You’re listening to Briefings in Brief from the Packet Pushers, an audio digest of IT news and information, including vendor briefings, industry research, and commentary.

I’m Drew Conry-Murray, It’s April 30th 2019 and here’s what’s happening.

Earlier this month Versa Networks announced Versa Titan, an SD-WAN and security offering that can be consumed in two ways: as a service from MSPs, VARs, or system integrators; or as a product to be deployed and operated directly by customers.

Whichever approach customers take, Versa’s goal is to make deployment dead simple through pre-configured branch appliances, a cloud-based controller, and a mobile app for activating appliances and monitoring the system.

Versa operates the controller infrastructure, or a head-end in Versa’s parlance, in its own data centers on behalf of providers and do-it-yourself customers. Service providers can brand the customer interface if they so choose.

Cloud Services Gateway

As part of the solution, Versa is announcing the Cloud Services Gateway, a branded appliance for branch and remote offices or retail locations that runs Versa’s SD-WAN and security software, including a next-gen firewall and UTM.

The appliance, which supports PoE, can also provide Wi-Fi for branch locations. The appliance comes pre-configured with dynamic path selection policies already in place, but customers or providers can access a portal to change those policies as they like.

The SD-WAN component provides table-stakes functionality including support for broadband, MPLS, and LTE links; dynamic path selection based on applications and policies; traffic conditioning using techniques such as forward error correction and packet replication; and analytics.

Aiming To Stand Out

In case you hadn’t noticed, the SD-WAN market is now more crowded than a Florida beach during spring break, so SD-WAN vendors are putting significant effort into differentiating themselves.

By emphasizing ease of use and fast deployment, Versa aims to lure MSPs looking for quick wins, as well as customers who have connectivity needs but may not have a large IT staff to manage a stand-alone SD-WAN deployment.

On the security front, Versa isn’t the only vendor that touts integrated security functions. Cato Networks, for example, offers native security features such as a next-gen firewall as well as a private network backbone. Open Systems, which recently sponsored a Packet Pushers Heavy Networking episode, also offers a service-based SD-WAN solution with security baked in.

Meanwhile, Foritnet, which makes appliances, is essentially putting SD-WAN features into its firewall and UTM boxes. Other SD-WAN vendors will happily regale you with tales of partnerships, integrations, and home-grown security capabilities.

With all that said, if Versa Networks sounds like it’s worth further investigation or might earn a spot on your shortlist, you can go to versa-networks.com to get more details.

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