Cloud-native security supports “work from anywhere”
Orange Business Services, the integration arm of telco multinational Orange S.A., announced Wednesday that it is incorporating Fortinet’s Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) into its telco cloud infrastructure.
The company says this seamless approach will provide its customers with real-time service updates and a better user experience. Orange Business Services says the new solution is an end-to-end SASE offering that’s available globally.
SASE converges principles of software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) and network security into a single service model delivered in the cloud. The trend towards SASE solutions reflects the reality of an emerging hybrid workforce which needs to work from anywhere and still be relatively secure, according to the company.
Orange Business Services says this move will help its customers embrace the ability to “work from anywhere.” Using the Fortinet solution, Orange Business Services customers can employ zero-trust network access (ZTNA) and firewall-as-a-service, regardless of where they physically are located.
This bolsters Orange Business Service’s cloud-focused evolution, according to Anne-Marie Thiollet. Thiollet is Orange Business Services’ EVP, Global Solutions.
“By integrating Fortinet Security-driven Networking technologies into the Orange telco cloud infrastructure, we enable our customers to easily adopt a cloud-native environment that is increasingly critical for businesses globally,” she said.
SASE, simplified
Orange Business Services’ latest announcement is part of its ongoing SD-WAN strategy with Fortinet. Thiollet previously described the collaboration between Orange Business Services and Fortinet as “a key differentiator to support the requirements of midmarket companies” globally.
SASE architectures can be complicated and cumbersome for IT operations and users alike. Orange Business Services emphasized the Fortinet solution is integrated into Orange’s telco cloud environment.
“The result is a fully controlled end-to-end globally available SASE solution that bridges the gap between the user and the application. It delivers a secure and managed service from the Orange telco cloud infrastructure, boosted by cybersecurity expertise and capabilities with Orange Cyberdefense,” said the company.
Cisco is the SD-WAN market leader, but Fortinet is right behind it, according to the Dell’Oro Group’s most recent SD-WAN report. The SD-WAN market saw a remarkable 45% growth year over year for the third calendar quarter of 2021, according to the report. Shin Umeda, vice president at Dell’Oro Group, says the market segment is impervious to the supply chain issues affecting hardware network vendors.
