The evolution of digital business-driven by remote work, cloud adoption, and the need for secure connectivity-has made secure, seamless access more critical and more complex than ever. Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is redefining how organizations protect users and data across distributed environments. Service providers play a crucial role in accelerating SASE adoption by delivering scalable, integrated, and easy-to-manage solutions that align with today's modern branch architectures.

We're excited to announce a major milestone in our partnership with KDDI, one of Japan's largest telecom and ICT service providers. Recently, KDDI announced its launch of Japan's first fully managed, single-vendor SASE solution, powered by Cisco. This announcement highlights the expanding impact of our collaboration and demonstrates our shared commitment to advancing secure, cloud-delivered networking for enterprises. In this blog, we'll explore how partnerships like the one between Cisco and KDDI are accelerating SASE adoption across global enterprises.

How Service Providers Accelerate the SASE Journey

Service providers bring global reach, deep networking expertise, and robust managed services, making them ideal partners for organizations navigating SASE adoption. By leveraging solutions from leading vendors, service providers can help businesses streamline the transition to SASE, reduce operational complexity, and secure their branches, users, and cloud applications-all through a single, unified platform.

Redefining the Branch with Cisco SASE

Cisco is a recognized leader in single-vendor SASE, combining industry-leading networking and security capabilities into a cohesive cloud-delivered service. Cisco SASE empowers organizations to connect branches, secure remote workers, and protect cloud applications-all with centralized visibility and management. The result: branches that are agile, secure, and future-ready.

Key Benefits of Cisco's Single-Vendor SASE Approach

• Unified Management:?One platform for networking and security, reducing complexity and operational overhead.
• Consistent Security:?End-to-end visibility and protection, no matter where users or applications reside.
• Scalability:?Easily expand to new branches or remote users without infrastructure headaches.
• Optimized Performance:?Integrated SD-WAN delivers reliable, high-performance connectivity.
• Faster Innovation:?Rapid deployment of new features and security updates across the enterprise.

Real-World Case Studies

1. KDDI: Delivering Integrated SASE for Japanese Enterprises

KDDI, a major Japanese service provider, in partnership with Cisco, is now delivering Japan's first fully managed, single-vendor SASE solution. KDDI utilizes Cisco's SASE solution to provide businesses with seamless, secure connectivity across branch offices, remote users, and cloud applications. KDDI's single-vendor approach with Cisco enables rapid deployment, centralized policy management, and high-performance networking, ensuring robust protection while reducing operational complexity for customers navigating digital transformation.

"Through our partnership with Cisco, KDDI is proud to offer Japan's first fully managed, Cisco single-vendor SASE solution. By integrating zero trust access capabilities, such as continuous verification and secure, identity-based access to applications from Cisco Secure Access with our enterprise network services using Cisco SD-WAN's cloud-managed, SASE-ready architecture, centralized policy control, integrated security and real-time application optimization, we eliminate the complexity of multi-vendor environments and deliver a seamless, secure experience for businesses embracing hybrid work. This marks a significant step forward in simplifying security operations while accelerating zero trust adoption across the Japanese market."

Junji Hori, General Manager Product Division Business Solution Department, KDDI

Learn more:KDDI Launches Cisco SASE Solution (Japanese)

2. TKC: Securing a Complex, Global Operation with Cisco SASE

TKC Corporation, a leading Japanese company supporting over 10,000 tax professionals and entities uses Cisco's Secure Access to implement a single-vendor SASE solution, replacing its legacy VPN system for 2,800+ users. Facing tight timelines and high confidentiality needs, TKC adopted Cisco's cloud-first, zero-trust approach. The solution combined continuous user authentication and identity-driven, secure application access via Cisco Secure Access with Cisco SD-WAN's cloud-managed, zero-trust network architecture, centralized policy enforcement, and integrated security features. A unified client and console simplified operations for security reduced reliance on multiple tools. This modern, cloud-managed architecture lowered complexity and delivered cost-efficient, scalable connectivity.

Hiroyo Ichikawa, Director of IT Investment Planning for TKC Corporation, said, "Gone are the days of complex processes like appliance procurement, site planning, and complex deployments. Being able to launch quickly made the benefits of cloud deployment -like using a cloud-based VPNaaS vs. an on-premises VPN -very tangible for us."

Learn more:From Legacy VPN to Cloud-First Security: How TKC has Strengthened Protection and Reduced Complexity (Case Study)

3. Financial Services: Enabling Secure Hybrid Work

A leading financial firm turned to its service provider and Cisco SASE to support a remote workforce and maintain regulatory compliance. The single-vendor solution provided secure remote access, data loss prevention, and real-time threat detection, all while ensuring a consistent user experience across offices and home networks.

Conclusion

As organizations redefine their branch architectures to meet the demands of a digital-first world, Service Providers worldwide are leveraging Cisco networking and security solutions and driving SASE adoption. With single-vendor SASE, businesses gain the simplicity, security, and scalability they need to innovate and thrive-today and into the future.

Explore Cisco SASE to learn more.

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