Aryaka Gets SASE-er With Secucloud Buy

Aryaka Networks today expanded its secure access service edge (SASE) platform with the acquisition of German cloud security vendor Secucloud for an undisclosed sum.

The SD-WAN vendor’s platform, which is distributed across a global network of points of presence (PoPs) all connected by a private backbone network, already bore similarities to a SASE architecture. But until now it has lacked integrated security functionality, and instead relied on partner vendors.

The Secucloud acquisition directly addresses this, and Aryaka plans to integrate the security vendor’s cloud-based firewall and secure web gateway into its private network. “Our goal is to be able to integrate some of their technology into our PoPs and offer managed SASE offerings with productization in the second half of this calendar year,” Aryaka CMO Shashi Kiran said.

The deal comes as Aryaka braces for growing demand for SASE. The company’s annual State of the WAN, which surveyed more than 1,300 global enterprises, found that 29% of enterprises were already in the process of deploying a SASE architecture, while another 56% said they planned to in the next 12 to 14 months.

The combined offering — which includes Secucloud’s secure web gateway and cloud-delivered firewall with Aryaka’s own zero trust network access and SD-WAN functionality — targets small to midsize business, though Kiran said the company plans to evolve the platform to suit larger business use cases over time.

Notably missing from the SASE security stack is cloud access security broker (CASB), which is only available through partner vendors like Check Point at this time.

“As far as things like CASB are concerned, I think we will continue to look at a partner-based approach,” Kiran said. “We don’t have a lot of customers that are saying give me the whole enchilada just because there is a definition up on a slide someplace.”

Aryaka Champions SASE Choice

While Secucloud expands the number of security capabilities offered by Aryaka, this isn’t the company’s first crack at a SASE architecture. In July, the company announced a collaboration with Check Point, dubbed Aryaka Private Access.

And while Aryaka will soon be able to offer much of the SASE security stack on its own, the company sees the new product as complementary to its existing partnerships.

“A lot of customers may prefer these best-of-breed firewall vendors, they also may require them deployed on premises instead of in a cloud centric approach,” Kiran said.

As such, Aryaka plans to continue offering cloud-based and on-premises security through its partnerships with Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler, and Check Point. Kiran explained that should a customer require on-premises security functionality, any of the aforementioned security vendor’s firewalls can be deployed on the company’s edge appliances.

“We’re one of the very few in the market that brings together the technology as well as the network and managed services component,” he said. “It’s an either or in the rest of the market. You either have technology vendors or telcos and managed providers. We’re one of the ones that bring together all of these.”