Cloud-delivered Security

The Market Compass analyzes cloud-delivered security gateways that protect users from a broad range of cyber threats without deploying on-premises appliances or requiring changes to existing network infrastructures. As digital transformation makes organizations more cloud-native, mobile, and interconnected, the traditional network perimeter is dissolving, leaving users exposed to malware, ransomware, and other threats while legacy perimeter tools struggle with visibility, scalability, and the user experience of remote work. A growing challenge is fragmented oversight across heterogeneous environments, which complicates security operations and fuels compliance risks such as Shadow IT, where unsanctioned devices and cloud services can directly contribute to breaches.

Cloud-based “security clouds” with multiple geographically distributed breakout points are positioned as an alternative to costly, operationally complex on-prem gateways and VPN backhauling. These platforms aim to preserve performance and productivity while providing first-line “defense in depth,” including monitoring, policy enforcement, and real-time threat mitigation. The market is diverse, with major variation in protocol coverage and interception methods; solutions may focus on web, email, or broader traffic types, and limitations in interception technology can reduce protection against specific threats.

The report emphasizes evaluating capabilities rather than labels, given increasing overlap between CASB, SWG, and ZTNA offerings and the market push toward consolidation under concepts like SASE—integrating security, SD-WAN, and identity services. It defines essential baseline capabilities (global infrastructure, centralized management, privacy/data residency controls, broad endpoint/protocol support, SSL inspection, integrations, and real-time analytics) plus advanced features such as ATP, DLP, application control, CASB, privacy enhancements, ZTNA, CSPM, and expanded coverage for email and messaging. Vendors are compared via ratings across security, interoperability, usability, deployment, data protection, and specific protection domains, with featured highlights for Akamai (scale), Cisco (Zero Trust ecosystem), and Zscaler (deployment simplicity).

• Inclusion requires that services do not require customers to deploy on-premises hardware or change existing network infrastructures.
• Akamai’s edge platform spans over 4,000 points of presence globally and is within direct reach of over 90% of Internet users.
• Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange is distributed across more than 150 data centers globally and uses thousands of enforcement nodes.
• Cisco acquired OpenDNS in 2015 and offers the resulting cloud security suite under the Cisco Umbrella brand.
• Broadcom entered the cybersecurity market by purchasing CA Technologies in 2018 and later acquiring Symantec’s enterprise security.
• Ivanti acquired Pulse Secure in 2020.
• Forcepoint became private again in October 2020.
• Mimecast was founded in 2003 in London and has over 10 local offices worldwide.
• Retarus was founded in 1992 and is based in Munich, Germany.
• Palo Alto Networks’ cloud security offerings are presented under the Prisma brand, including Prisma Access, Prisma SaaS, and Prisma Cloud.

• “Traditional perimeter security tools no longer provide adequate visibility, threat protection, and scalability, nor can they offer convenience and productivity for users on the go.”
• “However, an even more crucial problem is the general lack of full visibility across disjointed heterogeneous environments that makes the daily job of a security expert painfully complicated.”
• “As soon as employees start using their personal devices and unsanctioned cloud services to perform their jobs, this introduces massive potential impacts not just on compliance but may directly lead to a data breach.”
• “An increasingly popular alternative… is a security gateway operating directly in the cloud or rather a whole ‘security cloud’ consisting of multiple breakout points across different geographical regions.”
• “This way, a secure cloud gateway can be considered the first line of defense in a multilayered ‘defense in depth’ security infrastructure…”
• “The market now offers a substantial number of cloud-based security solutions that vary in their functional scope, platform coverage, and operational complexity.”
• “Since the market for cloud-delivered security solutions is still far from maturity, and the terminology used by vendors is inconsistent at best, comparing currently available products… can be a challenge for customers.”
• “KuppingerCole’s recommendation has always been to look past product labels and categorizations, focusing instead on identifying the capabilities required to address specific problems and requirements…”
• “It is important to stress that the definition of SASE does not provide any substantial details about the technical implementation or architecture of such a platform.”
• “With this global footprint, Akamai can serve numerous large enterprise customers… without ever facing performance or scalability bottlenecks.”