Kyndryl, is expanding its networking and edge services with the addition of a new managed secure access service edge (SASE) service.

The new SASE service provides a managed offering and is based on technology from Fortinet. Kyndryl has been building out its networking capabilities over the last year and is now getting into SASE. Kyndryl has been in existence for just under two years at this point, having been spun out from IBM's professional services in November 2021.

“Kyndryl’s network and edge practice is building a robust portfolio, from 5G private wireless, software-defined networking (SDN), SASE, wide-area network (WAN)-as-a-service, to help our customers simplify and better secure their IT infrastructure,”  Paul Savill, global network and edge computing practice leader at Kyndryl, told SDxCentral. “Kyndryl’s SASE offering enables flexible, cost-effective, and secure connectivity at scale across hybrid cloud environments for our Enterprise clients.”

Why a managed SASE business

There are a number of reasons why Kyndryl is getting into the managed SASE business.

Savill said that Kyndryl designs, builds, manages and modernizes mission-critical information systems, delivering digital transformation outcomes for many of the world’s largest enterprises.

“Since becoming an independent company 19 months ago, Kyndryl has been expanding its global strategic partnerships and technology collaborations to address the network and edge needs of our customers – Nokia, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, and now Fortinet,” Savill said. “We provide our customers with the flexibility to select the technology services that best meet their business needs.”

Jeremy Reese, WAN networking product line leader at Kyndryl, said that the goal of the managed SASE solution is to provide visibility and protection of the entire attack surface. Reese said that the technology helps to enable automated self-healing networks and AI-driven security to proactively manage risk and reduce management overhead.

How Kyndryl is thinking about SASE

Reese explained that Kyndryl’s SASE strategy is to provide a modular and unified approach for the management of a SASE architecture with a portfolio of industry leading vendors.

Deploying a managed SASE technology, however, is only one part of the overall process and strategy. Savill noted that Kyndryl provides end-to-end network services, from advisory, implementation to management.

“To gain value from their software-as-a-service and multicloud investments, enterprises need resources with deep expertise in how to integrate these new technologies with their networks and existing technology infrastructure,” Savill said.

Savill explained that many organizations start off by using the Kyndryl Consult consulting service that designs and builds the network solution.

“As Kyndryl continues to expand our network and edge offerings and introduce these new services to our customers, we are focusing on integrating SASE technologies into our customer’s networks and their entire IT infrastructure,” Savill said.

Challenges organizations face that SASE can help solve

There is no shortage of networking challenges that organizations face, where SASE can potentially help. Reese sees multiple challenges and a series of benefits that SASE can help to enable.

Productivity: Legacy security policy enforcement typically requires an organization to backhaul its network traffic to a data center regardless of where an endpoint is located, or where the traffic is ultimately destined. That means more latency, especially for public, cloud-based applications and data.

Scalability: Hybrid work and cloud environments demand security solutions that can scale rapidly to keep up with shifting workloads, distributed workforces and rapidly scaling data management requirements. Traditional architectures aren't designed to deliver this kind of scalability.

Security:  Malicious actors are keenly aware of the hybrid and mobile workforce and are targeting home-office and remote-work environments.  Users accessing resources from remote locations are often granted different access to protected data compared to users at corporate offices, resulting in security gaps.

Among the benefits that Reese sees SASE bringing to Kyndryl's clients are the following:

Ensuring uptime: Seamlessly leverage MPLS, Internet and 4G/5G network connectivity to maximize system availability and uptime for customers branches and remote sites.

Enhanced user experience: Ensure secure and direct Internet access to cloud-based resources. This is a critical capability for reducing latency and giving customers and employees a consistent, reliable and hassle-free end-user experience.

Reduce overall cost:  Replace expensive, legacy WAN technologies with Broadband Internet services, which are available at significantly lower price points even at higher bandwidth levels. Security tool consolidation and efficiency gains for IT security staff.

Closing security gaps:  Maintain consistent security controls and policies for employees, contractors and vendors.

The future of SASE and network security

Looking forward, Kyndryl is looking to expand its network security and SASE capabilities further in the coming months.

Reese said that the plan is to expand Kyndryl's security services edge (SSE) features and functionalities, and its SASE offering portfolio with additional leading vendors.

“At Kyndryl, we are continuing to upskill and reskill our people to help our customers make the migration to next-generation networking services,” Reese said. “This means training thousands of our employees to support the deployment of our SD-WAN and SASE solutions.”