This blog post was co-authored by Christina Lombardo, Senior Solutions Manager, Dell Technologies.
Digital transformation has made the monetization of data grow substantially—and it’s not expected to stop soon. The game changer is that now, artificial intelligence (AI) becomes easily accessible to the enterprises and enables users to extract value from any data type. AI is the most powerful and important technological advancement of our generation. However, AI can expose organizations to new security risks and compliance issues that can be challenging to navigate. To overcome these challenges, Dell Technologies has partnered with Versa Networks to help service providers offer an efficient operational solution.
Data as an Economic Asset
We’ve all heard data is the new oil. The value of data is undisputable, and this is an intriguing concept because it’s a monumental shift of focus away from the technology toward the promise of impactful outcomes for business. Enterprises across industries are looking to data to help with increased profits, reduced risk, greater efficiency, higher customer and employee satisfaction and improved sustainability.
The ability to extract value from large sets of data can mean the difference between success or failure. Creating competitive advantages can come down to the speed and accuracy with which users can analyze data and react accordingly. The challenge is that securely and reliably transferring massive volumes of data can be expensive in terms of bandwidth, compute and security.
For example, data coming from Internet of Things (IoT) may be highly valuable when aggregated, but in its raw form generates massive volumes of data with relatively low information content. It may be beneficial from an analytics perspective to limit traffic by filtering only critical data. In terms of moving the data, WAN bandwidth can be limited by throughput or cost. Transmitting anything other than alerts can add traffic volume and contribute to increased latency on an already overloaded network.
These challenges result in the need to implement a system allowing for secure connectivity to transport the data from multiple sources located anywhere, while controlling the cost of the data transmission. To keep operations simple and support the massive growth of connection points, the network must be automated and self-configurable.
Why SD-WAN SASE?
Secure access service edge (SASE) is the modern network, converging security and networking into a single unified platform that delivers superior protection and performance compared to “bolted together” solutions. SASE enables organizations to securely connect branch offices, users, applications, devices and IoT systems regardless of their location. In addition to providing secure access, SASE enables fast, seamless and consistent application performance, via the cloud, on-premises or a combination of both, ensuring a positive user experience.
SASE includes many networking and network security services, but at the core requires Software Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), Secure Web Gateways (SWG), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Firewall as a Service (FWaaS) and Data Loss Prevention (DLP). SASE services are tightly integrated within a single software stack without the requirement to connect multiple disparate functions, delivering the visibility and control needed to simplify how you connect to and protect your network.
Simplify the Edge with the Power of Three
Dell Technologies has partnered with Versa Networks to deliver a flexible SD-WAN and SASE solution that allows service providers to monetize advanced data networking for their enterprise customers. With Dell and Versa, telecommunications service providers (TSP) and regional service providers can now propose solutions with a large scope of possible implementations to service businesses of all sizes no matter their requirements. The joint Dell and Versa architecture provides a highly flexible set of capabilities, ranging from the creation of a dedicated tenant utilizing cloud hosted shared components, to the ability to deploy dedicated resources on both service provider networks and the enterprise premises.
If the usage of public cloud is prohibited due to local regulations or enterprise security policies, service providers now have the possibility to deliver sovereign trusted SASE services with control on data path and data storage.
Broad device support is another strong value proposition. Nowadays, enterprise devices are not limited to worker laptops and include smartphones, tablets and IoT devices. Through integration with the mobile network and use of mobile SIM IDs, we enable the service provider to include all the mobile devices within an ecosystem as a part of the enterprise’s consolidated security and connectivity plan.
With Versa Networks, Dell Technologies has launched the Edge Network Security, SD-WAN SASE solution that allows service providers to deliver on next-generation data monetization and network services. For more information, please reach out to the Dell Solution Co-creation team.
