Versa Networks is pushing a new suite of secure access edge services (SASE) that are available on Versa Titan and designed specifically for lean IT organizations that don’t have a very big staff dedicated to running and managing the company’s IT needs.
According to Mike Wood, chief marketing officer at Versa, since the pandemic a growing number of organizations have moved to a very distributed workforce, which is putting a greater burden on lean IT organizations. With employees working from home, companies are challenged to make sure that they are protecting employee data as well as corporate data from malware or security breaches.
Versa Titan uses the company’s single-pass parallel architecture that is found in the Versa operating system coupled with SASE networking and security tools such as a single software image, a secure web gateway (SWG), and zero-trust network access. This works in conjunction with Titan’s software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN), next-generation firewall and more.
Because SASE tends to rely on a heavier cloud implementation, it allows employees to securely run their applications and still connect back to a corporate environment. For example, an IT department can decide which employees get certain applications and they can use SD-WAN to optimize those specific applications so employees get better performance from them. Wood used video conferencing as an example of an application that sales employee rely upon to do their job. Using the Versa Titan with SASE services, a sales employee could download the video conferencing application and then use SD-WAN to make sure that they get a desirable performance from that application. “This is important because you don’t always know what type of link or the quality of the link that an employee is using to access these types of applications,” he said.
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Security is also an issue with a distributed workforce. Versa Titan is designed for organizations that may lack risk and compliance teams and network-focused engineers and architects. Instead, these types of firms can use Titan and get integrated SASE functions that offer advanced security, analytics and reporting. For example, using Titan’s SWG that sits in the cloud or can be an appliance, enterprises can be protected from any malware or viruses that enter the network from applications or from storage.