The word “platform” gets used a lot in cybersecurity. Maybe too much. Cato Networks recently announced a modular adoption model for the Cato SASE Platform. The company also used the moment to make a sharp argument about what platform actually means—and what most vendors are really selling.
I spoke with Nimmy Reichenberg, SVP of Product Marketing at Cato, at RSAC ahead of the news. The short version: organizations can now start with one module—AI Security, SD-WAN, SSE, or Universal ZTNA—and build from there. Each module works on its own. And since all four run on the same core design, adding a second one doesn’t mean separate setup work.
Platform vs. Portfolio
Security vendors have been on a buying spree for years. They acquire products, rebrand them, and call the bundle a platform. Buying gets easier. But customers still end up with multiple consoles, separate policy engines, and data that doesn’t talk to itself. The mess doesn’t go away. It just shifts.
Reichenberg didn’t mince words. “Most of the companies talk about platforms, but what they’ve really done is duct tape a bunch of products together and call it a platform,” he said. “There’s a nice commercial aspect, because you can buy them all from one vendor, but they don’t really work together. They don’t share architecture, they don’t share context, they don’t share policy.”
Cato says it built a unified design from day one. It didn’t stitch things together through buyouts. Every module runs on the same engine, the same console, and the same data lake. That’s what the company means by platform—and why it argues the modular model beats a standard vendor bundle.
Meeting Customers Where They Are
Most organizations looking at SASE already have tools in place. An all-or-nothing pitch hits a wall fast when a prospect has covered several of the things being sold. Cato is trying to remove that block. Start with one module. Add more as it makes sense.
“Not every organization is ready to take on the full SASE transformation in one suite,” Reichenberg said. “Now we are enabling modular consumption…each module is now truly standalone…and that allows organizations to tap into the power of the platform and choose their own adventure, shape their own journey wherever they start.”
Reichenberg used the Apple analogy. No one makes you buy the Mac, the phone, the watch, and the AirPods at once. You pick one. Once a second piece is in place and you see how they work together, that’s when you start wanting the rest.
But the analogy cuts both ways. The iPhone brings people in because it’s a good phone on its own. If any Cato module is weak, the pull toward adding more breaks down. Reichenberg said as much: each module has to stand on its own, not ride the platform label.
What the AI Module Reveals
Cato bought AIM Security—Reichenberg’s prior company—and had it fully built into the platform in under six months. GPU work now runs inside Cato’s own network nodes. Open the console, and you can’t tell it was ever a separate product.
Six months is fast. Reichenberg’s point: that pace is only possible with a truly unified design. There’s no bolting things on. A vendor with a stitched-together stack would still be deep in that work.
Open Ecosystem
Modular adoption only works if the platform plays well with what a customer already runs. Cato says it connects with other SASE vendors, endpoint tools, and cloud providers. Use Cato for networking and a different vendor for SSE—Cato says that works.
Some vendors push hard for full buy-in to their stack. Reichenberg put Cato on the other side of that. “Cato has always been on the open ecosystem side,” he said. “Yes, we have a beautifully unified platform, but we are perfectly okay if you use other products for some of the capabilities.”
The Cato SASE Platform with modular adoption is now available worldwide. Pricing is user-based and bandwidth-driven, with licenses deployable over the first 12 months.
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