It’s not a lack of tools holding security teams back. According to the 2025 State of Secure Network Access Report from Hughes and Cybersecurity Insiders, the number one challenge organizations face today when securing remote and hybrid workers is managing access policies across multiple platforms. That’s not surprising, considering most companies now operate in a mix of on-prem, public cloud, and remote environments, often layered on top of aging infrastructure. When environments grow faster than teams can keep up, complexity becomes a security risk.
Why Complexity Is a Growing Concern for Security Leaders
In the report, 23% of IT and cybersecurity leaders called out policy complexity as their most pressing access-related challenge. Rising bandwidth costs, lack of visibility into user behavior, and the risk of excessive user privileges followed close behind.
This paints a clear picture: the problem isn’t that we don’t know what good security looks like. It’s that the architecture to enforce it is often fragmented. Managing access consistently across dozens of systems takes time. It introduces risk, and it stretches security teams already dealing with alert fatigue and talent shortages.
Legacy Tools Aren’t Keeping Up
The report also highlights how traditional tools like VPNs are falling short. Fifty-two percent of respondents said remote network connectivity is the most difficult resource to secure. That shows that this isn’t just a tech issue. This is a performance, productivity, and risk issue, especially with hybrid work here to stay.
Even as Zero Trust principles gain momentum, enforcing them across different environments remains a challenge. It’s easy to talk about identity-based access and least privilege. It’s much harder to apply those standards across disconnected systems without slowing down the business.
The Way Forward
The 2025 State of Secure Network Access Report points to growing interest in Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) as a way to reduce complexity and unify access control. Adoption is growing steadily, but poised to take off very soon. According to the report, 8% of organizations have fully implemented a SASE framework, with another 56% currently implementing or planning to implement within the next year.
Why? Integration. Nearly half of respondents said aligning new platforms with existing infrastructure is their biggest hurdle.
The opportunity for security leaders isn’t just to buy new tools. It’s to simplify. To move toward a model where access policies are applied consistently across users, locations, and cloud apps, without adding more manual work for the team.
How Hughes Helps Simplify Access and Strengthen Security
Hughes works with CISOs and CIOs facing these very challenges. Our managed SASE solutions are built to reduce friction, not add to it. Hughes helps integrate Zero Trust Network Access, SD-WAN, and cloud security controls into a single, manageable framework.
If you would like to see more about SASE architectures, and learn whether a managed SASE approach could benefit your organization, view more information on SASE architectures here..