Lumen Technologies deepened work with Versa Networks to bolster its SD-WAN and secure access service edge (SASE) capabilities and take advantage of Lumen’s recent launch of an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered network edge security product.

Lumen’s expanded work with Versa will power the connectivity provider’s new Sovereign SASE product, which can be deployed in dedicated SASE gateways in the operator's global points of presence (PoPs) or on-premises. Once deployed, the platform can integrate dedicated internet access, MPLS, and SD-WAN into a hybrid network connection.

Lumen is also now able to deploy Versa’s SD-WAN at a customer location as part of a Versa Unified SASE service. That deployment can integrate the operator's SASE with Versa to support zero-trust network access (ZTNA), secure web gateway (SWG), cloud access security broker (CASB), and data loss prevention (DLP) services for remote and hybrid workers.

Versa earlier this year launched new SASE gateways that can support network speeds up to 100 Gb/s.

Lumen customers can also tie in the operator’s recently launched Defender product that uses AI and machine learning (ML) to proactively block threats at the network edge. That platform, which was developed by Lumen's Black Lotus Labs threat research team, uses visibility from the operator's global internet backbone to generate threat intelligence.

“The Lumen and Versa Networks partnership to offer SASE as an integrated solution promises to mitigate deployment and operational challenges of managing a multi-vendor solution,” Ghassan Abdo, research VP for worldwide telecom at IDC, noted in a statement. “Enterprises will benefit from reduced operational cost and simplified solution management.”

Lumen last year added Versa as a third SASE option for its customers through the operator’s Lumen Marketplace. The Lumen SASE Solutions product was initiated in 2022 with SASE vendors Fortinet and VMware.

The Lumen SASE product allows users to configure their SASE by location and user; add new sites, users and services; and receive alerts and manage tickets. Once a customer has purchased a SASE solution, they can either manage it on their own or have Lumen oversee the deployment, implementation and ongoing management of their customized product with the Lumen SASE Manager.

“The self-managed option is for customers with their own IT staff or who want a do-it-yourself deployment model, while pro-managed provides a higher service level for those who want Lumen to fully manage the solution,” Darren Wolner, Lumen’s senior director of SASE product management, explained to SDxCentral at that time.

Versa’s addition to Lumen’s SASE program built on more than eight years of SD-WAN work with the operator.

Versa’s is comfortably ensconced as one of the “leaders” in Gartner’s most recent Magic Quadrant ranking of SD-WAN vendors. It shares the enviable quadrant with rivals Fortinet, VMware, Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise-Aruba and Palo Alto Networks.

Versa’s next-generation firewall (NGFW) product recently scored a near-perfect 99.9% score in CyberRatings latest test of cloud network firewall technologies. The vendor is also part of Department of Defense’s (DoD) Thunderdome ZTNA and Application security architecture program.