Masergy expands SD-WAN portfolio with SASE, added analytics

Masergy has launched the next generation of its SD-WAN portfolio, which will now be based on Gartner’s Secure Access Security Edge (SASE) tenets. It now claims to be able to address the needs of multicloud businesses of all sizes.

SASE is the latest technology to garner industry buzz in networking and security, and although it is still relatively new, it is making waves. Less than a year after it received an official name from Gartner, SASE has started to disrupt the networking and security markets. As incumbent suppliers make strategic moves to build SASE offerings, the nascent technology has the potential to upend traditional networking and security.

Also, a recent investigation into the attitudes of IT leaders in the post-Covid-19 environment found that despite the emergence and rapid take-up of SD-WAN, one-third of organisations have no plans to deploy SD-WAN, 55% favouring the emerging single cloud service model of SASE, which converges SD-WAN features with cloud-based security services for remote workers and devices.

“The next-generation WAN is a moving target,” said John Burke, CIO and principal research analyst ay Nemertes Research. “More than just a network connecting branches to datacentres, the next-gen WAN is the locus of enterprise control for all communications among resources not sharing a location. SD-WAN is its core and has to evolve continually to meet new enterprise needs and preferences, and to connect resources wherever they are.”

Masergy said its new portfolio recognises that moving to SD-WAN is a journey, not a destination, and that large and small businesses need to quickly gain the agility and flexibility that SD-WAN offers as digital transformations have accelerated dramatically because of Covid-19. It said it offers flexibility in network, access, management and security, giving businesses the freedom to choose the right configuration for their cloud and network needs.

Fundamentally, the new offering adheres to the primary tenets of SASE, uniting network and security functions into a single solution, coupling SD-WAN with security bundles that include unified threat management, threat monitoring and response or complete managed security services.

The portfolio also includes cloud-based firewall as a service, cloud access security broker, secure web gateway and zero-trust network access to antivirus, intrusion detection/prevention, web filtering, data loss prevention, security analytics, endpoint detection and response, plus 24/7 SOC services and vulnerability.

In addition to Masergy-provided private access, direct internet access, and broadband internet access, users can bring their own third-party connectivity and there is support for cloud on-ramp solutions, such as expanded connectivity to additional cloud service and software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers; SD-WAN integration in public cloud infrastructure; shared private peering for SaaS apps; a shared bandwidth model for multiple cloud services across the same exchange and across the Masergy Secure Edge Network. A number of the capabilities are launching now and then into the first quarter of 2021.

“Managed SD-WAN Secure portfolio is another leap forward in allowing companies to better control their destiny as they modernise their IT infrastructures,” said Chris MacFarland, chairman and CEO of Masergy. “Offering greater flexibility and more choice, our new SD-WAN portfolio enables clients to achieve optimal performance and security across hybrid, multicloud environments with an approach to management that fits their specific needs – all on a regional and global scale.”