It seems like every SD-WAN and managed security vendor out there is scrambling to bring a secure access service edge (SASE) platform to market, and Aryaka is no different. But while many vendors have focused on building out a comprehensive SASE stack, the self-proclaimed "cloud-first" SD-WAN vendor instead aims to expand its addressable market by giving customers choice.

Last week, Aryaka announced a deep partnership with security vendor Check Point to build out a SASE architecture that combines Aryaka's distributed SD-WAN capabilities with Check Point's cloud-based security suite. The partnership is actually the SD-WAN vendor's third such security integration: it also integrates with Zscaler and Palo Alto Networks.

According to CMO Shashi Kiran, these partnerships provide customers with greater flexibility as to how they connect and secure their WAN.

"Our notion is always to offer choice because every customer has a deployment. There are very few of them that are starting off from a clean slate," he said. "They all have investments they've made that they can't walk away from, even as they're shifting architectural models."

Kiran explained that SASE, as defined by Gartner, encompasses "seven or eight sub-segments" of security features. "Arguably no single security vendor even possesses that, let alone a network vendor," he argued.

By partnering with multiple security vendors, Aryaka claims to deliver on a SASE model that is tailored to the customers needs and in some cases their existing security deployments.

Aryaka's decision to partner with security vendors to fill out its SASE stack is one that has been panned by vendors like Cato Networks, which argue this approach is inefficient and ultimately not as effective compared to a fully converged product.

However, Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald in an interview with SDxCentral dismissed this philosophy, arguing that there is nothing wrong with tying together SD-WAN from one vendor and security from another as long as it is done in a single-pass architecture.

According to MacDonald, where problems start to crop up is when vendors start trying to service chain multiple services — like cloud-access security broker (CASB) from one vendor, secure web gateway from another, and SD-WAN from another. While it's technically possible, he claims this approach seriously harms performance and has the potential to compromise security.

Aryaka isn't the only SASE vendor choosing to partner with security or networking vendors. Managed security vendor Zscaler has taken a similar approach, arguing that owning the SD-WAN component isn't necessary to deliver a SASE platform.

While this half-stack approach to SASE isn't uncommon, many large players, including Cisco and Palo Alto Networks, are focused on bringing the full SASE stack to market. Both vendor's SASE platforms are built on technologies acquired through mergers and acquisitions. Earlier this year, Palo Alto acquired SD-WAN vendor CloudGenix for $420 million.

Meanwhile, VMware has said it is looking to acquire a security company to fill out its security stack.

Other vendors like Forcepoint have straddled this line. The SASE vendor offers both an internally developed SD-WAN as well as a bring-your-own option.

This consolidation of services comes as no surprise to Kiran who expects to see a "fair bit of consolidation" in the market as vendors attempt to stitch together a complete SASE offering.

Choice permeates Aryaka's philosophy not only where SASE is concerned, but its core SD-WAN technology as well. Late last year, the company broke its SD-WAN platform up into the range of smart services with flexibility in mind.

“We’ve taken what used to be called SmartConnect, which was really a catch-all for all the various things we did across the infrastructure as part of our managed SD-WAN service, and we’re beginning to break this out to a number of service offerings,” said David Ginsburg, VP of product and solutions marketing at Aryaka, in an earlier interview with SDxCentral.

Kiran said this a-la-carte approach allowed them to address new customers previously out of the company's reach. "From the customer perspective, the focus is to take away the complexity and we become the easy button for them," he said.