly while minimizing network bottlenecks.

At a high level, Cloudflare Access acts as a global identity-aware proxy, sitting in front of applications and enforcing access decisions. It integrates with existing identity providers and constantly evaluates multiple signals to check whether access should be granted.

Moreover, Cloudflare has a global distributed edge network, located close to users, which helps eliminate traffic latency. The solution supports both clientless (browser-based) access for third parties and lightweight agents for managed users, ensuring secure access without operational friction.

• Scalable identity enforcement at the edge: Delivers near-instant authentication and authorization globally, eliminating latency and enabling secure access for distributed users without performance trade-offs.
• Seamless user experience: Uses token-based access and single sign-on to reduce login hurdles while maintaining continuous, context-aware validation across sessions.
• Granular application-level access: Replaces broad network access with per-request access controls, minimizing lateral movement and ensuring users only connect to explicitly authorized applications.

With the rise of hybrid work, new edge locations continue to emerge. This could be a secondary Wi-Fi router at home or a 5G connection on the go. Such edges must be secured with trustable controls.

As distributed work becomes more prominent, it’s critical to ensure security controls are applied as close as possible to users, devices and access points, wherever they are.

Without edge-based security, it’s harder to contain expanding attack surfaces and provide consistent security policies across distributed sites.

Our partners at Fortinet offer the FortiSASE solution that converges networking and security while extending protection across all edges, including core networks, thin edge locations (wireless access points, extenders, etc.) and remote users.

FortiSASE extends network security to the edge through a tightly integrated and distributed architecture. Security inspection is delivered through globally distributed points of presence, providing low-latency protection to users anywhere.

At the same time, it extends SASE protections directly to access points, branch devices and edge hardware. This helps secure locations that traditionally lack dedicated security infrastructure.

The solution also comes with continuous, real-time protection against advanced threats across all edges using centralized intelligence and analytics.

• Unified policy enforcement across hybrid environments: Applies consistent security policies across on-premises, cloud and remote environments through a single control plane, reducing policy drift and misconfigurations.
• Deep integration of security and networking: Natively combines SD-WAN and security services, enabling threat enforcement decisions.
• Distributed and thin edge protection: Extends enterprise-grade security to branch offices, remote sites and lightweight edge devices without requiring complex infrastructure.

One of the most persistent challenges in SASE architectures is the lack of unified, end-to-end zero-trust enforcement across the entire network fabric. The Canadian Cybersecurity Study found that 33.7 percent of organizations see security and network simplification as a key SASE adoption driver.

Fragmented legacy controls and improper system integration can lead to gaps in how zero trust is implemented. This creates break points, where policies are applied inconsistently across users, devices and locations, while unmanaged or IoT endpoints remain largely invisible to the security stack.

In modern distributed environments where endpoints span branch, cloud and remote settings, a lack of cohesion directly undermines zero-trust principles.

Our partners at HPE address this challenge of fragmented zero trust with their edge-to-cloud zero-trust platform, built on a unified SASE architecture.

The solution embeds zero-trust principles directly into the network itself, combining SD-WAN, cloud-delivered security (SSE) and AI-powered network access control (NAC) into a single platform.

HPE’s platform integrates enforcement points across the entire network fabric, from access edge to cloud edge. Its EdgeConnect SD-WAN provides intelligent traffic routing and security capabilities (e.g., firewalling, segmentation) directly into branch and campus networks.

At the same time, its cloud-delivered SSE services enforce access and data protection policies globally.  This ensures that traffic is automatically directed to the appropriate security controls without manual configuration.

• End-to-end zero-trust enforcement: Applies consistent identity-driven policies across users, devices (including IoT) and locations.
• Reduced complexity through native integration: Eliminates fragmented tools and manual policy synchronization with a unified platform.
• Enhanced visibility and adaptive security: Uses AI-powered NAC to continuously profile devices and enforce dynamic segmentation, enabling real-time security decisions.

CDW’s 2026 Canadian Cybersecurity Study sheds light on the evolution of zero-trust security and how, despite these challenges, adoption is booming. To help your organization implement zero trust effectively, CDW offers the following services.

Our services begin with assessment and planning, where experts evaluate an organization’s current network and security posture, identify gaps and design a tailored SASE roadmap.

Beyond planning, CDW supports implementation and integration, helping organizations deploy key SASE components such as SD-WAN, ZTNA, secure web gateways and cloud-delivered security services.

To reduce operational complexity, CDW also provides managed SASE services, delivering ongoing monitoring, optimization and support through our managed security practice. These services are designed to offload day-to-day management, provide 24/7 expertise and ensure that SASE environments remain secure, scalable and aligned with evolving threats and business needs.

Start meeting your zero-trust needs with a customized SASE solution, delivered and maintained by CDW.