Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Source: Shutterstock

Malaysian mobile operator Axiata Group Berhad announced a partnership with Versa Networks to deliver secure access service edge (SASE) technology to digitalizing Asian enterprises.

Axiata offers managed connectivity, smart services, cloud, and cyber security in ASEAN and South Asia. The new Versa Networks ACE Partner has six primary business units covering Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, and Cambodia. 

The Group’s B2B unit Axiata Enterprise will collaborate with Axiata’s operating companies, Celcom in Malaysia and XL Axiata in Indonesia, to roll out the first Versa SASE solutions covering networking, security, and cloud access integration in their respective markets.

The Versa solution will be complementary to managed connectivity solutions already offered by Celcom in Malaysia and XL Axiata in Indonesia. Indonesian credit rating and reporting agency PT. Kredit Biro Indonesia Jaya (KBIJ) will be one of the first Axiata customers to adopt the Versa SASE solution. 

Versa VP Tony Fallows told SDxCentral those initial deployments “should be up and ready and in market this year.” Fallows noted Axiata is a “significant provider of mobile services” in each of those regions and serves small, medium, and large enterprise customers.

“I think one of the things that [Axiata] liked about the Versa solution was that we had an offer that was suitable for each of those sub-segments of the market,” he added. 

Versa claims it began delivering SASE technology more than five years ago. Versa's SASE solution offers integrated services via the cloud, on-premises, and in hybrid environments, and includes includes secure SD-WAN, next-generation firewall, virtual private network (VPN), secure web gateway (SWG), cloud access security broker (CASB), and zero-trust network access (ZTNA) capabilities.

Managed service provider cloudIT announced earlier this month they will also tap into the vendor’s unified SASE portfolio as an ACE Partner. cloudIT CEO Vince Kent told SDxCentral he sees Versa as “the clear choice” for SASE. 

Research firm Dell’Oro Group earlier this year named Versa, VMware, Aryaka, and Cato as the only vendors offering a truly “unified SASE” platform. 

Fallows said the unified SASE approach “from an operational point of view, is much simpler than trying to bring multiple technologies together and integrate those.” He sees that approach as a key differentiator between Versa SASE and its competitors.