After having long served its historic clientele of large accounts exclusively via international operators, Versa Networks has for some time been building a network of integrators which has also opened up the market for mid-sized companies. To support this integrator strategy, Versa has invested in new commercial resources – in particular by recruiting a channel manager – and dedicated engagement processes.
A strategy that is bearing fruit. In France, the publisher has recently established links with Newlode by Squad, the Convergence Group, Tionis (Constellation Group), Objectline, Linkt… And partners like NXO, with which it began working in operator mode, have recently switched mainly in integrative mode.
Unlike operators who sell a global service incorporating the links and related equipment, integrators simply market, deploy and possibly manage the equipment independently of the links, leaving customers free to select the operators best suited to their needs, depending on the areas and the desired quality of service. An approach that allows customers to maintain control over the user experience and, if necessary, change service provider without having to surrender their entire infrastructure.
A strategy that allows Versa Networks to showcase its technology to end customers and push its security bricks. Coming from the SD-Wan market, of which it is considered a benchmark player on a global scale, Versa Networks has gradually enriched its platform with security components allowing it to be recognized today by Gartner among the leaders of its Magic Quadrant for SASE (secure remote access services) unified.
Versa Networks is thus able to provide via the same equipment, link aggregation, optimization functions, visibility and around twenty security functions, including a secure web gateway (SWG) (including but not limited to URL filtering, antivirus, data leak prevention, etc.), a network firewall, cloud access security, etc. All activated from the same single console that controls SD-WAN.
This integrator-oriented strategy coupled with its SASE positioning is starting to appeal to mid-sized companies and even SMEs. Especially since the publisher has designed a simplified version of its web interface for them and has opted for pricing based on equipment performance and no longer on bandwidth.
A clientele also sensitive to the fact that, even in 100% managed mode, they have access at no additional cost to the administration console, and in particular to the dashboards on the state of traffic and user satisfaction. “ SMEs do not have the teams to manage their own secure remote access services but they need visibility of the user experience “, underlines Kamel Karou, channel manager for Southern Europe at Versa Networks (photo).
SMEs all the more difficult to convince because they had been disappointed by the SD-WAN services of large French operators, reluctant to push a technology likely to eat into their margins on MPLS and reluctant to give them control over monitoring their network.
