SASE Points True North for Palo Alto with CloudGenix Purchase

The SD-WAN market is evolving. Once a small group of eager startups seeking to transform the way organizations interact with the cloud, support application performance and secure the network. From new service standards, to propping up the business community during the COVID-19 crisis, only time will tell what comes next for this transformational technology.

While I wouldn’t say we are at market maturity, I would say it is at a tipping point, trending toward consolidation. Today, Palo Alto Networks announced intent to acquire CloudGenix for roughly $420 million.

Kumar Ramachandran (News - Alert), co-founder and CEO, CloudGenix has never been shy or short of swagger since CloudGenix stepped on the scene. Never hesitant in touting his product portfolio or taking aim at the competition, the CloudGenix team has the chops to walk the walk. Catering to clients in retail, manufacturing, finance, banking, tech, hospitality and more, the SD-WAN provider has separated from the pack with exceptional solutions and service.  

"CloudGenix's vision has been to revolutionize branch offices through cloud-delivered Autonomous WANs. With CloudGenix, enterprises gain cloud-scale economics for the branch office with the freedom to use any WAN, any cloud, and best-of-breed infrastructure services. We thank our customers for making us an industry leader in enterprise SD-WAN. By joining forces with Palo Alto (News - Alert) Networks, we will accelerate our ability to serve customers and partners in their network and security transformation,” explained Ramachandran.

For Palo Alto Networks, the purchase means integrating the CloudGenix cloud-managed SD-WAN products into the Prisma Access platform, translating to more rapid implementation for retail stores and branch locations and enhanced ability to support security and network requirements. It also means a strong step for SASE.

Since Gartner coined the term SASE (secure access service edge), to say it’s become the prevalent industry trend would be an understatement. Simply put, security is an access proposition. The cloud era and the rise of SaaS (News - Alert) introduces challenges to providing secure access, as nowadays – especially in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic – team members require application accessibility from anywhere, anytime. SASE could prove true north.  

"As the enterprise becomes more distributed, customers want agile solutions that just work, and that applies to both security and networking. Upon the close of the transaction, the combined platform will provide customers with a complete SASE offering that is best-in-class, easy to deploy, cloud-managed, and delivered as a service," noted Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO, Palo Alto Networks.

What’s in your WAN?