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Investors, including venture capitalists (VCs), bet $ 359 million That Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) will be a primary consolidator of Enterprise Security Tech Stacks.
The oversubs described series G -round of Cato Network shows last week that investors consider Sase to stimulate considerable consolidation in its core and adjacent markets. Now appreciated at $ 4.8 billion, Cato recently reported 46% on an annual basis (yoj) growth In annual recurring turnover (ARR) for 2024, which surpasses the Sase market. Cato will use the financing to promote AI-driven security, to speed up innovation in Sase, Extended Detection and Response (XDR), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), SD-WAN and IoT/OT, and to strengthen the worldwide range by scaling partner and customer-oriented teams.
Gartner projects the Sase market with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26%, reached $ 28.5 billion by 2028.
The implicit, real message is that Sase will do to do the security stacks that Cloud Computing has done with data centers: Consolidate dozens of point solutions in uniform platforms. Gartner’s newest prediction for global Sase shows organizations that prefer a double suppliers approachSSwitching off a 4: 1 ratio to 2: 1 against 2028, another solid signal that consolidation is on the road.
Cash in in consolidation
Consolidating technical piles such as a growth strategy is not a new approach in cyber security or in wider Enterprise software. Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CnappAnd) and XDR Platforms have been dependent on the sale of consolidation for years. Investors who lead the last round of Cato base their investment thesis on the proven dynamics that cisos are always looking for ways to lower the number of apps to improve visibility and lower maintenance costs.
Venturebeat often belongs from cisos that complexity is one of the largest enemies of safety. Duty expansion kills the ability to achieve step -by -step efficiency standards. Although CISOs want greater simplicity and are willing to stimulate more consolidation, many have inherited extremely complex and high-quality legacy technology stacks, complete with a large basis of tools and applications for managing networks and security at the same time.
Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, recognized the impact of consolidations and recently say: “Customers are actually there. They want consolidation because they undergo three of the greatest transformations ever: a network security transformation and a cloud transformation, and many of them are not on the point of the point of them.”
A Recent Study IBM in collaboration with Palo Alto Networks has shown that the average organization has 83 different security solutions from 29 suppliers. The majority of managers (52%) say that complexity is the greatest obstacle to security operations, and it can cost up to 5% of sales. Elections are common, making it difficult and time -consuming to solve security gaps. Consolidating cyber security products reduces complexity, streamlining the number of apps and improves overall efficiency.
When it comes to capitalizing on consolidation in a certain market, Timing is crucial. Opponents are famous for the mines of legacy -cves and launch Life of the Land (LOTL) Use attacks by using standard tools to break and penetrate networks. Multivendor security architectures often have gaps that IT and security teams are not aware of until there is a burglary attempt or infringement due to the complexity of multicloud, patented app and platform integrations.
Companies lose the ability to protect the proliferating number of ephemeral identities, including Kubernetes containers and machine and human identities, because every end point and device is assigned. Closing the gaps in infrastructure, app, cloud, identity and network protection of fuels consolidation.
What Cisos say
Steward Health Ciso Esmond Kane advises: “Understand that – in the core – Sase is zero confidence. We are talking about identity, authentication, access control and privilege. Start and then build it out there.”
Legacy network architectures are known for poor user experiences and wide security gaps. According to Hughes’ 2025 Status of Secure Network Access Report45% of senior IT and security leaders take Sase to consolidate SD-WAN and security in a united platform. The majority of organizations, 75%strive for supplier consolidation, an increase of 29% just three years ago. CISOs believe that consolidating their technical piles will help them prevent them from missing the threats (57%) and reducing the need to find qualified security specialists (56%).
“Sase is an existential threat to all devices -based network security companies,” Shlomo Kramer, CEO of Cato, told Venturebeat. “The vast majority of the market will be refuted from devices to cloud service, which means Sase [is going to be] 80% of the market. “
A fundamental architectural transformation leads to that shift. Sase convergates traditionally Siled Network and Security Functions in a single, Cloud-Native Service-Edge. It combines SD-WAN with critical security options, including Secure Web Gateway (SWG), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) and ZTNA to force the policy and protect data, regardless of where users or workloads are located.
Gartner’s 2024 Magic Quadrant for Sase Sase Positions Cato networks, Palo Alto Networks and Netskope as leaders who reflect their adulthood, united platforms and suitability for company-wide implementations.
Why the consolidation of suppliers reforms the Enterprise protection strategy
Sase Sase has become a strategic consideration for leaders of safety and infrastructure. According to Gartner, 65% From new SD-WAN purchases will be part of a Sase Sase implementation in 2027, an increase of 20% in 2024. This expected growth reflects a broader shift to uniform platforms that reduce policy fragmentation and improve visibility in users, devices and applications.
In Magic Quadrant for a few seller SaseIdentated Gartner Cato networks, Palo Alto networks and Netskope as market leaders based on their differentiated approaches of convergence, user experience and implementation models on a business scale.
Cato’s Kramer said to Venturebeat: “There is a short window where companies can prevent them from being caught with fragmented architectures. The attackers move faster than integration teams. That is why Convergence wins.”
Numbers back the warning from Kramer. AI-in-switched attacks are increasingly using the 200-millisecond holes between tools in multiven door stacks. Each unmanaged connection becomes a risk square surface.
Sase -Leaders compared
Cato -Networks: The Cato Sase Cloud platform combines SD-WAN, Security Service Edge (SSE), ZTNA, CASB and Firewall options in a uniform architecture. Gartner emphasizes Cato’s “above average customer experience compared to other suppliers” and notes the “single, simple user interface” as an important force. The report still notes that specific possibilities, including SaaS visibility and on-premises firewalling, are still ripening. Gartner also notes that prices can vary, depending on the requirements of the bandwidth, which can influence the total costs, in particular with regard to the implementation scale. After the growth of the G and 46% ARR, Cato came to the fore as the most investor-dealered pure play in space.
Palo Alto Networks: Panw “has strong security and network functions, supplied via a uniform platform”, and benefits from “a proven track record in this market and a considerably installed basis of customers,” Gartner notes. However, the company’s offer is expensive compared to most other suppliers. They also mark that the new Strata Cloud Manager is less intuitive than his previous user interface.
Netskope: Gartner quotes the “strong functional and depth of the seller for both networks and security”, together with a “strong customer experience” and “a strong geographical strategy” because of the support of localization and data on sovereignty. At the same time, the analysis emphasizes operational complexity and notes that “managers must use multiple consoles to gain access to the full functionality of the platform.” Gartner also says that Netskope is missing experience compared to other suppliers.
Evaluation of the leading Sase suppliers
| Supplier | Platform design | Ease of use | AI Automatisering Freedom | Prices clarity | Security | Ideal fit |
| Cato -Networks | Fully united, cloud-native | Excellent | Improve | Predictable and transparent | End-to-end Native Stack | Midmarket and Enterprise Simplicity Seekers |
| Palo Alto Prisma | Security first integration | Moderate | Adult for security points | Higher TCO | Strong firewall of the next generation (NGFW) and ZTNA | Enterprises already use Palo NGFW |
| Netskope | Infrastructure control | Moderate | Improve steadily | Clear and structured | Strong CASB and Data Lastfulness (DLP) | Regulated industries and compliance-driven |
Sase Consolidation Signals Enterprise Security’s Architectural Shift
The Sase Consolidation Wave shows how companies fundamentally reconsider security architecture. With AI attacks that immediately exploit the integration gaps, Sase Sase Sase has become essential for both protection and operational efficiency.
The reasoning is simple. Every supplier transfer creates vulnerability. Every integration adds latency. Security leaders know that uniform platforms can help eliminate these risks and at the same time make the business speed possible.
CISOs are increasingly demanding a single console, a single agent and a uniform policy. Multivendor complexity is now a competitive liability. Sase Consolidation delivers what is most important with fewer suppliers, stronger security and implementation at market speed.
