Peering and SASE: How Europe is minimizing latency while maximizing security

Robots function autonomously, factories are centrally networked, and sensitive development data can flow with minimal latency through various clouds, edge devices, and between applications. At a time when software and IT are redefining value creation, data-based and intelligent applications are not only driving business models but also placing high demands on digital infrastructure. From routers and switches to computing and storage resources, and on to networks and firewalls, hardware-based architectures designed to handle predictable workloads at high fixed costs are now obsolete. Today's IT is software-defined, billed monthly on a pay-as-you-go basis, and just as dynamically scalable as the applications companies are using to improve customer service, increase manufacturing quality, and boost sales.

SASE: Network and security functions from the cloud

Monolithic mainframes, rigid security perimeters, and linear waterfall processes are a thing of the past. Everything that can be virtualized agilely is now virtualized agilely. And everything that can be supported by AI is supported by AI. In the past, hardware defined what software could do. Today, software determines what hardware must be capable of. Functions that were once tied to the performance limits of dedicated devices can now be virtualized. Take Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) as an example: SASE moves network and security functions to the cloud. 

Whether firewall-as-a-service, cloud access security broker, or DNS security, SASE brings services like these together in the cloud, where they can be deployed and administered through software-defined networking. Permissions for individual machines, specific applications, or individual users can be assigned in a decentralized way, depending on the function and application. Instead of defining security policies for applications and ports, SASE allows them to be defined in high granularity for individual endpoints and services. This not only regulates, protects, and secures data exchange, but also optimizes traffic for end devices, employee groups, software resources, and entire company locations.

Software-defined peering as the basis for SASE

The global SASE market is forecast to exceed $10 billion in 2026 and rise to nearly $40 billion by 2034, driven by cloud adoption, Zero-Trust, and the need to improve access control. From managed services to mainframe applications in the server room to edge devices on the shop floor – wherever IT and the cloud converge, challenges arise. Take connectivity, for example: If you want to virtualize networks in an agile, intelligent, and automatic way, that's also the way you need to provision them. This is exactly where Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) comes in. NaaS not only provides resources flexibly, autonomously, and on demand, but also integrates them seamlessly into existing IT and cloud environments – tailored precisely to the respective requirements in terms of bandwidth, IT security, or data throughput times, for example. Internet Exchanges play a key role here. On the one hand, they bring networks together in the cloud edge continuum, making data flows controllable. On the other hand, a scalable and software-definable interconnection platform is the basis for exploiting the advantages of software-defined technologies across the board – between locations, suppliers, and partners.

A roaming service for clouds

As a result of this evolution, interconnection platforms are now also shifting toward software-defined architectures. For instance, many Internet Exchange (IX) operators are now collaborating as part of the IX-API Initiative on uniform application programming interfaces (APIs) to provide peering services autonomously. The Tellus funding project is another example, which is developing open software to virtualize network functions covering the entire interconnection supply chain, including different providers, clouds, and services. Advantages like reducing manual processes to dynamically provision networks and automating cross-functional administration make connectivity not only more provider-independent, but also more interoperable. Another example of a platform currently being implemented is NEXUS, a project that automatically provides interconnection services for cloud-based networks on an as-needed basis.

Just as cell phones move seamlessly between radio cells, cloud services should be able to move smoothly between networks in the future. This is an interesting possibility for a variety of use cases. For example, autonomous driving requires extremely low latency, which can only be achieved with appropriately interconnected edge computing solutions. The same applies in healthcare and public administration, where specially protected and legally compliant data exchange is required between networks. The same also applies to SASE in the Internet of Things: Instead of exchanging data centrally via a service provider's network, the model protects and authenticates each IoT device. From individual sensors and relays to motors and entire production plants, not only can connected devices be secured individually in an automated and cloud-native manner, but latency times can also be reduced. Since SASE transmits data via the provider's nearest point of presence – keeping it as close as possible to the application – there are no detours via gateways, which minimizes throughput times. But although SASE acts as an overlay architecture, a powerful underlay remains essential – especially for critical workloads. Only when both layers interact with each other in a software-defined manner can data throughput be accelerated and security requirements be met.

Agile digital infrastructure redefines value creation

Just as hardware-based architectures have become obsolete, networks designed to stably process predictable workloads are increasingly less in demand today. Specifically, this means that at a time when, according to IDC, 22 percent of companies that use AI in the cloud, for example, are concerned about latency and 15 percent are concerned about bandwidth, SASE is declaring the cloud to be the new maxim for connectivity. A maxim that can only succeed on a robust, automated, and sovereign digital infrastructure. An infrastructure such as the one created by the NEXUS project to manage applications agilely with built-in digital sovereignty, set to redefine value creation via software and IT for Europe and the world.