WAN optimization technologies have for years been the go-to solutions for improving enterprise application performance across the WAN. The WAN is changing though, and traditional WAN optimization technologies may soon not be enough on their own. The rise of software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) provides enterprises with greater control over WAN operations, promising more efficiency and effective application management across the entire corporate WAN infrastructure. Traditional WAN optimization technologies aren’t about to disappear of course, but the challenges presented by the current — and future — state of the WAN beg for more than basic application optimization. That’s where SD-WAN technologies can…
It’s been an exciting year for SD-WAN technology. Not only have the leading industry analysts been bullish, but this year saw a major uptick in the number of high-profile service providers adopting the technology for their customers. I firmly believe the pace of SD-WAN adoption is only going to accelerate and further evolve into new markets. What follows are my top five predictions for SD-WAN in 2017. 1. Software-Defined Security (SD-Security) will be the Next Big Revenue Driver for Service Providers Already Capitalizing on SD-WAN Industry Solutions According to IDC, by 2020, the SD-WAN industry solutions market will grow to…
New Versa CEO Kelly Ahuja talks about the pace of change in business and technology, and how every company needs to move with speed and scale to win. The world of cloud, mobility and applications has gotten us on a path to the Internet of Everything. The need for speed is driving every business to rethink their infrastructure and network. The benefits of Cloud have made it compelling for businesses to adopt a ‘shrinking data center’ approach. This, combined with the increased adoption of cloud-based applications by lines of business, requires a change in architecture of the wide-area network and…
As with any startup, the courage and sacrifices necessary to make an endeavor successful are difficult to justify, because the possibility of success is equally balanced with a likelihood of disappointment– and therein lies the dilemma. As such, it isn’t often that one can see their vision come to fruition. And yet, four years after starting Versa, it has become one of the most formidable companies in the Software Defined WAN and SD-Security landscape. In 2012, Apurva and I began recognizing the macro-trend developing in which the future of networking would be software-based. Expensive and proprietary hardware was going to…
In February, Versa announced major feature and performance enhancements to the software-defined security (SD-Security) used in its branch security offering. The enhanced SD-Security enables service providers and large enterprise IT teams to deliver a wide range of layered security services for branch offices, including advanced functions such as domain name system (DNS) security and secure web gateways (SWG), coupled with full multi-tenancy. Analysts Understand the Need for SD-Security According to industry analysts, branch offices are increasingly becoming a targeted point of entry into corporate networks, with attack volume growing more than 500 percent over the last three years. Gartner’s 2012…
The growth of software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) has created new opportunities for distributed enterprises to better manage their WAN environments, but it has also given rise to several incorrect assumptions about the technology and how it’s used. It’s something that happens with any new technology. As the technology gains attention and acceptance in the market, some misconceptions about it are also bound to spring up. Here are three of the biggest myths that surround SD-WAN … and the real story behind them: #1: Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) will be entirely replaced by public Internet transport connections The real story: The reasoning behind…
Telecommunications companies have taken a strong interest in SDN. At the same time, more enterprise use cases for NFV have been emerging. When it comes to software-defined networking (SDN) vs. network functions virtualization (NFV), both are related and both use network abstraction. However, SDN separates and abstracts the control plane into software from the data plane, which remains in hardware, and NFV is a combination of separating wholesale network and security functions into specific software, then service chaining them. NFV: Not Just for Telcos When network function virtualization (NFV) first started making headlines about four years ago, the initial use…
Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) promises a wide variety of benefits — from cost savings by enabling the use of public Internet as well as MPLS and single-use CPE links to faster time-to-response in making changes to the WAN. The software-defined world is new to many WAN administrators and engineers. They’re being pushed further away from hardware and toward software. There’s even an expectation in many organizations that networking professionals learn to code — or at least begin to treat their infrastructure as such. It’s a change that appears to be accelerating, and the WAN administrator/engineer role will become one…
A recent IDG report predicted that the nascent software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) industry, worth a mere $225 million last year, will experience a 90 percent compound annual growth rate over the next five years to become a $6 billion industry by 2020. SNS Research revealed that by the end of 2020, service provider investments in network function virtualization (NFV), SD-WAN and software-defined networking (SDN) will total more than $18 Billion. The Growth Drivers Telcos are aggressively jumping on the NFV and SDN bandwagon, targeting deployments across a multitude of areas. SNS Research said that operators are driven by the…
In November 2015, Versa Networks emerged publicly with its vision of addressing core operational, business agility and cost-reduction issues faced by both network service providers and enterprise customers. Since then, our products have received unequivocal recognition from analyst firms, industry publications and thought leaders. Recently, we added two more feathers to the cap by being included in CRN’s 2016 Emerging Vendors List and Startup 50’s Big 50-2016. These awards recognize our vision to overhaul the legacy enterprise WAN and branch network architecture. CRN’s Emerging Vendors CRN’s 2016 Emerging Vendors List recognizes up-and-coming technology suppliers that are shaping the future of…
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