Investors, including risk capitalists (VCS), are bets 359 million US dollars This secure access service edge (SASE) becomes the most important consolidator of Enterprise Security Tech Stacks.
Cato Network's oversubscribed series G -round shows prior to now week that investors consider the socket to find a way to drive significant consolidation of their core and adjoining markets. Cato recently reported 4.8 billion US dollars, reported recently 46% in comparison with the previous 12 months (Yoy) growth In annual recurring sales (ARR) for 2024, which exceeded the SASE market. Cato will use the financing to advertise AI-controlled security, strengthen the innovation in SDNA, SD-WAN and IOT/OT/OT/OT/OT/OT, and strengthen the worldwide range by scaling partners and customer teams.
Gartner projects that the SASE market will grow and reach with a composed annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26% 28.5 billion US dollars by 2028.
The implicit, real news is that SASe will do the safety stacks, which has registered cloud computing for data centers: consolidation of dozens of point solutions in uniform platforms. Gartner's latest forecast for worldwide seeds shows organizations that prefer a double provider approachSAnother solid signal from 4: 1 to 2: 1 to 2028, one other solid signal that the consolidation is on the move.
Redeem consolidation
The consolidation of tech stacks as a growth strategy will not be a brand new approach in cyber security or in wider company software. Cloud-native application protection platform (Cnapp) And XDR Platforms have depend on the sale of consolidation for years. Investors who lead the newest round of Cato depend on their investment thesis on the proven dynamics that CISOS is at all times searching for ways to cut back the variety of apps to enhance visibility and the lower maintenance costs.
Venturebeat often hears from Cisos that complexity is certainly one of the best security enemies. The spread of the tool kills the flexibility to step by step achieve efficiency gains. While CISOS would really like a greater simplicity and are willing to advertise greater consolidation, many have inherited excessively complex and cheap legacy technology stacks with a big basis of tools and applications for the simultaneous management of networks and security.
Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, recognized the consequences of consolidations and recently said: “Customers are literally on it. They want consolidation because they’re subjected to 3 of the best transformations of all time: a metamorphosis of network safety and a cloud transformation, and plenty of of them usually are not known.
A Recent study By IBM in cooperation with Palo Alto Networks found that the common organization has 83 different security solutions from 29 providers. The majority of managers (52%) say that complexity is the best obstacle to safety processes and may cost as much as 5% of sales. Malcons are common, which makes it difficult and time -consuming to treatment security gaps. The consolidation of cyber security products reduces complexity, flows the variety of apps and improves overall efficiency.
When it involves using consolidation in a certain market, timing is of crucial importance. Opponents are famous for mining legacy cves and for the beginning Live from the country (Lotl) Attacks through the use of standard tools to interrupt through and penetrate networks. Multivendor-Security Architectures often have gaps that IT and security teams have no idea until an intrusion attempt or violation occurs attributable to the complexity of multicloud, proprietary app and platform integrations.
Companies lose the flexibility to guard the proliferating variety of short -lived identities, including Kubernetes -containers and machine and human identities, similar to every end point and each device is assigned. Close the gaps within the infrastructure, app, cloud, identity and network security consolidation.
What Cisos say
Steward Health Ciso Esmond Kane advises: “Understand that – within the core – socket is zero trust. We speak of identity, authentication, access control and privileges. Start there after which expand it.”
Legacy network architectures are known for poor user experiences and broad security gaps. Accordingly Hughes' 2025 Status of the protected network access report45% of the leading IT and security managers take over SASE to consolidate SD-WAN and security in a uniform platform. The majority of the organizations, 75%pursue the manufacturer consolidation, 29% three years ago. CISOS consider that the consolidation of your technical stacks will provide help to avoid missing threats (57%) and reduce the necessity to search out qualified security specialists (56%).
“SASE is an existential threat to all network security firms based on devices,” said Shlomo Kramer, CEO of Cato. “The overwhelming majority of the market is re -equipped by devices to the cloud service, which suggests that SASe can be 80% of the market.”
A fundamental architectural transformation drives this shift. SASE traditionally defrosts network and security functions right into a single cloud native service edge. It combines SD-WAN with critical security functions, including Secure Web Gateway (SWG), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) and ZTNA, to implement guidelines and protect data, no matter where users or workloads live.
Why the consolidation of the sellers is the redesign of the safety strategy of the corporate company
The individual provider socket has turn out to be a strategic consideration for security and infrastructure leaders. According to Gartner, 65% By 2027, latest SD-WAN purchases can be a part of a socket provision of individual providers of 20% in 2024. This projected growth reflects a more comprehensive shift to uniform platforms that reduce the fragmentation of the rules and improve visibility via users, devices and applications.
In his Magician quadrant for retailersGartner identified Cato Networks, Palo Alto Networks and Netops because the market leader based on their differentiated approaches to convergence, user experience and provision models on the corporate scale.
Catos Kramer told Venturebeat: “There is a brief window wherein firms can’t be caught with fragmented architectures. The attackers move faster than integration teams. Therefore, convergence is gained.”
Numbers back Kramer's warning. AI-capable attacks are increasingly using the 200 millisecond gaps between tool handoffs in multivendor stacks. Any non -managed connection becomes a risk interface.
SASE leader compared
Cato networks: The CATO SASE Cloud platform combines SD-Wan-, Security Service Edge (SSE), ZTNA, CASB and FIREWALL functions in a uniform architecture. Gartner emphasizes the “above -average customer experience of Cato in comparison with other providers” and determines its “single, uncomplicated user interface” as a key strength. The report states that certain functions, including visibility of SaaS and native firewalling, still stimulate. Gartner also notes that the pricing can vary depending on the bandwidth requirements, which may affect the overall costs, specifically the availability scale. After its growth of series G and an Arr growth of 46%, Cato turned out to be probably the most validated pure game within the room as probably the most investor.
Palo Alto Networks: Panw “has strong security and networking functions which might be delivered via a uniform platform” and advantages from “a proven track record on this market and a substantial customer base,” says Gartner. However, the corporate's offer is pricey in comparison with most other providers. They also indicate that the brand new StraTa cloud manager is less intuitive than its previous user interface.
Netkope: Gartner quotes the “strong characteristic width and depth of the provider for networking and security” in addition to a “strong customer experience” and “a robust geographical strategy” attributable to localization and support for data sovereignty. At the identical time, the evaluation shows the operational complexity and states that “administrators should use several consoles to access the complete functionality of the platform”. Gartner also says that Netkope has no experience in comparison with other providers.
Evaluation of the leading seed providers
| Salesperson | Platform design | User -friendliness | AI -automation maturity | Pricing | Scope of security | Ideal fit |
| Cato networks | Fully uniform, cloud native | Excellent | Progress quickly | Predictable and transparent | End-to-end stack | Midmarket and Enterprise search seekers |
| Palo Alto Prisma | Security-most integration | Moderate | Mature for security ops | Higher TCO | Strong next generation (NGFW) and Ztna | Companies that already use Palo NGFW |
| Netkope | Infrastructure control | Moderate | Improve | Clear and structured | Strong CASB and data loss prevention (DLP) | Regulated industries and compliance-controlled |
SASE CONSOLIDATION Signals signals the architectural shift of the Enterprise Security
The SASE Consolidation Wave shows how firms fundamentally rethink the safety architecture. With AI attacks that immediately reap the benefits of integration gaps, the person provider socket has turn out to be essential for each protection and operational efficiency.
The reasoning is uncomplicated. Any handover of providers creates vulnerability. Every integration adds latency. Security managers know that uniform platforms may also help to eliminate these risks and at the identical time enable the business speed.
CISOS is increasingly demanding a single console, a single agent and a uniform guidelines. The complexity of Multivendor is now competitive liability. The seed consolidation provides what’s most significant with fewer providers, stronger security and execution at market speed.
