Versa delivers high-performance SASE connectivity

Aiming to reach enterprises with large branch, campus or data center operations, Versa Networks is rolling out new secure access service edge (SASE) devices that promise high-speed throughput for WAN routing, firewall processing, and direct internet access SD-WAN links.

New to Versa’s portfolio are the CSG5000 and Dell PowerEdge R7515, which the networking vendor says can support up to 120 Gbps of firewall throughput, 100 Gbps of SD-WAN throughput, and 40 Gbps of next-generation firewall (NGFW) throughput. It’s a significant upgrade to Versa’s former top-end box, the CSG2500 series appliance, which offers 20+ Gbps throughput for WAN routing, stateful firewall processing, and SD-WAN direct internet access.

Versa’s new CSG5000 units feature 16 x 10/25 GE and 4 x 100GE interfaces. Other interfaces, such as 10/25GE SFP+/SFP28 and QSFP28-based 100GE, can also be mixed in depending on customer needs, Versa stated. The devices offer built-in hardware acceleration and the ability to offload certain processing functions to internal hardware engines, saving processor cycles for stateful firewall or network processing.

The Versa CSG5000 boxes run the Versa Operating System (VOS), which integrates networking and security services into a platform that supports cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments. Versa SASE includes VPN, secure SD-WAN, edge compute protection, NGFW, firewall as a service (FWaaS), secure web gateway (SWG), advanced threat protection, data leak protection, zero-trust network access (ZTNA), and cloud access security broker (CASB).

The driving idea behind the new Versa boxes is to reduce the amount of hardware necessary to support growing SASE operations while offering the throughput capacity to handle those communications, according to Versa’s director of product marketing, Rajoo Nagar.

“Unified SASE promises the true convergence of many networking and security products into a single gateway at the edge, to deliver a simplified, secure, and high-performance solution. In reality, many SASE solutions today consist of point products integrated under a SASE umbrella, not unlike the purpose-built approach of legacy infrastructure solutions,” Nagar wrote in a blog about the new devices.