What sold us on cAIberOps was how they explained everything without making us feel like we needed a computer science degree. Most cybersecurity companies throw around buzzwords and acronyms until you just nod and sign whatever they put in front of you. cAIberOps broke down exactly what our risks were, what was protecting us and what wasn’t, and what each service actually does in plain English. We ended up going with their managed email and endpoint protection and finally feel like we understand what we’re paying for and why. They send monthly reports that actually make sense instead of dashboards full of numbers nobody reads. If you’re a local business owner who’s been avoiding cybersecurity because it feels overwhelming, these are the people to talk to. They make it simple without dumbing it down.
Managed SASE for small and medium businesses
Managed SASE is a service where cAIberOps runs secure access for your business from the cloud. At its core is zero trust network access (ZTNA), the modern replacement for a VPN: your people reach the specific applications they are allowed to use, from the office, from home or from a client site, after their device passes a check. Your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace sign-ins are locked to a static IP that belongs to your business alone. It replaces the VPN and the exposed remote desktop port. When you want it, we add the second half: web and DNS protection wherever your people work. We design, build and run it for you, nationwide.
Last updated: November 10, 2026
Built on Check Point SASE (formerly Harmony SASE and Perimeter 81).
Managed SASE is quoted per user per month after the free 30-day trial. The price includes your dedicated cloud gateway and static IP, so there is one number per user and no separate gateway line. Monthly prices, billed yearly.
of remote-capable US employees work hybrid and 25% fully remote (Gallup, August 2026)
of breaches began with an exploited vulnerability; exposed VPN and remote desktop appliances are among the usual targets, and zero trust retires them (Verizon 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report)
of initial access came through phishing, up from 7% a year earlier (Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2026)
of users sign in to AI tools with a personal account on a company device, the gap tenant restrictions close (Verizon 2026 DBIR)
of breaches involved ransomware somewhere in the attack chain (Verizon 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report)
of intrusions that began with a stolen valid account led to more credentials being harvested once inside, which a sign-in locked to your static IP refuses from the start (Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2026)
What is zero trust network access (ZTNA)?
ZTNA stands for zero trust network access: a verified person on a checked device gets access to specific applications, and the rest of the network stays out of reach. It is the part of SASE that replaces a VPN. SASE is the wider service, which adds web and DNS protection and the cloud gateway. Our core is the ZTNA half, built and run for you; web and DNS protection (Check Point's Internet Access) is the half you add when you want it.
The VPN gave people the whole network. ZTNA gives them their applications.
A VPN connects a device to your network and trusts whatever is on it. Zero trust private access connects a verified person on a checked device to the specific applications they need, and the rest of the network stays invisible. An attacker who steals a password, or finds an unpatched remote-access box, gets far less.
What this looks like in a real business
An accountant working from home opens the practice-management server with one click, after the agent confirms the laptop is encrypted and its protection is running. A contractor reaches one web app in a browser, with no software installed and no access beyond it. The VPN password is gone, because there is no VPN.
Who asks you about this
Cyber insurance applications commonly ask how remote access is secured and whether MFA is enforced on it. Client questionnaires ask how contractors and personal devices are kept out of your data. Frameworks your sector follows (NIST 800-171 and CMMC for contractors, HIPAA for healthcare, FTC Safeguards for accountants and mortgage firms, and client security schedules for consultancies) describe access control and encrypted transmission; Managed SASE supports those requirements.
Managed SASE is for you if:
- Your team works from more than one place.
- You still run a VPN, or a port is open for remote desktop.
- Contractors or personal devices touch your systems.
- Your staff sign in to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace from phones, homes and hotels.
- You have an office server, NAS or line-of-business app that people reach remotely.
- You want one team to build and run it instead of learning another console.
Delivered fully remotely to small and medium businesses across the United States. Your office connects through the firewall or router you already have.
Four situations that bring a business to Managed SASE
The names change; the shape of the problem is the same from office to office. Each of these comes from a real deployment pattern, rewritten for a business of ten to five hundred people.
The office server and the VPN people put up with
A Microsoft 365 shop that worries about stolen passwords
Contractors on their own laptops, for a few apps, at set hours
A team spread across homes, client sites and hotels
Your people, your gateway, your applications
One dedicated gateway in the Check Point cloud, with a static IP that is yours alone, sits between your people and the things they need. Your office connects to it through the firewall you already own; laptops and phones connect through a light agent; contractors connect in a browser. Your identity provider decides who a person is; the posture check decides whether the device is in shape.
Office
An IPsec tunnel from the firewall or router you already have; no appliance to buy.
Remote staff
A light agent on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and Chromebook, posture checked before and during each session, with the tunnel forced on open Wi-Fi.
Contractors and personal devices
Browser access to a named web app, remote desktop, SSH or VNC session, with checks on time, location, operating system and browser, no agent.
Your sign-ins
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace restricted to your gateway's IP, so a stolen password fails from anywhere else. Because the sign-in is refused on its source, not on the password, the lock holds even when the attacker also holds a valid MFA code.
Zero trust private access, built and run for you
ZTNA: per-application access instead of a network
Your people see the applications they are allowed to use and none of the network behind them; access rules by user, group, time, location and device posture; exposed remote desktop and port forwarding retired.
Device posture checks and protected Wi-Fi
Encryption on, protection running, operating system version, domain join, company certificate; checked before connection and repeated during it. A device that falls out of policy loses access; on open Wi-Fi the agent forces the encrypted tunnel.
A dedicated gateway and static IP
Your gateway's address is yours alone, at no extra charge, so Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace sign-ins can be locked to it.
Contractors and personal devices in a browser
Web apps, remote desktop, SSH and VNC with no software to install; access scoped to the one application, for the hours you set.
WEB AND DNS PROTECTION (CHECK POINT'S INTERNET ACCESS), WHEREVER YOUR PEOPLE WORK
Web protection on the device
Category filtering by group, application control, malware protection, sandboxing of suspicious downloads, cleaning of risky files, anti-bot, zero-day phishing pages blocked, a warning when a work password is typed into an outside site, HTTPS inspection on the device rather than in a distant data center.
Tenant restrictions, DNS filtering and data loss prevention
Personal Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace accounts blocked on work devices with the attempt logged; DNS filtering at the gateway; sensitive data in uploads and downloads blocked or logged by rule.
If your devices already carry our Managed Endpoint Protection with Web Threat Protection, you may not need this half; we say so on the call.
WITH THE SERVICE, IN EITHER SHAPE24/7 monitoring and support
Tunnel and gateway health, blocked connections, posture failures and sign-in events watched around the clock; investigation with no time cap; the engineers who built your network answer.
A written monthly report
Who connected to what, what was blocked, posture failures, changes made; written for the owner, the IT manager or the CISO, and usable for an insurer or a client questionnaire.
A SaaS security posture report in the first 90 days
A one-time review of your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace tenant: risky app connections, oversharing, misconfigurations; the same report Managed Email Security clients receive.
The platform is Check Point's, which publishes SOC 2 Type II reports covering SASE and its portal, and its ISO 27001 certificate, and runs US customers in its United States region. We do not hold those certifications ourselves and say so.
Options such as an enterprise browser for high-risk third-party access, continuous SaaS security posture, longer log retention and additional gateways are added to Managed SASE and quoted on the call. See the options on the Services page.
How much does managed SASE cost?
per user per month after the free 30-day trial, gateway and static IP included
Zero trust private access for your people
Device posture checks
Browser access for contractors
24/7 monitoring and support
Investigation with no time cap
The monthly report
The one-time SaaS posture report in your first 90 days
Managed SASE is quoted per user per month after the free 30-day trial, with the dedicated gateway and static IP included in the per-user price. Web and DNS protection is quoted as the half you add when you want it. No appliance to buy, no onboarding fee, yearly term billed yearly.
What the agent checks before anyone gets in
A VPN asks for a password. Zero trust network access asks the device a set of questions first, and asks them again during the session at an interval we set. A device that stops passing loses access until it is fixed, and the failure shows up in your monthly report.
Disk encryption ona lost laptop is a lost laptop, not a breach
Protection running and currentour Managed Endpoint Protection agent, or the antivirus you already run
Operating system versionan unpatched machine waits outside until it updates
Company-issued devicedomain membership or a certificate we place, so a personal laptop cannot pretend
A required process or settinga backup agent running, a registry value present, a file in place: the checks you choose
For browser users without an agenttime window, country, operating system and browser; the rule for a contractor at 9 am in Virginia is not the rule for a sign-in at 3 am from abroad
Option for high-security work: device isolation blocks local network traffic (printers, shares, other machines) while a device is connected, which suits public Wi-Fi; we tell you in advance that a home printer stops working while it is on.
Remote desktop, the zero trust way
An open remote desktop port is one of the common ways ransomware gets into small and medium businesses. It does not need to be open.
Behind a sign-in and a device check
Remote desktop becomes an application in the zero trust portal. Staff open it in a browser, with no software, or through their native Remote Desktop client with dual monitors, local printing and their own keyboard layout. The port on your firewall closes (your IT provider closes it on our instruction).
Each person lands on their own PC
One rule covers the whole office: the identity provider tells the gateway which desktop belongs to which person, so a new hire's remote desktop works the day their account is created, and leaves with them. No list of per-person connections to maintain.
ZTNA vs VPN: what changes when you replace the VPN
The honest comparison. A VPN appliance is not wrong; it was built for a world where the office was the network.
| What you get | A VPN appliance | Managed SASE (ZTNA core) |
|---|---|---|
| What a successful login grants | The network, or a large segment of it | The applications that person is allowed, and the rest stays invisible |
| Device health | Rarely checked; a password is enough | Checked before each connection and again during it |
| Contractors and personal devices | A client install, or a shared account | A browser, a named application, a time window |
| Exposed ports on your firewall | VPN and often remote desktop listening on the internet | None required; the gateway reaches in through an outbound tunnel |
| Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace sign-ins | From anywhere, with whatever MFA allows | Restricted to your static IP and a checked device |
| Joiners and leavers | A VPN account to create, and to remember to delete | Follows your identity provider: created with the account, gone when it is disabled |
| Who runs it | Your IT provider, between other jobs | Designed, built and watched by cAIberOps, 24/7 monitoring and support |
| Audit trail | Connection logs on the appliance | Who reached which application, from which device, when, and what was refused, in your monthly report |
One working day with Managed SASE
A composed example, not a client's log, to show what the pieces do together.
An account manager opens the practice-management server from her kitchen table. The agent confirms the laptop is encrypted and protected, the gateway allows that one application, and the rest of the office network stays invisible to her.
The outside bookkeeper opens the accounting web app in a browser, inside the Tuesday-to-Thursday window you set. No software on his laptop, and no path beyond that app.
A sign-in to Microsoft 365 arrives with a valid password from an address that is not your gateway. It is refused and logged. The password had leaked in a phishing email the week before; the lock made it worthless.
A new hire is created in your identity provider. Her access to the applications her role needs, and her remote desktop, exist a few minutes later. No ticket to us.
A salesperson joins hotel Wi-Fi. The agent forces the encrypted tunnel before the browser opens; with internet access added, a malicious download is sandboxed and blocked on the device.
At month end, each of these appears in your report, with the changes we made and the ones you approved.
How a small and medium business starts with ZTNA
Audit
We map who needs which application, where the resources live, and how remote access works today.
Build
Identity provider connected with automatic provisioning, network and gateway created, posture rules and access policies written with you.
Pilot
Agent pushed through Intune, your MDM or RMM, or by invitation; a pilot group runs for the 30-day trial while your VPN stays up.
Cut over
The rest of the team moves, the old VPN and open ports are closed, contractors get browser access; internet access switched on if you chose it.
Run
24/7 monitoring and support, joiners and leavers handled, rule changes with your approval, agent upgrades, monthly report.
No new hardware
Your office connects to the gateway through the firewall or router you already own, using a standard IPsec tunnel. SD-WAN appliances are not part of this service; if your situation calls for them, we say so plainly and talk about it separately.
What we ask on the first call
Fifteen minutes, six questions. The answers tell us which half of Managed SASE you need and how long the trial will take to show results.
- 1How do remote staff reach your office server or applications today?
Why we ask: this finds the VPN, the open ports and the workarounds.
- 2Once connected, who can reach what?
Why we ask: whole network or specific applications; this is the gap zero trust closes.
- 3How do you know a device is healthy before it connects?
Why we ask: encryption, protection and patch level are the posture check we will write.
- 4How do contractors and personal devices get in?
Why we ask: shared accounts and client installs become browser access with a time window.
- 5Which cloud sign-ins would you like locked to your business?
Why we ask: Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and the line-of-business apps that accept an IP allow list.
- 6Do you want web traffic filtered and downloads checked wherever people work?
Why we ask: the internet-access half, or already covered if your devices run our endpoint protection.
What the monthly report shows
The platform logs two kinds of events, security and operational. We read both and write them up for the owner, the IT manager or the CISO, so you know what you are paying for and can decide with facts, and ready if an insurer or a client asks for it.
by person and device, with the policy that allowed it
the attempts that failed because the lock held, and from where
the laptop that fell behind on updates, and when it came back
what was caught before it reached a device, and what the sandbox decided
what was filtered, and the personal account sign-ins that were stopped
uptime of your office tunnel, any failover, and each rule change with the approval behind it
the owner, the IT manager or the CISO
USABLE FORdeciding with facts; insurer and client questions
What we do, and what we do not
We do
- Design and build the network, and connect your identity provider.
- Write and enforce access policies, and web policies if you add internet access.
- Roll out the agent and connect your offices and cloud resources.
- Watch tunnels, gateways and security events 24/7.
- Handle joiners, leavers and rule changes with your approval.
- Investigate with no time cap and report monthly.
- Deliver the 90-day SaaS posture report.
We do not
- Sell internet circuits.
- Sell or install SD-WAN appliances.
- Sell, support or manage a firewall appliance for your office; the tunnel works from the router or firewall you already own, from any vendor that supports IPsec.
- Run penetration tests or vulnerability scans.
- Patch your servers.
- Certify compliance, audit you or write your policies (that is your assessor's or counsel's role).
Straight answers to the objections we hear
Five objections come up again and again on first calls. Here they are, with our answers.
Why cAIberOps
Zero trust access is sold to enterprises with network teams. We run it for businesses that have no spare person to learn another console, on a platform that puts a dedicated gateway and static IP in the price. The platform is Check Point's; the design, the policy, the monitoring and the response are ours.
Certified in the thing we sell
The team holds the credentials for the platform it runs, and built its own zero trust network on it first.
- Zero Trust Certified Architect
- Certified Threat Intelligence Analyst
- CompTIA Security+
- Cisco CyberOps
- MSc Information Technology Systems and Management
- Check Point Workspace Security Expert
- Check Point Email Solution Specialization
- Check Point Endpoint & Browser Solution Specialization
- Check Point Workforce AI Security Solution Specialization
- Check Point SASE Solution Specialization
- Check Point SASE MSP certification
A real trial, not a demo
30 days in your environment, built by us, kept if you continue.
One price, gateway included
No surprise line item for the gateway or the static IP.
No tier-one queue
The engineers who built your network answer, 24/7.
What clients say on Google
5.0 rating, 10 reviews · View on Google
We found out through cAIberOps that several of our employee credentials were already leaked on the dark web. Our previous provider never flagged it. On top of that, our email security was barely catching anything and we had no endpoint protection to speak of. The cAIberOps team got us set up with email protection, endpoint security, and security awareness training in under two weeks. The whole process was painless. Employees didn’t even notice a change in their workflow. What stood out is how simple they made everything. No complicated setup, no disruption, and now our staff actually gets trained on spotting phishing instead of just hoping they don’t click the wrong link. For any small business in the DMV area that’s been putting off cybersecurity, cAIberOps makes it easy to finally get it right.
We weren’t even looking for a cybersecurity company. Colleague recommended cAIberOps after they helped his business in Fairfax. They sat down with us, walked through our email and endpoint setup, and within an hour showed us gaps we had no idea existed. No scare tactics, just facts. He even gave us recommendations on our general IT configuration that had nothing to do with selling us a service. That kind of honesty is rare in this industry. We ended up signing on for their managed security and it’s been one of the best IT decisions we’ve made. If you run a business in NOVA and don’t have a dedicated cybersecurity partner, give cAIberOps a call.
If you’re a small business in Northern Virginia like us and looking for a cybersecurity provider, at least have a conversation with cAIberOps. They offered us a free consultation where he reviewed our general IT setup and pointed out things we could improve just from a security best practices standpoint, no pressure, no sales pitch. They gave us clear visibility into where we were exposed and what we should prioritize. Even if you’re not ready to commit to a managed security service, the consultation alone is worth it. Best cybersecurity advice we’ve gotten in the DC metro area.
We were paying significantly more for our previous email and endpoint security and assumed we were covered. When we started working with cAIberOps, they showed us what was actually getting through. Phishing emails our old provider wasn’t catching and endpoint threats that were going undetected. It was honestly alarming to see how much we were overpaying for a solution that wasn’t doing its job. We switched to their complete protection package covering both email and endpoints, and our annual cost dropped while our actual security coverage went up substantially. The difference was immediat, threats that used to slip through are now caught and dealt with before anyone on our team even sees them. On top of that, we get monthly reports showing exactly what was blocked and investigated, which we never had before. If you’re a small business in DMV area paying too much for cybersecurity that gives you a false sense of security, talk to cAIberOps. We’re getting better protection for less money and that’s hard to argue with.
We had an employee account compromised through a credential harvesting email that made it past our existing email protection. We didn’t even know it happened until unusual activity was flagged weeks later. We brought in team from cAIberOps to take a look, and he ran a two-week assessment on our email environment. What he found was eye-opening. Our previous solution was basically catching the obvious stuff but letting targeted phishing emails through, especially the ones designed to steal login credentials. We honestly thought we were protected, but we weren’t.
We were paying extra for an email security add-on through our previous provider and phishing emails were still landing in people’s inboxes almost every week. Someone on our team actually clicked one and that was the wake up call. We started looking into managed email security options and found cAIberOps. They showed us exactly where our email protection was failing and how much was slipping through that we didn’t even know about. Once they set up their managed email security it was like night and day, the phishing attempts just stopped showing up. Their team actually monitors everything and manages the whole thing so we don’t have to think about it. Really solid cybersecurity partner for any small or medium business in the Northern Virginia or DC area that thinks their email is protected but hasn’t actually tested that assumption.
I reached out to cAIberOps after realizing our small business had been relying on nothing more than Microsoft 365’s default email security, which honestly kept me up at night. From the very first consultation, the team was straightforward and knowledgeable, no pushy sales tactics, just an honest assessment of where we were vulnerable. They walked us through exactly how managed email security and endpoint protection work, explained the technology behind it, and had everything deployed without any disruption to our daily operations. What really stood out was the pricing transparency, no hidden fees, no long-term contracts, just a fair yearly rate for enterprise-grade protection powered by Check Point. As a business operating in the Northern Virginia area, it’s reassuring to work with a local cybersecurity partner who understands the unique risks in this region. Highly recommend cAIberOps to any small or medium business that wants real security without the enterprise price tag.
Managed SASE questions
What does SASE stand for?
Secure access service edge: network security delivered from the cloud instead of from a box in your office. For a small and medium business the part that matters is zero trust network access, which replaces the VPN, with web protection as the optional second half.
What is ZTNA, and is it the same as SASE?
ZTNA stands for zero trust network access: a verified person on a checked device gets access to specific applications, and the rest of the network stays out of reach. It is the part of SASE that replaces a VPN. SASE is the wider service, which adds web and DNS protection and the cloud gateway. Our core is the ZTNA half, built and run for you; web and DNS protection is the half you add when you want it.
Will it slow my team down?
Private traffic rides your gateway over Check Point's backbone, and internet traffic goes direct by default. If you add web and DNS protection, inspection runs on the device instead of through a distant data center. Check Point reports the agent uses about one to two percent of CPU in its testing.
What about contractors and personal devices?
They get browser-based access to a named web app, remote desktop or SSH session, with no software to install, checked for time, location, operating system and browser. For higher-risk work an enterprise browser option adds session isolation and recording.
Does it include SD-WAN?
No. SD-WAN appliances replace or combine the internet lines at a branch, which is a hardware project. Managed SASE secures your people and connects your offices over the lines you already have.
What happens if the service is unavailable?
Internet traffic goes direct by default, so browsing is unaffected; only your private applications ride the gateway. Gateways run in Check Point's cloud regions with failover between them, and we watch tunnel and gateway health 24/7 and act on it.
How is Managed SASE priced?
Quoted per user per month after the free 30-day trial, with the dedicated gateway and static IP included. Web and DNS protection, when you add it, is part of the same per-user quote. Monthly prices, billed yearly. No onboarding fee, no multi-year contract, no minimum number of users.
Can SASE replace a VPN?
Yes. A VPN puts a device on your network; zero trust network access gives each verified person on a checked device a connection to the named application, and the rest stays invisible. The VPN appliance is retired, its open port closes and exposed remote desktop is closed as part of the rollout. Your office keeps working through the firewall you already own.
Do we need internet access if we already have your endpoint protection?
Often not. Managed Endpoint Protection with Web Threat Protection already filters browsing on those devices. Web and DNS protection through Managed SASE adds DNS filtering at the gateway, tenant restrictions, data loss prevention on uploads and protection for devices without our endpoint agent. We look at what you have and recommend one or the other, not both.
Do we need new hardware?
No. Your office connects through the firewall or router you already have with an IPsec tunnel, and cloud servers through a small connector. There is no appliance to buy.
What is the dedicated static IP for?
It is the address your gateway uses, and it belongs to your business alone. Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace can be set to accept sign-ins only from it, so a password stolen in a phishing email is refused from anywhere else.
Can we keep our VPN while we move?
Yes. The pilot group moves first and the VPN stays for the rest until the cutover session. Legacy servers connect through a tunnel or a small connector, so no server has to be rebuilt to take part.
What happens when someone joins or leaves?
With your identity provider connected, a new hire gets access when their account is created, and a leaver loses it the moment the account is disabled, with the license freed for the next person. No separate VPN account to remember to close.
Does it help with CMMC, HIPAA, FTC Safeguards or a cyber insurance application?
It gives you the controls those frameworks and questionnaires describe for remote access: identity-based access, MFA through your identity provider, device checks, encrypted connections and a log of who reached what. We do not certify, audit, write your policies or guarantee compliance; that is your assessor's or counsel's role.
Plain words for the terms you will hear
- SASE
- Secure access service edge. Security delivered from the cloud for people and offices wherever they are, instead of from a box at headquarters.
- ZTNA
- Zero trust network access. A verified person on a checked device gets specific applications; the network behind them stays out of reach. The part of SASE that replaces a VPN.
- Secure web gateway
- Filtering and inspection of web traffic, in our case on the device, so a malicious page or download is stopped before it lands.
- Posture check
- The questions the agent asks a device before and during a connection: encrypted, protected, up to date, company-issued.
- Gateway and static IP
- Your dedicated node in the Check Point cloud, with an address that belongs to your business alone, which your cloud apps can be told to trust.
- Tenant restriction
- A rule that lets a work device sign in to your company's Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and not to a personal account on the same service.
- Identity provider and SCIM
- The directory that decides who a person is (Entra ID, Okta, Google), and the standard that pushes joiners and leavers to the gateway automatically.
- Split tunnel
- Only traffic for your private applications rides the gateway; the open internet goes direct, so browsing speed is unchanged.
- SSE
- Security service edge: the security half of SASE (web protection, zero trust access, SaaS controls) without the networking half.
- SWG, CASB, FWaaS
- The industry's names for web filtering, SaaS controls and a cloud firewall; in Managed SASE these are the web and DNS protection half.
Start with a free 30-day trial.
We build your zero trust network, connect your identity provider and enroll a pilot group while your VPN stays up. At the end you have a working network and a written summary. Keep it and the price is quoted per user; stop and we remove what we built.