Palo Alto Networks has teamed up with Orange Business and Orange Cyberdefense to launch a cloud-native, fully managed secure access service edge (SASE) service. By pulling expertise from all three vendors, Orange's latest single-vendor SASE offering “combines future-proof connectivity, cloud-based security and digital management services with a simpler operational model,” Laurent Perrin, Orange Business director of overlay connectivity solutions, told SDxCentral.

The SASE offering packages SD-WAN and security services edge (SSE) from Palo Alto Networks' Prisma SASE with network and digital integration features from Orange Business and Managed Secure Access service from Orange Cyberdefense.

Orange Business is responsible for the connectivity, cloud and cybersecurity components and for combining customers' business and infrastructure strategies. Orange Cyberdefense lends its detection and response expertise as part of its “unique threat intelligence backbone,” which represents “unparalleled network and operational support capabilities worldwide,” Perrin said.

For its part, Palo Alto Networks (which holds the No. 3 spot in terms of SASE market share) touts Prisma SASE as an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered offering that joins network security, SD-WAN and autonomous digital experience management into one service focused on simplifying security through a zero-trust approach.

Altogether, Perrin noted, Orange's SASE offering “provides a secure foundation for agile, cloud-enabled organizations to support hybrid workers from any location.”

To that point, Orange claims its SASE service “is simpler to manage, allows for more agile adjustments and will easily support future features,” Perrin said. At the end of the day, SASE is all about securing and optimizing Enterprise network traffic with a double-click into cloud services user access. With Orange and Palo Alto Networks' partnership for this venture, “customers can be confident in the quality of their service thanks to end-to-end commitments provided by Orange Business and Orange Cyberdefense and advanced application-aware features from Palo Alto [Networks],” he explained.

Orange eyes single-vendor SASE surge

According to Orange Business CEO Aliette Mousnier-Lompré, “converging networks and security in an agile, simple and cost-effective way is what our customers demand,” she said, highlighting the growing demand for single-vendor SASE solutions.

Dell'Oro Group recently reported that the single-vendor SASE market, which includes SD-WAN and SSE functionality, grew 55% year-over-year in the first-quarter of 2023 and overtook the multi-vendor portion of the market.

Mauricio Sanchez, Dell'Oro Group research director, noted the SASE market's overall 30% revenue growth “is a testament to the strong commitment by enterprises and the value they bring to secure users' access to cloud-based applications from anywhere.”