Apcela and Versa Networks have expanded their ongoing partnership to enable Apcela to offer Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Secure SD-WAN capabilities as part of its portfolio of managed networking services.
The Versa services have been added to Apcela’s Arcus Platform, a move will allow Apcela to optimize enterprise networks and security, while also decreasing cost and improving quality of service amid of bevy of new challenges created by hybrid IT environments, increasingly remote workforces in the age of Covid-19 and greater reliance on cloud-based applications, according to an Apcela press release.
Apcela CEO and Founder Mark Casey told FierceTelecom in an email, “The need for more distributed security environments was well underway prior to the pandemic, with Gartner defining the SASE framework in late 2019. The pandemic has accelerated the need for Zero Trust Network Access at the edge; however, most large enterprises still desire performant MPLS connectivity for applications in the data center. This is at the center of our partnership with Versa.”
Casey further explained in his email that deploying Versa on Arcus allows ZTNA at the network edge "with Secure Web Gateways to handle commodity internet traffic destined for knowledge worker content distribution network-bound traffic (e.g. search, video, News, etc.), while providing additional security treatment (e.g. NGFW [next-generation firewalls], DLP [data loss prevention]) and a high performance MPLS underlay for traffic destined for the data center, or mission-centric cloud application (IaaS, SaaS) traffic destined for other cloud data centers (e.g AWS, Azure, Salesforce, SAP, etc.).”
Versa SASE and Secure SD-WAN use the company’s Versa Operating System software instead of routers to direct digital traffic, helping users optimize priority bandwidth and upgrade application performance by decreasing jitter and packet loss. Security analytics and monitoring features also provide insight into both data center and cloud traffic.
“Adding Versa Networks technology to our platform, enables a rapidly deployable and scalable SASE environment, less reliant on the public internet for transit of mission critical application traffic,” Casey stated.
For Versa’s part, John Atchison, Head of Global Partner Marketing for Versa, said in the press release, "We are excited that Apcela is part of the Versa ACE Partner program to drive SASE and Secure SD-WAN for network enhancement globally. We see great value in Apcela’s Arcus Platform, and believe it can help companies master the growing challenges of today’s hybrid IT environment.”
RELATED: Versa targets lean IT with integrated SASE
The new services can be managed via a central graphical user interface with a single-pane-of-glass view of SASE and SD-WAN environments. The announcement represents an expansion of a partnership between the two companies that goes back a couple of years, according to Travis Shank, vice president of enterprise solutions at Apcela. He stated via email that the relationship began with Apcela wanting to provide diversified SD-WAN solutions to its enterprise customers.
“We had been following the SD-WAN market and were very impressed with Versa’s solution," he stated. "We agreed wholeheartedly with Versa’s vision of where the market was heading with the integration of secure SD-WAN at the edge and we decided to jump on board. We made the investments to train our sales and engineering resources, and added Versa to our overall solution portfolio. Since that time, both organizations have recognized that there is more than just a vendor/service provider relationship at stake. Apcela, with its global platform, is providing critical infrastructure to Versa’s SASE offering.”