The Importance of Telco-Independent SASE In a Hybrid Working World
- Coevolve
Why hybrid workplaces are here to stay
While enterprises have historically relied on geographically dispersed teams to gain a competitive edge and pursue strategic growth, hybrid and remote work are now firmly embedded in modern business operations. A recent report found that 74% of organizations have hybrid working in place, demonstrating that distributed work models are widely adopted.
However, the current reality is that only 49% of employees feel workflows are seamless across all work locations, highlighting the need for better technology, devices, and capabilities to provide a superior employee experience. This underscores why organizations must invest in secure, reliable, and high-performance networking solutions to support distributed teams effectively.
Today, workers don’t just prefer remote or hybrid work environments, they expect it. This puts the onus on organizations to ensure that their network and security infrastructure is set up to accommodate remote work and is also fast, reliable, and secure.
Going the extra mile to support dispersed workers is especially crucial in tight labor markets, where 29% of occupations remain in shortage. The World Economic Forum’s 2025 Future of Jobs Report highlights key strategies enterprises are adopting:
- 27% of global employers enable remote work across national borders. Nearly half (49%) of Australian businesses offer cross-border remote work, nearly double the global average, enabling 63% of Australian businesses to tap into diverse talent pools.
- Telecommunications sector transformation is driven by AI adoption and space/satellite technologies, creating demand for AI & Machine Learning Specialists, Big Data Specialists, and Data Analysts & Scientists. To prepare, 96% of employers plan to upskill or reskill their workforce, 82% intend to increase automation, 48% plan to offer remote work across borders, and 22% are exploring reshoring or nearshoring.
But before enterprises can proudly proclaim their remote-first status, they’ll need to bear the practical requirements for infrastructure, security, and employee experience in mind.
Key considerations when hybrid-proofing networks
Enterprises across the board are evaluating their current hybrid work capabilities and building strategies to support long-term hybrid work. This includes having discussions with key stakeholders around investing in cloud computing, cybersecurity, next-generation collaboration tools, remote device management, and more. However, sustaining hybrid work environments requires significant resources, and amid strong economic headwinds, leaders are now being tasked to optimize existing network and security infrastructures to maximize performance and minimize costs.
While Software-Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN) have allowed enterprises to connect distributed networks using lower-cost internet infrastructure and be flexible without compromising performance, the need to converge networking and security has paved the way for Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) networks. Additionally, with a telco-independent approach, enterprises can ensure their SASE architecture can perform optimally across locations, with flexibility and resilience in connectivity that a single provider cannot guarantee.
Converge your network and security layer with SASE
Modern cloud and multi-cloud environments facilitate remote work, but as networks grow, so does the attack surface, greatly increasing cybersecurity risks. Built on the principles of SD-WAN, SASE allows enterprises to add cloud-scale security capabilities to converge their network and security layers. SASE architecture provides material benefits for enterprises with users and devices distributed across any number of locations through greater control over their networking and security capabilities.
Built on SD-WAN principles, SASE adds cloud-scale security to converge networking and security layers. Its core components – Zero-Trust Network Access (ZTNA), Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) – address security, connectivity, and performance challenges in hybrid and multi-cloud environments, providing enterprises with secure, reliable, and high-performance access for distributed teams, as shown in IET Research on SD-WAN deployment.
Not only does SASE bring network security closer to where users work and where applications live, but it also allows enterprises to enforce security policies more consistently across devices and environments.
Why telco-independent SASE is the way to go
One size never fits all, especially when it comes to setting up global networks that will need to withstand the demands of an increasingly dispersed, hybrid working environment. Not being bound by any one telecommunications provider or ISP allows enterprises to build more resilient, flexible, and cost-effective edge networks. Here’s how:
Greater flexibility
Taking a telco-independent or ISP-agnostic approach means being able to pick and choose the best provider for each location as no single provider can offer the best coverage everywhere. Enterprises can benefit from choosing multiple providers at each of their locations, to further improve global network performance and resilience. While sourcing and managing this connectivity requires a bit of groundwork on the part of the enterprise, it’s also where managed service providers (MSPs) can help.
Reduced costs
The telco-independent approach helps enterprises avoid fixed-term contracts with any one provider and explore different low-cost options to build out their edge capabilities. Competition between providers gives enterprises the upper hand when negotiating pricing and service level agreements (SLAs). Access to multiple providers can materially improve the total cost of ownership (TCO) while also increasing redundancy and minimizing the risk of outages.
Customizability
The SASE needs of an enterprise will depend on what its hybrid work strategy looks like. IT leaders are much more likely to find technologies and services that align strongly with the specific aspects of the SASE deployment strategy by approaching different providers.
Improved access to cloud infrastructure
A key principle of SASE is the adoption of cloud-delivered security services for securing Internet access and protecting the enterprise from malicious traffic. This places a high degree of importance on the path between the enterprise edge and the cloud point of presence (PoPs) and other infrastructure. The telco-independent approach provides a greater level of diversity on the Internet, ensuring that this path remains reliable and consistent.
Avoid vendor lock-in
A telco-independent approach allows enterprises to avoid reliance on a single telecommunications provider for WAN, internet, cloud, or branch connectivity services. By decoupling network architecture from any one carrier, businesses gain greater flexibility to select the most suitable providers, services, and commercial arrangements for each region, site, or application. It also strengthens negotiating leverage, reduces the risk associated with provider service limitations, and enables a more agile response to changing business, regulatory, or performance requirements.
Enhanced global performance & resilience
By leveraging multiple carriers and connectivity options, organizations can optimize traffic routes across regions, improving application performance and user experience for distributed users and cloud services. Carrier diversity and automated failover capabilities also enhance resilience, reducing the risk of outages and helping ensure business continuity.
Naturally, working with multiple providers can result in operational overheads that might be beyond the scope of in-house IT teams. In such scenarios, partnering with specialist MSPs can help businesses fast-track their hybrid ambitions while safeguarding against security risks and accessing falling market prices for bandwidth.
How Coevolve can help with your networking needs for a hybrid world
Coevolve has been providing integrated network and security solutions far longer than the phrase ‘SASE’ has existed in the industry. Our experience shows that traditional methods of securing internet access and protecting against malware and other threats are outdated, and that SASE provides a compelling alternative to network security.
As specialists in designing, deploying, managing, and optimizing SASE solutions, we support a range of industry-leading vendors to deliver high-quality, co-managed solutions tailored to each of our clients’ needs.
Talk to us about how you can build a future-fit network with SASE, enabling your teams to access business-critical apps securely and seamlessly, wherever they are and whenever they need to.
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FAQs
What is telco-independent SASE, and why is it important for hybrid work?
Telco-independent SASE enables enterprises to deploy SASE solutions without being tied to a single telecommunications provider. This approach offers greater flexibility, improved global performance, cost efficiency, stronger network resilience and connectivity choice for hybrid work environments.
How does telco-independent SASE support remote or hybrid workers?
Telco-independent SASE provides secure, consistent access to applications and data regardless of user location, while allowing organizations to choose the connectivity providers that best meet their business and geographic requirements.
What role do managed service providers (MSPs) play in telco-independent SASE deployment?
A telco-independent MSP can design and manage a solution using the most suitable carriers and SASE platforms for your requirements, improving flexibility, resilience, and long-term scalability while reducing vendor lock-in.
Is telco-independent SASE compatible with a multi-cloud strategy?
Yes. A telco-independent SASE architecture enables secure and flexible connectivity across multiple cloud providers.