Cato Networks introduces an SD-WAN service that merges networking and security, while Viptela and Riverbed roll out managed SD-WAN announcements.
In what has become almost commonplace for SDN news in the past few months, announcements this week were all about software-defined WAN. Cato Networks launched a cloud-based, secure SD-WAN service; Viptela and Tokyo-based NTTPC Communications Inc. announce a managed SD-WAN service, and systems integrator Teneo said it would use Riverbed Technology’s SteelConnect appliance to underpin its managed SD-WAN.
Cato Networks, an Israeli-based service provider, has beefed up its SD-WAN service with security tools it contends will allow customers to eliminate branch firewalls, web filters, VPNs and other security add-ons.
Cato’s Secure and Optimized SD-WAN service is based in the vendor’s cloud product, Cato Cloud, which uses dedicated links across multiple points of presence to ensure packet delivery.
“Current enterprise networks are built upon 25-year-old networking and security technologies,” said Shlomo Kramer, Cato Networks’ CEO and co-founder, in a statement. “This aging architecture is incompatible with the cloud-centric and mobile-first modern enterprise. Over the next 10 years, organizations of all sizes will need to re-architect their WANs to provide secure networking capabilities across the business, anytime and anywhere. This challenge requires a new architecture, not merely point solutions like existing SD-WAN products.”
The SD-WAN service uses security capabilities embedded in the network fabric to control direct internet access, enforce security policies and thus eliminate the need for additional security appliances, Cato said. All devices and clients are authenticated by Cato before they can connect to the network. Cato said a single stack enforces policies across both users and data.
