Versa Networks is boosting the capabilities of its SASE and SD-WAN portfolio with a series of new security and networking enhancements that benefit from the power of artificial intelligence (AI).

The new AI features leverage Versa's telemetry data collected across customer deployments. This allows the company to train its algorithms to bolster security in real time, optimize network operations and simplify management.

Security enhancements

Versa is introducing AI-enhanced malware detection for advanced threat protection. The multistage AI approach provides real-time preprocessing of files and code to identify malware. Additionally, new adaptive microsegmentation capabilities will enable granular zero-trust access policies tailored to users, devices and resources.

Data-protection enhancements

Versa is adding AI-assisted data loss protection (DLP) with context-based analysis to identify sensitive information across prompts, documents and images. This augments existing pattern-matching DLP with natural language processing (NLP) techniques to prevent accidental data leaks.

Networking enhancements

Versa is introducing several new AIOps-powered capabilities. VersaGPT leverages generative AI to provide guided access to documentation, recommendations and troubleshooting steps. Versa Advanced Network Insights (VANI), Versa's predictive networking engine, now enables traffic steering informed by AI to maintain service-level agreements and avoid issues proactively.

"At a high level, Versa customers can now get simplified management and monitoring of complex networks, as well as improved threat protection and detection," Kumar Mehta, chief development officer at Versa Networks, told SDxCentral.

How Versa has been using AI to improve networking

AI is not a new thing for Versa Networks as the company has been using the technology in its portfolio already.

Mehta noted that the new capabilities announced this week augment the existing AI capabilities delivered in previous iterations of Versa's platform. For example, Versa was already using AI for its UEBA (User and Entity Behavior Analytics) feature to help identify potentially malicious user and network behavior anomalies.

Versa also previously announced Verbo, its NLP-based chatbot that provides automated troubleshooting of network issues. Additionally, the company has also previously announced VANI, which is a specialized machine learning core for detecting and predicting network anomalies to help optimize operations, reduce network downtime and improve predictability.

VANI is being expanded as part of the new update to enable what the company calls “AI-informed predictive traffic steering.” Mehta said that the new feature shifts networks into a proactive, future view of the network, rather than just looking at the current state.

"Predictive traffic steering works hand in hand with control-plane routing protocols," Mehta explained. "Whereas BGP [Border Gateway Protocol] is based on a view of the current state of the network, predictive networking is designed to preemptively address network challenges and avoid degradation and reachability issues altogether."

How AI will boost zero trust

Part of modern zero-trust network access (ZTNA) security architecture is the ability to precisely control access to different segments of a network. It's an approach commonly referred to as microsegmentation.

With its new updates, Versa Networks is enhancing its ZTNA capabilities with AI-powered adaptive microsegmentation.

Mehta explained that for remote users, access to specified network resources is based on user and device identity, target application, and a dynamic trust and device posture assessment. For on-premises users, Versa Networks provides line rate microsegmentation in its software-defined switches and access points based on device posture, user, group and device fingerprints.

"AI is used to dynamically identify anomalous and suspicious behavior," Mehta said.