Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) offers several key benefits for organizations moving toward hybrid work and cloud-first strategies. By unifying networking and security capabilities into a single solution, SASE promises scalable, agile, zero-trust protection and intelligent Software Defined-Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) routing for distributed environments and users.
However, poor implementation quickly erodes these benefits. From SD-WAN misconfigurations to SASE policy gaps and SASE monitoring mistakes, even small missteps can lead to major issues.
To help you recognize common pitfalls and prevent costly SASE deployment mistakes, we’ve compiled a list of 8 mistakes to avoid when deploying SASE. Through effective planning, optimization, and zero trust alignment, you can successfully deploy SASE and get the full business benefits of this network architecture.
Here are the most common SASE deployment mistakes from our experience. We’re going to show you what they are, how to avoid them, and how to make sure you deploy SASE properly.
A critical SASE deployment mistake many organizations make is not having a comprehensive understanding of their network requirements. Before SASE rollout planning, you need to review your existing network, identifying where it falls short, and the benefits you hope to achieve with SASE.
To avoid this SASE pitfall, start by conducting a readiness assessment that maps your existing network architecture, including:
You want to create an inventory of existing infrastructure and assets to learn how they connect users with the resources they need. Identify performance issues and security gaps and how sensitive data is currently handled. Review typical user behaviors (where they connect from and the systems and data they need to access on a day-to-day basis for their role).
A thorough readiness assessment guides SASE rollout planning, defining clear objectives for deploying the framework and ensuring alignment between the new architecture and organizational needs. This includes determining how to deploy SASE core components to deliver the best possible network in terms of performance and security.
Many teams assume a standard framework will fit all environments.
However, every enterprise has unique access patterns, workloads, and compliance obligations that will influence how you deploy the final SASE architecture. Without understanding what you need, it is easy to fall into common SASE pitfalls such as SASE policy gaps, SD-WAN misconfigurations, or poor SASE agent performance.
One of the most common mistakes to avoid when deploying SASE is neglecting data residency and regulatory compliance during architecture design. SASE networking and security measures are delivered via a distributed network of nodes or Points of Presence (PoPs) across the cloud.
Rather than backhauling traffic to an internal network, PoPs enable security controls to be delivered at the network edge.
However, connecting a distributed workforce means traffic is sent across different jurisdictions. This means dealing with various privacy laws and regulations, and connecting to the nearest SASE PoP placement can sometimes unintentionally cause compliance issues.
To avoid this, you need to do the following:
You can also incorporate compliance audits into SASE rollout planning and update them as laws change in different jurisdictions. Finally, ensure unified policy enforcement across security layers to close SASE policy gaps that may bypass compliance controls.
Choosing the wrong vendor is among the most costly mistakes in SASE deployment. It’s easy to fall for aggressive marketing or assume every vendor delivers full-stack capabilities. In reality, functionality varies widely across vendors and the SASE technology they provide.
Some may excel in SD-WAN, others in Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) or Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs). This mismatch can lead to SASE deployment issues, such as fragmented visibility, inconsistent enforcement, and poor scalability.
You can avoid these issues by defining functional priorities and integration requirements during the vendor evaluation process. The first thing to consider when reviewing the SASE market is whether to adopt a single or multi-vendor strategy. SASE requires integrating various technologies to deliver a comprehensive framework.
In the past, organizations would need to work with multiple vendors, investing in point solutions that must be integrated successfully to prevent SASE policy gaps.
Single-Vendor
Multi-Vendor
Easier to integrate
More integration work
One console
Several consoles
Lower chance of policy gaps
Higher chance of gaps
Faster to deploy
Slower to deploy
However, top cybersecurity companies now offer products that unify every aspect of SASE into a single solution. This simplifies deployment and reduces the likelihood of mistakes when integrating separate components into a unified SASE framework.
Beyond single and multi-vendor solutions, key factors to look for when assessing SASE vendors include:
An easy mistake to avoid during SASE deployment is accepting default profiles or templates during setup. Many organizations assume default settings are secure or optimized, but these templates are just the starting point.
They try to cater to as many organizations as possible, rather than to the specifics of your organization. They offer convenience and broad security controls that can lead to:
To overcome this, review every policy and setting against your internal standards. You want to make the most of the platform’s flexibility, tailoring its solution to your needs with precision policies rather than fitting your operations into default settings. Adjust settings to align with business priorities and ensure compliance is met.
Continuously validate deployments and make sure configurations remain effective as applications and threats evolve.
Performance degradation remains one of the most overlooked mistakes to avoid when deploying SASE. The framework was designed to meet the demands of modern businesses, delivering fast, seamless, and secure connectivity for distributed users and computing environments. However, achieving this requires a successful SD-WAN migration, transferring connectivity from your previous networking solutions.
Common causes for slow network performance during SASE deployment include suboptimal SASE PoP placement, congested network paths, and overlooked SD-WAN misconfigurations. These issues manifest as latency spikes and packet loss, reducing user productivity and trust.
To address these SASE pitfalls:
Even the most secure architecture fails if users struggle to connect to the data and applications. With ongoing SASE monitoring, you can detect and remediate performance anomalies before they affect end users.
The goal of SASE is to integrate networking and security technologies, including CASB, ZTNA, Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS), into a single, unified solution. It transitions security controls from static on-prem tools to a unified suite of cloud-native technology.
To manage this shift effectively, you must refine your policies to ensure alignment between security tools and the broader SASE framework.Yet, many organizations still treat their security tools as silos, preventing a unified view of performance and risk. This fragmentation is one of the more subtle SASE deployment mistakes, but it often results in:
Over time, the lack of harmony between tools weakens security posture and increases management complexity and operational costs. The solution is to integrate SASE monitoring with your SIEM and observability stack – combining SASE components into a single analytics layer. Correlated insights across technologies reveal the full context for threats to support proactive remediation.
By achieving a unified view, you close SASE policy gaps, strengthen zero trust enforcement, and improve operational efficiency, turning visibility into a true force multiplier for security.
Misalignment between zero trust strategy and SASE implementation remains a common mistake. Teams often deploy SASE services but leave legacy trust assumptions in place, undermining segmentation and access control. These zero trust SASE errors expose organizations to credential misuse and lateral movement.
To avoid this, design SASE around identity-driven policies where every access request is verified based on user, device, and context. Review authentication flows and device posture checks during the planning phase.
Also, integrate your identity provider and endpoint management tools to ensure consistent enforcement across all edges. Ongoing SASE monitoring can flag policy drift away from zero-trust principles.
Cultural and operational silos between network and security teams are among the biggest SASE pitfalls. Traditional network models kept these functions separate, with one focusing on performance and the other on protection. In contrast, SASE requires bringing network and security teams into a unified management framework.
A lack of collaboration between these two teams leads to:
All of which are classic mistakes in SASE deployment.
To overcome this, foster cross-team alignment early in the SASE rollout planning process. Create shared performance and security Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and establish joint workflows for incident response and policy changes.
Use a single orchestration platform to eliminate visibility fragmentation and prevent SASE monitoring mistakes. Regular training sessions help both sides understand each other’s priorities. When network and security teams operate as one, organizations gain the unified agility and protection of a successful SASE strategy.
While this list is a good start, there are more than 8 mistakes to avoid when deploying SASE. But whether it is one of the SASE pitfalls above or something else, the easiest way to ensure a successful deployment is to partner with an industry leader in the field.
Check Point SASE provides comprehensive and robust protection in an easy-to-use, quick-to-deploy platform. Secure any corporate network with enterprise-grade security while connecting users and resources with 10x faster internet access compared to the competition. All this is supported by multi-platform customer support from Check Point, which is always available to resolve any issues that may arise.
Book a demo and start learning the benefits of connecting your users, sites, and resources using Check Point SASE’s ZTNA technology.
