Nearly a year and a half after acquiring CloudGenix in a deal valued at more than $420 million, Palo Alto Networks today unified its Prisma Access and SD-WAN products under a single secure access service edge (SASE) platform.

The security vendor claims Prisma SASE provides customers with a simpler way to adopt SASE that serves both remote and branch users. It launches alongside enhanced CloudBlades integrations, as well as a 5G connected SD-WAN appliance.

Palo Alto Networks was among the first to leap aboard Gartner’s hype train and adopt the SASE sigil in late 2019. SASE encompasses a wide array of networking, security, and edge compute functionality including secure web gateway, zero-trust network access, cloud access security broker, cloud-based firewalls, and SD-WAN.

However, unlike traditional on-premises security, SASE security functions are deployed from a distributed network of data centers, which are often interconnected by a high-performance cloud or colocation network backbone. In the case of Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma Access, security functionality is hosted in Google Cloud Platform.

While Palo Alto Networks entered the SASE market with a nearly complete security stack, the vendor lacked SD-WAN functionality until early last year, when it acquired CloudGenix. That gave way to Prisma SD-WAN, but CloudGenix's SD-WAN functionality wasn’t fully integrated into Palo Alto Networks' SASE offering until today.

Palo Alto Networks also launched ION 1200, a 5G connected SD-WAN appliance designed for organizations with limited access to traditional WAN infrastructure. The appliance features an integrated 5G modem for wireless failover.

The release mirrors that of rival wireless WAN vendor Cradlepoint, which recently updated its E3000 appliances with dual 5G modems.

Palo Alto Networks also announced new integrations for its CloudBlades platform, which allows organizations to integrate software-as-a-service platforms with its SD-WAN and SASE services at an API level. The latest integrations add support for ServiceNow, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom.

CloudBlades enables customers to define SD-WAN and security policy at an application level, using a combination of signatures, fingerprints, and requests made to identify services rather than relying solely on packets. The approach allows users to define business policies based on the specific application and its use — not just the protocol.

CloudBlades can also serve as an on-ramp for cloud services like Microsoft Azure Virtual WAN for WAN-on-demand connectivity.