DVDs and firewalls face a similar fate: the cloud.
How we consume movies changed forever when streaming services came to the market. It’s not that people didn’t love the experience of going to a Blockbuster—browsing choices, debating them, and grabbing dinner before heading home to watch. It’s that selecting movies at home was more manageable, with less hassle and no late fees. The “Blockbuster effect” didn’t happen because people stopped enjoying these experiences; it happened because businesses failed to adapt to how customers wanted to consume movies. This shift isn’t just about technology; it’s about cultural transformation.
Just as streaming services eliminated the need for physical DVDs, Secure Service Edge (SSE) is reshaping how businesses secure their networks, potentially making traditional firewalls obsolete.
Gartner introduced the concept of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) as the convergence of SD-WAN and SSE, combining networking and security into a unified cloud-delivered solution. SSE provides edge security for network users both in and out of the office. It delivers a cloud-based security service. This is in stark contrast to how it has been done for the past decade plus. The traditional and globally accepted method for providing edge security required a firewall at each office or, at a minimum, in the company’s data center(s).
So are premises-based firewalls still needed?
For companies adopting SSE, the answer is no for most offices or branches. But office and branch firewalls represent the majority of firewalls out there. Let that sink in. Firewalls, along with their upkeep and management, represent billions of dollars of expense for companies and revenue for manufacturers, distributors, resellers, and managed service providers. Have the expenses vanished? Heck no! Instead, these costs have migrated toward cloud-based SSE solutions, shifting from the more traditional model of hardware refresh cycles to subscription-based security models.
This shift began a short year or two ago and is accelerating rapidly. For those who buy, sell, and manage firewalls, it’s a major cultural upheaval—one that will take time and come with challenges. There are and will continue to be those who rage against this, but the transformation is already happening. You only need to look at voice to UCaaS, premises-based computing to cloud computing, local software to SaaS, or local storage to cloud storage to understand the inevitability.
This raises fascinating questions like who will rise to the top, and how will its sales and support models need to change?
For example, if your business was built on selling, managing, and renewing firewalls, what are you going to do? SSE providers own, operate, and maintain 100% of the security infrastructure as part of their services.
SSE is an integral component of SASE. So what will customers, sellers, and manufacturers do for full SASE? Gartner suggests that customers should consider a single-vendor SASE solution, and providers Palo Alto Networks, Cato, and Netskope lead the way, with a host of strategic and disruptive players scrambling to catch up.
For firewall manufacturers whose sales models rely on selling and refreshing firewalls, what’s the next move? The first step is to build or acquire a top-tier SSE service offering and integrate it into your SD-WAN and firewall orchestration platform. Palo Alto Networks Prisma Platform is a prime example of this strategy in action.
Even with a completely integrated SASE platform, vendors face massive cultural and business challenges. Firewall manufacturers must change their sales models to capture as much SSE as fast as possible or risk being usurped and facing Blockbuster’s fate. That strategy might work if you’re content with one nostalgic customer in Bend, OR. Make no mistake—this is a land grab. Once a customer is fully embedded, switching SASE providers will be difficult and costly. Built-for-cloud SASE providers, such as Cato, have nothing but upside. Firewall manufacturers, such as Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet, along with SSE-only providers, such as Zscaler, have massive risk in their bases if they don’t act aggressively to get those customers on their SASE platforms. Some providers, such as Palo Alto Networks with its Prisma SASE platform, are perfectly positioned to act aggressively.
The writing is on the wall—single platform SASE is changing the game just as streaming disrupted DVDs and the movie rental industry. The question isn’t if—but how—will businesses adapt. Whether you’re a firewall manufacturer, reseller, or service provider, the time to evolve is now.
The shift is happening fast—are providers prepared to navigate this transformation before it’s too late?
Guest Author
Gregg Rowe, Chief Channel Officer
Gregg Rowe is a seasoned technology leader with a background in engineering, sales, and channel strategy. An Electrical Engineer from the University of Illinois with an MBA from Washington University’s Olin School of Business, he has held key roles in robotics, IT, and telecom. With experience leading wholesale, channel, and operational teams at CenturyLink and Vonage, Gregg now drives Globalgig’s Channel program, shaping the future of enterprise connectivity.