Versa Software-Defined Security (SD-Security) Gains Momentum; Takes Home TMC’s Cloud Computing Security Excellence Award
Chief Security Architect, Versa Networks
October 26, 2016
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 report, “The Impact of Software-Defined Data Centers on Information Security,” said, “In Phase 3, information security itself will evolve to become software-defined, where, like SDN, the management model for security services is abstracted from being managed one box at a time to a policy-based, network-wide view.”
To address branch office vulnerabilities, service providers through managed service offerings and enterprise IT teams are evolving their branch security infrastructure from legacy point appliances to a more agile and software-defined approach. What software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) has done for branch connectivity, software-defined security is doing for branch security.
Roopa Honnachari, industry director, Business Communication Services & Cloud Computing Services—ICT, at Frost & Sullivan recently said, “Versa’s NFV-based approach to SD-WAN is unique as it addresses market needs in a holistic manner by combining a large set of networking and security functions with an instantly scalable multi-tenant platform and Big Data analysis.”
Customers are Quickly Understanding the Value of SD-Security
In the months since we announced those incremental security capabilities, a number of high profile service providers have launched managed services leveraging Versa SD-Security, including CenturyLink and RCN.
In June, CenturyLink selected our SD-WAN and SD-Security for its new managed SD-WAN service. CenturyLink SD-WAN is comprehensively providing all of the benefits of SD-WAN technology, coupled with integrated security to seamlessly protect direct Internet-based connectivity. When asked to comment why they selected Versa, Eric Barrett, director of network products at CenturyLink said, “Versa continues to innovate the way managed services are built, offering a broad set of benefits using a highly flexible network functions virtualization-based (NFV) approach.”
Based on our software-defined security, RCN Business Managed Security is delivered from the cloud, eliminating the management and capital costs associated with traditional security solutions. In explaining the advantages of deploying Versa’s SD-security in their customer offering, Mike Carrosquilla, SVP of Commercial Services for RCN said, “Not only does our fully managed solution give businesses comprehensive protection, the cloud-based platform eliminates capital equipment and management costs, ensuring the service is always up-to-date.”
Versa’s SD-Security Technology is Being Recognized and Awarded by Leading Industry Publications
Most recently, our SD-Security was recognized by TMC when it was awarded the prestigious Cloud Computing Security Excellence award. The awards, presented by Cloud Computing magazine, honor solutions that most effectively leverage cloud platforms to deliver network security, and those providing security for cloud applications. For more than 20 years, TMC has been honoring technology companies with awards in various categories. These awards are regarded as some of the most prestigious and respected honors in the communications and technology sector worldwide. Winners represent prominent players in the market who consistently demonstrate the advancement of technologies. Each recipient is a verifiable leader in the marketplace.
TMC CEO Rich Tehrani said of the winners, “We’ve seen remarkable progress as security continues to be the leading consideration in cloud deployment, making this a very competitive process. It’s our pleasure to recognize such impressive and important contributions to the cloud marketplace.”
The advantages of Versa’s SD-Security are quickly becoming clear. The award-winning platform offers the industry’s broadest set of virtualized network functions (VNF) for delivering SD-WAN and SD-Security in the branch office, provider point of presence (PoP) and data center. The technology is a carrier-grade solution with built-in elasticity and multi-tenancy that is entirely software-based and programmable, accelerating time-to-service from weeks or months down to hours, while reducing the total cost of ownership (Capex + Opex) by up to 80%. With the most comprehensive set of networking and security VNFs combined with service chaining for both Versa and 3rd party functions, Versa provides the most flexible approach for the delivery of SD-WAN and SD-Security.
