Cathay takes off with global SASE deployment

In a move making the leading premium travel lifestyle brand one of the first companies in the aviation industry to adopt the emerging enterprise technology, Cathay has announced it is modernising its global network with a unified secure access service edge (SASE) offering from Aryaka for improved business performance and customer experience.

A member of the Swire Group, Cathay’s range of products and services includes flights, holidays, shopping, dining, wellness and payment. The company said its travel lifestyle offerings are designed to bring customers “exciting” offers, rewards, experiences and hand-picked partners. Flights are provided by Cathay Pacific, the home airline of Hong Kong and a founding member of the Oneworld global alliance.

The Cathay Group also comprises low-cost carrier HK Express, all-cargo carrier Air Hong Kong and various subsidiaries.

The company believes that for over seven decades, Cathay Pacific has been connecting its home city of Hong Kong to the world, and that in the new era of Cathay it was bringing that connection to more of its customers’ lives. Under the new agreement with Aryaka, Cathay will be providing converged networking, security and observability services across global sites.

Aryaka’s Unified SASE service is designed to help Cathay modernise its IT global network infrastructure, so it can be more agile, sustain growth, optimise costs and enhance security for the wide spectrum of devices and users that access its network.

Supplying what it calls a secure, high-functioning network that coexists with Cathay’s current technology, Aryaka said it will improve Cathay’s overall network performance, offer increased scalability and minimise downtime.

Additionally, fully managed services and last-mile circuits from Aryaka will provide Cathay with an end-to-end service that simplifies its digital transformation journey. Noting cyber security being a persistent focus for all modern enterprises, Aryaka assured that the converged network and security capabilities will deliver automated security, provisioning and management, accelerating response times when faced by threats.

Some of the IT challenges Cathay is seeking to mitigate include coding new offices quickly, delivering reliable internet access, and managing and securing cloud workloads across AWS and Azure applications.

“Aryaka’s Unified SASE solution and managed services will support Cathay’s growth as network demand increases, while allowing us to remain agile and secure in the process,” said Rajeev Nair, Cathay’s general manager of IT infrastructure and security.

“As we continue to rebuild our business, we need a partner that could have an impact on our network and security, limit downtime and interruptions, and give us the flexibility to expand our network and bandwidth with less lead time. Aryaka provides all of that and more, and we look forward to working with them to further modernise our business for our employees and customers.”

Aryaka chief product officer Renuka Nadkarni said: “Cathay has been a highly regarded brand for over 77 years, and we’re confident that our Unified SASE solutions will deliver an unprecedented experience for their staff and customers. This collaboration is a validation of our vision to deliver a best-in-class unified network and security solution intertwined with exceptional customer experience.”