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Build a SASE framework around the resources your organization must protect, the people and devices that need access, and the situations in which they connect. Define access policy first; assign clear policy decision, administration, and enforcement roles; integrate identity, endpoint, network, and monitoring capabilities; then test representative access scenarios and map the controls to your chosen security guidance. NIST’s zero-trust implementation guide offers concrete SASE-related examples to inform that work, not a universal design or product recommendation.
Start with the organization’s mission and access needs
Before selecting services or drawing an architecture, establish what the framework needs to protect and support. NIST frames its zero-trust project around securing access to enterprise resources regardless of who initiates a request, where it originates, or whether the resource is on premises or in the cloud.
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Define the scope
- Resources: identify the enterprise applications, services, and other resources covered by the design, including where they are hosted.
- People: account for the access needs of employees, partners, contractors, and guests.
- Access situations: consider connections from corporate networks, branch locations, and the public internet, as well as access to private and cloud resources.
- Operating constraints: record existing identity, endpoint, network, and monitoring systems that the framework must work with.
Also identify domains needing separate design work. NIST SP 1800-35 excludes zero-trust architectures for industrial control systems, operational technology, and IoT, and does not address the risk and policy requirements for discovering and classifying data. Its examples should not be treated as validated designs for those needs.
Define identity and access policy
Write down how the organization will determine which subjects may access which resources, and under what conditions. Specify how user and device identities, roles, and other access attributes inform authentication and authorization. Include the policies that govern granting, denying, or revoking access.
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NIST’s Enterprise 1 Build 5 illustrates identity management and access and credential management as inputs to decisions about the right subjects reaching the right resources at the appropriate time. Use that as an architectural example, then adapt the policy inputs and rules to your own environment.
Assign decision, administration, and enforcement roles
A useful architecture must make clear not only what the policy is, but how a decision becomes an access action. In NIST’s Enterprise 1 Build 5, these responsibilities are represented by three roles:
- Policy engine (PE): decides whether to grant, deny, or revoke access using enterprise policy, information from supporting components, and a trust algorithm.
- Policy administrator (PA): carries out the decision by directing the policy enforcement point.
- Policy enforcement point (PEP): guards the resource trust zone, establishes and monitors connections, terminates them when required, and communicates with the policy administrator.
Document where these functions sit in your proposed design, what information they need, and how the decision is communicated and enforced. These are functional responsibilities; the NIST example is not a required vendor bill of materials.
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Select and integrate the required capabilities
Translate the policy and access scenarios into a capability list. Assess how candidate services work with the organization’s current systems and who will configure and operate the integrations. SASE or SSE should be considered as part of a broader solution: NIST’s examples also involve identity and access management, endpoint monitoring, security analytics, and network enforcement.
Compare options against practical criteria
- Coverage: can the approach support the required user groups, resources, locations, and access scenarios?
- Policy roles: are decision, administration, and enforcement responsibilities clear, and can the approach support the organization’s access rules?
- Integration: how does it fit with existing identity, endpoint, monitoring, network, and cloud components?
- Operations: what components and deployment responsibilities are involved, and what work will be needed to configure and maintain integrations?
- Control mapping: how will implemented capabilities map to the standards and control requirements that apply to the organization?
NIST’s guide does not offer a universal scoring model, product ranking, or performance comparison. Use these criteria to structure an organization-specific evaluation rather than treating inclusion in a guide as proof of superiority or fit.
Use NIST’s SASE-related builds as patterns, not prescriptions
The final NIST SP 1800-35 describes 19 example zero-trust implementations developed with 24 collaborators. Those figures describe the scope of the project, not SASE adoption, security effectiveness, or results in production. Three builds illustrate different SASE-related approaches:
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| NIST example | Documented approach | What the example identifies |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise 1 Build 5 | SASE and microsegmentation | PAN NGFW and Prisma Access as policy engines; the build also lists Prisma SASE, cloud-delivered security services, identity components, and security analytics and monitoring products. |
| Enterprise 2 Build 5 | SDP and SASE | Lookout SSE and Okta Identity Cloud as policy engines; the listed SSE functions include secure private, cloud, and internet access. |
| Enterprise 3 Build 5 | SDP and SASE | Microsoft Entra Conditional Access and Microsoft Security Service Edge as policy engines; NIST’s guide index lists the related architecture and build. |
These are NIST lab examples, not endorsements, comparative performance findings, or assurance that a component suits a particular organization. Treat them as illustrations of how capabilities and roles can be assembled, then evaluate fit against your requirements and integrations.
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Before treating the design as ready, test whether it handles the access situations identified during scoping. NIST’s project includes common use cases and detailed functional demonstrations; these can help shape a validation plan, but they are not evidence of results in another organization’s environment.
- Choose representative cases: include relevant employee, partner, branch, cloud, and private-resource access paths.
- Trace each request: document the identity and policy inputs, the decision, how it reaches enforcement, and what happens to the connection.
- Check both permitted and denied access: verify that the intended rules produce the expected access outcome for each case.
- Review supporting integrations: confirm the required identity, endpoint, analytics, monitoring, and network components provide the information and actions the design depends on.
- Record gaps and assumptions: update the design when a scenario exposes a missing capability, unclear responsibility, or unsupported requirement.
Map controls and keep the design current
Document how the implemented capabilities support the frameworks and controls relevant to the organization. NIST SP 1800-35 provides mappings to NIST Cybersecurity Framework versions 1.1 and 2.0, SP 800-53 Revision 5, and critical software security measures. Use applicable mappings as an aid to control analysis, not as a substitute for deciding which requirements apply to your organization.
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Keep a record of policy assumptions, integration ownership, and the scenarios used to validate the architecture. Revisit those decisions when users, resources, access paths, or supporting systems change. NIST describes its example solutions as voluntary implementation guidance; they are not regulations or mandatory practices and have no statutory authority.
What the NIST guide can—and cannot—establish
SP 1800-35 is useful for understanding example zero-trust architectures and their components, including SASE-related builds for enterprise and cloud access. It does not establish that one approach is best for every organization, prove a particular vendor’s efficacy, or provide measured security improvements, savings, return on investment, or a guaranteed implementation timeline. Its stated exclusions also mean it does not resolve OT, industrial-control, IoT, or data-discovery and classification design requirements.
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