IT AI Index
Index Network and edge September 2026 Edition

SASE platforms

Asked as “SASE platform”, and as “secure access service edge solution”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 43 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Contested
28% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Cato SASE Cloud28%0%16accepted challenger
02Cato Networks26%8%25accepted challenger
03Cloudflare One23%11%44accepted challenger
04Cisco Umbrella7%18%17accepted challenger
05Check Point Harmony SASE5%13%15accepted challenger
06Netskope One2%10%30accepted challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE0%36%33criticized challenger
11Cisco0%31%13criticized challenger
08Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange0%28%46criticized challenger
09Cisco Secure Access0%18%11accepted challenger
07Fortinet FortiSASE0%15%41accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Cato SASE Cloud28%
02Cato Networks26%
03Cloudflare One23%
04Cisco Umbrella7%
05Check Point Harmony SASE5%
06Netskope One2%
07Fortinet FortiSASE0%
08Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange0%
09Cisco Secure Access0%
10Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE0%
11Cisco0%

02What they warned about

Five of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash and Kimi K2 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
28%
13 of 46 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“generally **not recommended** for mid-sized B2B companies” Gemini 3.5 Flash, paraphrase prompt
Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
36%
12 of 33 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“you might want to **avoid** the enterprise-heavy giants like **Cisco** and **Palo Alto**” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Fortinet FortiSASE
15%
6 of 41 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“has historically suffered from a steep learning curve and complex setup compared to born-in-the-cloud alternatives” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Cisco
31%
4 of 13 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“you might want to **avoid** the enterprise-heavy giants like **Cisco** and **Palo Alto**” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

66 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 808 links across 161 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

32 answers · 51 citations · 11 models
25 answers · 49 citations · 6 models
24 answers · 24 citations · 9 models
vendor site · OpenVPN22 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Fortinet21 answers · 33 citations · 11 models
20 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
20 answers · 23 citations · 9 models
19 answers · 19 citations · 8 models
18 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
17 answers · 20 citations · 10 models
16 answers · 18 citations · 6 models
vendor site · Cato Networks15 answers · 26 citations · 9 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best SASE platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which secure access service edge solution would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top SASE platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best SASE platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a SASE platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which SASE platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Cato SASE Cloud
Two alternativesCheck Point Harmony SASE, OpenVPN CloudConnexa
no first choiceChangedZscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Three alternativesCato Networks, Cisco Secure Access, Versa SASE
OpenVPN CloudConnexano first choiceagainst: Cisco Umbrella, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
GPT-5.4 miniCato SASE Cloud
Four alternativesCisco Secure Access + Meraki/SD-WAN, Fortinet FortiSASE, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Netskope OneChanged
Two alternativesPalo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
no first choiceCloudflare One
One alternativeNetskope One
against: Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashCato Networks
Three alternativesCloudflare One, Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One
against: Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Cato NetworksHeld
Three alternativesCloudflare One, Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One
against: Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
no first choice
One alternativeCloudflare One
Cloudflare One
Three alternativesCheck Point Harmony SASE, Fortinet FortiSASE, NordLayer
against: Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Cato Networks
Three alternativesCloudflare One, Fortinet FortiSASE, Todyl
against: Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
against: Cisco, Fortinet FortiSASE, HPE Aruba, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, VMware SASE
Perplexity SonarCato Networks
Three alternativesCheck Point Harmony SASE, Fortinet FortiSASE, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
against: Cloudflare One
Check Point Harmony SASEChanged
Two alternativesFortinet FortiSASE, Lumen Managed SASE
against: Barracuda SecureEdge, OpenVPN CloudConnexa
no first choiceCloudflare One, NordLayer
Two alternativesCato Networks, Fortinet FortiSASE
against: Cisco Umbrella
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastCato SASE Cloud
Two alternativesCloudflare One, Fortinet FortiSASE
against: Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
Cato SASE CloudHeld
Three alternativesCloudflare One, Fortinet FortiSASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
against: Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
no first choiceCloudflare One
One alternativeCisco Umbrella
against: Forcepoint ONE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Cato Networks, Cloudflare One
Four alternativesFortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
against: Cloudflare One, Forcepoint ONE, Fortinet FortiSASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, iboss
Mistral SmallCato SASE Cloud
Two alternativesCisco Umbrella, Fortinet FortiSASE
against: Zscaler Private Access
Cato NetworksChanged
Two alternativesCloudflare One, Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) + Zscaler Internet Access
no first choiceCato SASE Cloud, Cloudflare One
One alternativeCisco Umbrella
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashCato Networks
Two alternativesCloudflare One, Fortinet FortiSASE
against: Cisco Secure Access, Netskope One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Cato NetworksHeld
Two alternativesCloudflare One, Fortinet FortiSASE
Cato Networks, Netskope One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
Four alternativesCisco, Cloudflare One, Fortinet FortiSASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Cloudflare One
Two alternativesCato SASE Cloud, Fortinet FortiSASE
against: Cisco Umbrella
no first choiceagainst: Cato Networks, Check Point Harmony SASE, Cisco, Netskope One, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Llama 4 MaverickCato SASE CloudCheck Point Harmony SASEChanged
Three alternativesBarracuda SecureEdge, Fortinet FortiSASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Cato SASE Cloud
Four alternativesCloudflare One, Netskope One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Cisco Umbrella
Two alternativesForcepoint ONE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashCato Networks
Two alternativesCisco Umbrella, Fortinet FortiSASE
against: Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Microsoft Copilot for SecurityChanged
Two alternativesCisco Meraki, Cloudflare One
no first choice
Six alternativesCato Networks, Cisco, Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Cisco Umbrella, Cloudflare One
One alternativeNordLayer
against: Fortinet FortiSASE, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
no first choiceagainst: Barracuda SecureEdge, Check Point Harmony SASE, Cisco, Fortinet FortiSASE, Juniper, McAfee/Touchstone, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
Kimi K2Cato Networks
Two alternativesCisco Umbrella, Netskope One
against: Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Cato SASE CloudChanged
Four alternativesCisco Secure Access, Cisco Secure Connect, Cloudflare One, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
Six alternativesCato Networks, Cisco, Cloudflare One, Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Cloudflare One, NordLayer
Two alternativesCheck Point Harmony SASE, OpenVPN CloudConnexa
Cato Networks
Four alternativesCloudflare One, Netskope One, Prisma Cloud, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
against: Arista Networks, Cisco, Cloudflare One, Extreme Networks, Fortinet FortiSASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
GLM 4.7 FlashXCato SASE Cloud
Six alternativesCisco Umbrella, Cloudflare One, Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Cato SASE CloudHeld
Four alternativesCisco Secure Access, Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
against: Cloudflare One, Forcepoint ONE
Cisco Secure Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
Six alternativesCato SASE Cloud, Check Point CloudGuard, Cloudflare One, Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Cloudflare One
Two alternativesCisco Umbrella, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
no first choiceagainst: Cato Networks, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Cisco Secure Access, Cloudflare One, Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
MiniMax M2.5Cato SASE Cloud
Three alternativesCisco Umbrella, Fortinet FortiSASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Cato SASE CloudHeld
Two alternativesCheck Point Harmony SASE, Cisco Secure Connect
Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
Two alternativesCato Networks, Netskope One
Cisco Umbrella
Two alternativesCheck Point Harmony SASE, Cloudflare One
no first choicenothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 07:39yes99 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 07:35yes39 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 07:48yes1825 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 07:35yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 07:35yes2814 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 07:29yes55 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 07:29yes1416 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 07:47yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 07:30yes544 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 07:24yes2062 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 07:50yes1287 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 07:24yes514 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 07:38no04 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 07:47yes46 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 07:40yes1225 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 07:42yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 07:47yes2714 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 07:23no09 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 07:40yes811 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 07:32yes54 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 07:29no044 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 07:35yes922 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 07:36yes1545 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 07:27yes514 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 07:42yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 07:21yes611 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 07:31yes2029 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 07:42yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 07:23yes2515 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 07:38yes1011 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 07:46yes1717 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 07:26yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 07:25yes1030 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 07:28yes1025 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 07:49yes1039 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 07:39yes2267 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 07:28yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 07:25no05 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 07:39yes2121 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 07:26yes166 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 07:26yes3315 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 07:22yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 07:42yes1612 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 07:36yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 07:37yes962 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 07:25yes1043 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 07:27yes2675 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 07:28yes1023 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 07:21yes1714 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 07:34no013 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 07:26yes1025 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 07:43yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 07:40yes2015 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 07:28no010 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 07:36yes1718 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 07:33yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 07:47yes19108 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 07:36yes1360 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 07:41yes1336 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 07:47yes512 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 07:25yes1811 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 07:43yes58 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 07:47yes2025 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 07:22yes205 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 07:36yes4417 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 07:21yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 07:34yes1919 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 07:34yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 07:22yes1086 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 07:29yes1477 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 07:45yes2757 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 07:43yes1020 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Barracuda read as Barracuda SecureEdge
Cato read as Cato SASE Cloud
Cato Networks SASE Cloud read as Cato SASE Cloud
Check Point read as Check Point Harmony SASE
Check Point (R8x / Harmony Endpoint) read as Check Point Harmony SASE
Check Point Harmony read as Check Point Harmony SASE
Cloudflare read as Cloudflare One
Cloudflare (Cloudflare One) read as Cloudflare One
Cloudflare (One) read as Cloudflare One
Fortinet read as Fortinet FortiSASE
Fortinet (FortiSASE) read as Fortinet FortiSASE
Fortinet (Fortinet Unified SASE) read as Fortinet FortiSASE
HPE read as HPE Aruba
Netskope read as Netskope One
Netskope (Netskope One) read as Netskope One
Netskope (One SASE) read as Netskope One
Palo Alto read as Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
Palo Alto Networks read as Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
Palo Alto Networks (Prisma Access) read as Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
Palo Alto Networks (Prisma SASE) read as Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
VMware (SASE with SD-WAN by VeloCloud) read as VMware SASE
Versa read as Versa SASE
Zscaler read as Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Zscaler (Zero Trust Exchange) read as Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Zscaler (Zscaler Private Access + Internet Access) read as Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Unresolved, counted raw
Cisco Secure Access + Meraki/SD-WAN
Cisco Secure Access / Umbrella
Cisco Umbrella/Secure Access
Lumen Managed SASE
McAfee/Touchstone
Microsoft Copilot for Security (via Entra / Intune)
Zscaler ZIA/ZPA
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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