The rise of hybrid and remote work has risen the demand for secure access service edge (SASE), according to a recent report by Versa Networks The report found that 98% of organizations feel that hybrid work has increased demand for SASE and ZTNA solutions. The study also found 94% of respondents said they prefer a single-pass architecture when evaluating and deploying SASE solutions.

According to the survey report, 98% of respondents want a hybrid solution that can accommodate networking and security both on premises and using cloud points of presence (PoPs), and 92% consider ZTNA a crucial component of SASE solutions. When asked about the largest challenges in managing wide area networks (WANs), 85% of respondents identified complexity, followed by expertise and knowledge (68%). Rounding out the responses were cost (60%) and time (47%).

The study also found that 98% of respondents found benefits when combining SD-WAN with SASE. When asked about whether they are managing end users from an on-premises or hybrid scenario, 66% of respondents have immediate plans for hybrid scenarios of on-premise and remote connectivity, while 32% are planning on rolling hybrid capabilities out over the next 6-12 months. When asked to rank the importance of global connectivity, a majority (61%) of respondents ranked it as very important, 31% ranked it as important, while zero respondents said it wasn’t important at all.