GTT Communications, which recently filed for bankruptcy protection, pushed ahead on its services-first strategy this week, tapping Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma Access to power its managed secure access service edge (SASE) offering.

The partnership addresses a growing demand for remote access and cloud security services, like SASE, following the rapid shift to remote and hybrid work models, the company claims.

“Customers are seeking highly secure and flexible global network solutions to adapt to the rapidly changing business environment, new workforce models, and ever-expanding threat landscape,” GTT COO Don MacNeil said in a statement.

Palo Alto Networks was among the first to throw its weight behind the Gartner-coined product category, which stitches together elements of SD-WAN, security, and edge compute in a single cloud-delivered package. Since then the company has taken something of an à-la-carte approach to SASE, simultaneously offering a full-stack service and partnering with various SD-WAN and service provider partners.

The security vendor’s SASE portfolio includes three core products: Prisma Access, which encompasses cloud security functionality; Prisma SD-WAN, which is based on technology acquired from CloudGenix; and Prisma SASE, which combines those products under a single roof.

GTT, for its part, is no stranger to SD-WAN and the technology has become a primary focus for the company in recent years as its shifted its focus back to managed services in the wake of financial challenges. The vendor offers SD-WAN services from Aruba, VMware, and Fortinet. Those platforms, combined with Prisma Access, form the basis of GTT’s new managed SASE service.

GTT’s financial standing has steadily eroded over the past years as the company has struggled with a mountain of long-term debt, which eventually forced the liquidation of assets acquired from the purchase of Interoute and Hibernia.

GTT needs to focus on what it does best, which is connecting people, said founder and Chairman Brian Thompson following the decision.

However, GTT’s financial standing has only eroded since then. In October, the company officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and presented a prepackage plan it says would reduce the company’s debt by about $2.8 billion.

GTT does not expect the bankruptcy filing to interrupt services.