SAN FRANCISCO – Spain's telecom giant Telefónica deepened its work with Cisco by adding the vendor’s SD-WAN, security, and secure access service edge (SASE) products as managed services via its Tech digital business, which targets Enterprise networking needs.

The managed networking component of the service will tap into Cisco’s SD-WAN platforms, including its Meraki cloud-managed platform and wireless offerings. These can be connected with Cisco’s cloud-based Umbrella security product, advanced firewalls, anti-malware, intrusion protection, and zero-trust access controls. Telefónica will include a Cisco Umbrella-embedded security module into the service to ease that connection.

Telefónica Tech will market the managed service through its flexSITE offering. This will include the Meraki cloud-managed WiFi, Local Area Network, and security services. The offering will initially rollout in Spain, with planned expansion into other European markets and Latin America.

Rames Sarwat, director of cybersecurity and cloud products at Telefónica Tech, in a statement explained that the new offering can help customers manage their connectivity and security requirements for hybrid-work environments.

The announcement follows up on Cisco’s launch earlier this week of its Security Cloud Services and christening its SASE service as Cisco+ Secure Connect Now. The Security Cloud is a set of cloud-based services that provides threat detection and prevention, minimizes cyber risks, and integrates breach response and remediation with machine learning (ML) technology.

Telefónica Tech earlier this week nabbed Netskope to power a security services edge (SSE) component of the carrier’s Security Edge platform. That platform is being rolled out in the European Union, United Kingdom, Latin America, and United States.

Telefónica is viewed as one of the leading global carriers offering managed SD-WAN services. A recent Vertical Systems Group report also noted that Cisco, Fortinet, Aruba, Nokia Nuage, Versa Networks, and VMware were the primary technology providers powering carrier-managed SD-WAN offerings.