In August, Carlsberg announced Cato Networks as the provider of its SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) solution. The brewer was looking to move from several regional service providers with fragmented technical solutions to one integrated network and security stack with an end-to-end managed service. 

Tal, why did you choose an all-in-one solution?
Our legacy network, built from different regional point solutions and technologies, proved to be challenging to manage. Opening new locations took too long. The mix of appliances also created security problems. With multiple firewall appliances, visibility was fragmented. Multiple sets of security policies had to be maintained, which increased complexity and risk.

Now that Cato Networks owns the whole ecosystem from software and hardware, it makes the whole thing much easier. We’re talking to a single partner, so we have a single point of success or failure.

How long will the implementation take?
We’re looking at around one year. We know this is a short time frame but we’re confident we can do it. We’ve run a few successful pilots already.

What are you most excited about with this project?
We are finally going to have a global network instead of three regional networks. For first time, we have end-to-end network management capability and the ability to seamlessly manage operational issues and deployments.

At the moment, we have two separate tech stacks for security and IT operations – by joining these departments we can do so much more, and do it more efficiently.

What problems will it solve?
Previously, day-to-day management was compromised. Change requests took too long in part because of the different management interfaces, which complicated problem identification and resolution. Coordinating the different layers of the solution with different service providers became a real challenge.

We now expect to have improved bandwidth as we can bundle multiple bandwidth sources into a single pipeline.

Will the SASE solution free up your staff?
Absolutely… in time. I’m hoping this project will enable my senior architects to focus on the operational side of things, such as planning, designing and new site deployment. We were always in fire-fighting mode. I want to get away from that.

Any tips for project success?
The whole organisation – including management – needs to be onboard and understand that downtime may sometimes be required.

Strong project management is required on both sides because of the number of sites and the complexity of the deployment. It’s important to have a strict plan in place and administer follow-up on the tasks. You'll also need strong technical resources to fix any issues.

We’ve seen that you need to treat your partner as a partner, not as a vendor. In order to support us, they need to understand us as well as we understand them.