Open Systems is Named a Sample Vendor in the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Category in Three Gartner Hype Cycle Reports for 2020

Redwood City, Calif. - July 21, 2020 - Open Systems, a secure access service edge (SASE) pioneer supporting enterprises in their digital transformation journey, today announced that it has been listed as a Sample Vendor in the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) category in three recent analyst reports, the Gartner Hype Cycle for Enterprise Networking, 2020 report, the Gartner Hype Cycle for Endpoint Security, 2020 and the Gartner Hype Cycle for Network Security, 2020 report, in which Open Systems is also recognized as a Sample Vendor in the Firewall as a Service category.

SASE enables increasingly distributed and mobile workforces to remotely and securely access corporate networks and clouds for the applications and data critical to performing their jobs. Interest in SASE has grown substantially due to COVID-19 as enterprises recognize its potential as a business continuity solution. The report states, “while the term originated in 2019, the architecture has been deployed by early adopters as early as 2017. By 2024, at least 40% of enterprises will have explicit strategies to adopt SASE, up from less than 1% at year-end 2018.”

The reports provide the following recommendations when evaluating SASE offering:

• “Leverage a WAN refresh, firewall refresh, VPN refresh or SD-WAN deployment to drive the redesign of your network and network security architectures.”
• “Strive for no more than two vendors to deliver all core services.”
• “Use cost-cutting initatives in 2020 from MPLS offload to fund branch office and workforce transformation via adoption of SASE.”
• “Avoid vendors that propose to deliver the broad set of services by linking a large number of products via virtual machine service chaining.”

Benefiting from the company’s more than two decades of SD-WAN and cybersecurity experience, Open Systems SASE solution tightly integrates security and network functions into a single, cloud-native platform that secures all enterprise “edges” including endpoints, sites, physical and cloud data centers and mobile users. Its single-pass engine for secure web gateway (SWG), SD-WAN, firewall, network detection and response (NDR) and unified threat detection ensures line rate speeds due to no service chaining and improves security through integrated policy management and a software-defined perimeter. The solution’s robust SASE architecture is also the basis of the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) security service the company recently launched.

“The enterprise market’s growing enthusiasm for SASE has made it a hotly contested space. We believe Gartner’s naming us as a Sample Vendor can help enterprises recognize Open Systems’ leadership amongst vendors in the market. Our SASE solution was developed from the outset with integration and service quality at its core, enabling it to deliver an outstanding experience to our three million users,” said Jeff Brown, CEO of Open Systems. “Likewise, we believe being named in the Firewall as a Service category will draw more attention to our successful remote access solution, which has enabled our customers’ employees to safely switch to work from home on a dime.”

The need to securely connect remote workers to corporate networks during the global pandemic has accelerated the enterprise use of Firewall as a Service, a multifunction security gateway delivered as a cloud-based service. Typically used to protect small branch offices and mobile users, Firewall as a Service offers a simple and flexible architecture using centralized policy management, multiple enterprise firewall features and traffic tunneling to shift security inspections to the cloud.

Open Systems’ Firewall as a Service and secure remote access solutions have played a critical role in enterprises’ business continuity efforts triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first two weeks following shelter-in-place orders in many countries, Open Systems enabled another 135,000 of its customers’ employees to work from home, and without creating vulnerabilities that could be exploited to penetrate critical systems.

Gartner “Hype Cycle for Network Security, 2020,” Pete Shoard, 30 June 2020

Gartner “Hype Cycle for Enterprise Networking, 2020,” Andrew Lerner, Danellie Young, 8 July 2020

Gartner “Hype Cycle for Endpoint Security, 2020,” Dionisio Zumerle, Rob Smith, 15 July 2020

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About Open Systems

Open Systems is an AI-first SASE platform company delivering secure access and networking to help enterprises connect users, applications and infrastructure across complex hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Its proprietary platform combines SSE capabilities, including ZTNA, SWG, CASB and FWaaS, with SD-WAN, end-to-end connectivity, unified policy management, and advanced analytics in a single architecture.

While many cybersecurity providers focus primarily on advancing technology capabilities, Open Systems combines its AI-first SASE platform with an execution model designed for real-world operability, ensuring services are not only deployed, but continuously run, adapted and improved through a combination of AI-enabled operations and NOC-based expertise (Mission Control), built on decades of operational experience, helping organizations reduce complexity, increase visibility and strengthen security outcomes at global scale.

Founded in Switzerland in 1990, Open Systems generates more than USD 100 million in annual revenue and supports global enterprise customers operating in more than 180 countries. Since 2024, the company has been part of Swiss Post, combining Swiss trust and stability with global reach. As a European alternative to US- and Israel-based cybersecurity providers, Open Systems is guided by strong principles around sovereignty requirements, regulatory alignment, transparency and shared responsibility - taking clear ownership for security, performance and operational outcomes, helping organizations maintain control in an increasingly complex digital landscape.