Versa SASE for Government
Enabling Zero Trust with Versa SASE
The U.S. federal government’s transition towards a Zero Trust approach to cybersecurity has been accelerating in response to an evolving and increasingly sophisticated cyber threat landscape. President Biden’s “Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity“, signed in May 2021, emphasized the need to modernize cybersecurity practices and adopt a Zero Trust Architecture.
To meet these objectives, federal agencies, have been working towards achieving specific zero trust security goals by the end of Fiscal Year 2024, as mandated by a Biden administration memorandum. As the memo states:
“In the current threat environment, the Federal Government can no longer depend on conventional perimeter-based defenses to protect critical systems and data. … A transition to a “zero trust” approach to security provides a defensible architecture for this new environment”
At Versa Networks, we play a pivotal role in enhancing the federal government’s cybersecurity infrastructure, providing comprehensive protection against a broad spectrum of cyber threats while enabling seamless and secure connectivity to support the government’s digital transformation goals. And our commitment to federal standards and regulations ensures that you are able to meet the specific needs and challenges unique to government operations.
What is SASE for Government?
Versa SASE includes many networking and security services that help support government operations, such as Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), and Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 compliance.
The platform delivers these services in a single software stack, single management interface, flexibly via the cloud, on-premises, or as a blended combination of both. Public sector organizations can leverage these capabilities to adopt the application delivery infrastructure that best fits their requirements without sacrificing security, performance, reliability, or control.
Governments, like large enterprises, are experiencing significant changes in their operating environment and are striving to modernize their network to accommodate these needs.
Versa SASE solves security breaches and user challenges with:
- Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN)
- Zerto Trust Network Access (ZTNA)
- Secure Web Gateway (SWG)
- Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB)
- Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS)
- Remote Browser Isolation (RBI)
Federal agencies have extremely stringent compliance and regulatory requirements because their data is highly sought after by financially and politically motivated attackers. Whether the attacker is targeting social security numbers, classified documents and data, or government traded secrets, maximum security measures must be integrated across the entire network.
As seen in previous government breaches, these attacks can shut down essential business operations throughout the organization. Government shutdowns affect millions of Americans and can lead to serious financial losses and invasion of citizen’s personal information.
Versa SASE delivers key capabilities including:
- Complete security flexibility in the network
- Policy-driven security
- RBAC assessed through communication sessions
- Purely software-defined services
- Applicable at the network logical edge vs. physical edge
- Secure connection to IoT devices
Use Cases
Versa SASE can help a variety of governmental use cases:
Department of Defense
Implement a Zero Trust architecture built on Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
Civilian Agencies
Support responsive and effective engagement with civilians and other government agency members without quality loss or network latency.
Intelligence Agencies
Enable secure and efficient communications with members of intelligence community. Securely transfer and access classified documents from anywhere in real-time.
System Integrators
Seamlessly share private data and information when working with 3rd party vendors.
Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0
TIC 3.0 goal is to secure federal data, networks, and boundaries while providing visibility into agency traffic, including cloud communications. Version 3.0 increases security standards and leverages advances in technology to help maintain secure network architectures.
Set-up Instant Networks. Anywhere. Anytime.
Versa SASE enables instant networks to be populated wherever and whenever, helping mitigate current network security and performance issues.
This sophisticated platform can support the geographical and environmental issues that IT and security teams are plagued with when launching new networks allowing them to be mobile and easily accessible. Network integration can be done securely and quickly through the use of ZTNA.
ZTNA Control
ZTNA can help prevent potential data breaches and cybersecurity attacks through the framework of technologies working together, based on the assumption that nothing is trusted: not users, devices, data, workloads, locations, or the network.
ZTNA’s primary function within a SASE solution is to authenticate users to applications. Advanced context and role-based identity, combined with Multifactor Authentication (MFA), are essential for securing access for users and devices, for both on and off-network access.
FIPS 140-2 Level 1
FIPS 140-2 is a compliance that meets NIST requirements for cryptography use in security systems. Versa is currently under FIPS 140-2 Level 1 evaluation and expects to receive accreditation. During this evaluation phase, Federal agencies are able to continue to purchase Versa products.
Key Benefits for Government
Versa SASE helps solve significant issues plaguing the government by integrating its various services into their networks and security systems. IT modernization can be completed swiftly and securely with Versa SASE.
Reduced Costs
Reduce costs significantly by software-defining the branch, network, and security infrastructure and using a dynamic policy-driven model over a hybrid WAN.
Single Management Interface
Consistent enforcement of security and networking policies to anywhere in the world with a single, easy-to-use management interface hosted on-premises or in the cloud.
Risk Mitigation
Versa helps alleviate risk with multi-level network encryption and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to help ensure the proper employees access the correct documents and data securely.
Instant Networks
Accelerate deployment and automate operations with zero touch deployment, policy-based control, and life-cycle management.
High Performance
Versa delivers reliable, high-bandwidth connectivity with a full-featured SASE solution that gives you everything you need for top-notch application performance whether you’re in a high-end government building or in the middle of a jungle.
Seamless Integration
With Versa, government agencies can now leverage the cost advantages, flexibility, scalability, and ease-of-access provided by commodity Internet links connecting to multiple clouds, without worrying about the security, performance, and reliability of mission-critical data being compromised.
Learn More
Find more research, analysis, and information on SASE (Secure Access Service Edge), networking, security, SD-WAN, and cloud from industry thought leaders, analysts, and experts.
SD-WAN and Secure Service Edge for DoD and Ultra-Secure Deployments
Versa Networks is a market leader in SD-WAN, SD-Security, and SASE technology, with over 120 service provider partners worldwide. In the United States (US), Versa’s largest partners include Verizon, Lumen, and Comcast. Versa has the largest number of Global SD-WAN deployments.
Strengthening the Defense Department’s Zero Trust Posture
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has produced a successful Thunderdome prototype, its Joint Regional Security Stack (JRSS) replacement program that takes a key step toward meeting the Pentagon’s Zero Trust vision, while delivering network modernization to the DoD Enterprise.