Netskope Cybersecurity Solutions

Netskope SASE Solution: Comparisons, Review, Benefits, Use Cases, Pros & Cons

Author: Netify Research Team

If you have questions about Netskope and how their capability is aligned to your needs, email the Netify research team.
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Netify Review

Netskope are a leader in the Security Service Edge (SSE) market, as such they are a good choice for companies requiring SASE or SSE solutions. Their partnerships with SD WAN vendors such as VMware, Versa Networks and HPE Aruba, amongst others, allow clients with pre-existing solutions from these vendors to augment with Netskope cybersecurity solutions. Further, they also offer strong cloud security options from the Netskope secure cloud. However, they are not a full SD WAN vendor and therefore a full network solution is only available via Netskope partnered vendors. Further, caution may be taken for those requiring managed services and extensive support as Netskope’s support teams have been noted to have long wait times and are often located in different time-zones, meaning that response times are obscure. 

About Netskope

Netskope is an American cybersecurity vendor founded in 2012. Their primary focus is on Security Service Edge (SSE) and SASE, with data-centric cloud security. Netskope were named a leader in the inaugural 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Security Service Edge (SSE) and the 2021 IDC Marketscape for Cloud Security Gateways.

Netskope Products and Services:

• Netskope for Box: Designed to locate all instances of Box within a client’s environment, with the ability to tell the difference between personal and corporate accounts. This determines if security permissions are configured correctly and whether they can lead to data leakages. 
• Advanced Analytics: A business intelligence and big data analytics solution offering visibility into cloud risk posture for users, data and applications. 
• Digital Experience Management: Monitors user activity in real-time to offer visibility into network and applications with actionable insights to ensuring that cloud security is performing. 
• SaaS Security Posture Management: Leverages Netskope CASB (see Netskope SASE) to enforce SaaS best practices, security policies, ensure compliance and prevent configuration drift. 
• Data Loss Prevention: Locates and protects sensitive data from any area in the cloud, stopping data loss, exfiltration and inadvertent public exposure, whilst securing cloud, email and web. 
• SSL/TLS Inspection:Analyzes encrypted web traffic and cloud services for data theft, advanced threats and malware. 
• Adaptive Access Control: Manages access to cloud applications and services based on location, identity and device type etc.
• Remote Browser Isolation: Stops website codes from executing on end-user devices by isolating risky and uncategorized websites. 
• Web Content Filtering: Offers cloud-based web content filtering for remote offices, headquarters and mobile workers on company managed devices to enforce Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs). Clients can use predefined and custom categories as well as categories for silent ad blocking, applications, YouTube and security risks. 
• Third Party Risk: Identifies risks to client’s data by locating all cloud services within the environment and analyzing the context of how each is being used. 
• Threat Protection: Identifies and remedies threats by decoding and inspecting traffic such as sync clients, unmanaged cloud services, managed cloud services and websites. 
• Professional Services: Netskope will help clients to plan and deploy cloud security services throughout the entire process. 
• SD WAN: Netskope offers client’s security to augment their SD WAN solution. The SASE-ready WAN edge includes next-generation Secure Web Gateway (SWG) and is available for deployments from Versa Networks, HPE Aruba and VMware. 

Netskope SASE:

Netskope offer Security Service Edge (SSE) SASE in a single cloud-centric platform. The solution is designed to secure transactions regardless of where users and data are located. It offers advanced threat protection against cloud-enabled security risks and safeguards data across any platform, including applications, users and clouds. The solution is built on the Netskope Security Cloud (see, How does Netskope Deliver Cloud Security) and is SLA backed. 

What ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access) Solution is Supported by Netskope?

Cloud-based ZTNA is built on the Netskope Security Cloud which offers efficient application connectivity to ensure users experience a fast service. As a component of the SSE (SASE) platform, ZTNA connects authorized users from anywhere to private resources in data centers and public clouds, using any device. 

What CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker) Solution is Supported by Netskope?

Netskope CASB is designed to identify and control cloud application usage (both managed and unmanaged) to protect sensitive data from being exfiltrated from the corporate environment. It does this by continuously assessing security and compliance over Software as a Service (SaaS), preventing misconfigurations, with Netskope SSPM (See, Netskope Products and Services).

What SWG (Secure Web Gateway) Solution is Supported by Netskope?

Netskope SWG was named a Visionary in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SWG. The solution offers cloud-delivered web security to protect applications, cloud services, data and websites for any user, device or location. It prevents malware, filters by category, protects data, detects advanced threats and controls application use for any location, device or user. The platform unifies SWG, DLP and CASB into common policy controls with rich metadata and custom reporting for ad-hoc queries. 

What FWaaS (Firewall as a Service) Solution is Supported by Netskope?

Cloud Firewall is built directly into the Netskope Security Cloud and is designed to secure ports and protocols using cloud-based firewall rules. The solution will secure user and office egress traffic leveraging central administration and global access with New Edge data centers and single-pass SASE architectures. 

Deployment Options:

Netskope offer a range of deployment options:

• Netskope Client: Visibility and control of managed devices that are able to access the cloud and web from any location in real-time. 
• Reverse Proxy: Browser-based cloud traffic is steered to the Netskope Security Cloud from managed cloud applications. 
• API: Provides connectivity between applications such as AWS, Box, Office 365 and many others to the Netskope Secure Cloud. 
• GRE/IPsec: Local cloud traffic is steered from routers to the Netskope Security Cloud. 
• Log Parsing: Offers out of band discovery of cloud-services and can be configured to parse log traffic from perimeter devices 
• Forward Proxy: Steers local cloud and web traffic to the Netskope Security Cloud and can be deployed on-premises or as a virtual machine.

How Does Netskope Deliver Cloud Security?

Netskope Security Cloud offers clients real-time data and threat prevention as well as improved visibility for users accessing cloud services, private applications and websites from any location and using any device. 

Public Cloud Security by Netskope offers advanced data protection, increased control and visibility across multi-cloud environments. Clients can secure sensitive cloud services whilst maintaining best practices and standards compliance. The solution will analyze storage services to identify and protect sensitive data whilst detecting malware. 

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) constantly analyzes public cloud deployments, remedying risks whilst detecting threats. Cloud security by Netskope is designed to compliment native security provided by cloud service providers such as AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Program. 

What is the Netskope Managed, Co-managed and DIY Services Solution?

Netskope offer Professional Services, which aid clients through planning and deployment (Activation) of cloud security solutions. Further, Netskope will help clients to manage their solutions whilst working closely with their IT teams to offer support and guidance. 

Netskope have teams of qualified engineers located worldwide offering expertise in cloud security, virtualisation, networking, software deployment and content delivery. This service is offered in three tiers: Basic Services, which offers clients support Monday-Friday 8AM until 5PM and Premium and Premium Plus, which offer constant support all year, including engagement and planning support. 

How Does Netskope Support Remote Users?

Netskope supports remote users by enabling direct-to-net communications, whilst allowing secure access to cloud services, managed and unmanaged applications, websites and private applications in data centers and public clouds. 

What Reporting and Management is Available Via the Netskope Portal?

The Netskope Support Portal allows clients to create support requests and is available to any Netskope client. The Netskope Trust Portal offers clients real-time visibility into Netskope Security Cloud Services and NewEdge infrastructure.