Versa announces Sovereign SASE for enterprises and service providers

Versa today announced the general commercial availability of Versa Sovereign SASE, allowing enterprises, governments, and service providers to deploy customized networking and security services directly from their own infrastructure in a “do-it-yourself” model.

The benefits of Versa Sovereign SASE include:

• Increased privacy and control—The isolated and customizable solution allows organizations to build and manage their SASE environment on their own infrastructure, ensuring greater autonomy and data protection.
• Reduced risk of service disruption—Elimination of operational risks and costs tied to unplanned outages and downtime on third-party SaaS platforms ensures greater reliability and strengthens business continuity.
• Eased regulatory compliance—An air-gapped infrastructure makes it easier to meet strict and evolving requirements for regulatory compliance, data residency and security.

Versa Sovereign SASE adds a third option for deploying the VersaONE Universal SASE Platform:

• As-a-service—Delivered via shared gateways in Versa’s global SASE fabric with over 90 global PoPs (Versa Unified SASE).
• Private—Delivered via a set of customer-dedicated gateways within Versa’s global SASE fabric (Versa Private SASE).
• (NEW) Sovereign—Delivered via dedicated gateways in customers’ infrastructure under customer management and control – completely air-gapped (Versa Sovereign SASE).

“One of the primary challenges service providers face with current SASE platforms is the limited visibility and control resulting from their closed network architectures,” said Andrew Winney, General Manager and Head of Products, SASE, at Tata Communications Limited. “By integrating Versa’s Sovereign SASE solution into our network backbone, Tata Communications ensures superior user experiences and enhanced manageability, which is a key factor in delivering differentiated managed services."

VersaONE’s converged security and networking capabilities are delivered in a single software stack, independent of the deployment model.

Enterprise and Defense Use Cases

Versa Sovereign SASE is intended for organizations operating in highly regulated industries or operating critical infrastructure that require the highest levels of protection, with the ability to deploy a cutting-edge “air-gapped” infrastructure model.

Over the past two years, Versa Sovereign SASE has been deployed by organizations in the defense, financial services, maritime, energy, and retail industries. Today marks its general availability for all organizations from Versa’s partner network and directly from Versa.

“Versa Sovereign SASE delivers a game-changing deployment model that combines an industry-leading security and networking platform with the deployment flexibility to meet the most demanding regulatory and operational requirements of any business,” said Anuj Dutia, Versa’s Vice President of SASE Solutions & Services.

For example, multiple national defense departments around the world have deployed Versa Sovereign SASE to provide SD-WAN, Zero Trust access and security to support their cybersecurity modernization efforts. In addition, a North American energy company has deployed Versa Sovereign SASE to meet compliance requirements for its critical infrastructure, securing both IT and OT networks across corporate and distribution environments that rely on cellular and satellite connectivity.

Managed Service Provider Use Cases

Versa Sovereign SASE also empowers telcos and managed service providers to modernize their service portfolio with high-value, tailored networking and security services deployed in their own infrastructure. By leveraging their existing network and computing assets, service providers can deploy Versa Sovereign SASE with full operational control over critical aspects such as data processing, residency, branding, change management, and failover. This level of control helps service providers reduce operational risks, meet local compliance requirements, lower costs, and build a more resilient, innovative, customer-first service portfolio.

Over the past two years, Versa Sovereign SASE has been deployed by service provider partners in North America, Europe and India. For example, T-Mobile US announced T-Mobile SASE with T-SIM Secure, the first SIM-based SASE service, while Tata Communications, Lumen, and Crown Castle each have announced their own Sovereign SASE services.

Pinkesh Kotecha, Chairman and CEO of Ishan Technologies, emphasized that “Versa’s Sovereign SASE approach has redefined the possibilities for us as a service provider in offering our own managed SASE solution. By leveraging our own infrastructure and having real control, we can offer an expanded range of tailored products to enterprises, enabling them to confidently navigate the complexities of digital transformation. This ensures secure, seamless and efficient access to enterprise data and applications made possible through our strategic partnership with Versa.”

SASE market expansion

Versa projects that Sovereign SASE will unlock new use cases and expand the total available SASE market by at least 25-30%, due to the following factors:

• Improved economics for service providers making it possible to offer turnkey services to SMB, SOHO, and consumer market segments
• Extended deployments to things that move—ships, planes, trains, automobiles
• Extended defense deployments to tactical battlefield use cases
• Integration with new private mobility (4G/5G) network-based services
• The extension of zero trust within organizations to on-premises users and devices on IoT/OT networks

Availability 

Versa Sovereign SASE is available now as part of the VersaONE Universal SASE Platform. For more information contact Versa at https://versa-networks.com/contact/.