SASE•5 min read

Broadcom Steps on the Accelerator with VeloCloud SASE

VeloCloud Team•
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At VMware Explore Barcelona, VMware announced the addition of Symantec by Broadcom to its rich portfolio of security service edge (SSE) partnerships. Now that VMware and Symantec are both part of Broadcom, we are pleased to reveal further integrations with Symantec. With an eye to the future—while recognizing VMware’s strong networking heritage—we announced today at Mobile World Congress 2024 that VMware, recently acquired by Broadcom, is re-introducing the VeloCloud name for our SD-WAN and SASE products. (To learn more, read today’s blog by Sanjay Uppal, Back to the Future with VeloCloud, the Intelligent Overlay for the Software-Defined Edge.)

The article below is an expanded and updated version of our original blog, VMware and Broadcom Will Accelerate SASE Journey for Customers.

Enterprises must protect data no matter where it resides. As businesses operate workloads across a wider range of locations, from home offices to stores and factory floors, the importance of the edge is growing. A secure edge is critical to defend sensitive information, guarantee continuous operations, and lessen possible threats. 

To deliver consistent security across edge locations, applications, users, and devices, Broadcom is announcing a re-imagined VMware VeloCloud SASE, secured by Symantec, featuring best-in-class SD-WAN and Security Service Edge (SSE) capabilities. The solution simplifies operations and automatically connects VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN branch users to the nearest Symantec Enterprise Cloud (SEC) location for security enforcement. 

The solution extends significant benefits to Broadcom’s installed base of over 80,000 VeloCloud and Symantec customers who can take advantage of this solution immediately. 

Broadcom expects to unveil many exciting new capabilities at Google Next ’24 to further accelerate VeloCloud SASE adoption.

Distributed resources pose networking and security challenges

Enterprises today operate in a distributed environment where applications can reside anywhere: data center, public cloud, at the edge, or sourced directly from SaaS vendors. Users also access these applications from anywhere: in the office, at home, or on the go. These transformations have increased operational complexities, challenging enterprise IT teams on both the networking and security fronts. Each user’s application experience is subject to local network conditions. People want seamless access to their applications without fear of reaching a malicious site or downloading a virus-laden file.

At the same time, a distributed enterprise architecture can significantly increase the points of entry for a breach. IT leaders must ensure that employees, partners, and contractors stay productive while simultaneously keeping both users and the IT infrastructure secure.

To address these requirements, enterprises are transforming their networking and security infrastructure by adopting SASE architectures comprised of SD-WAN and SSE solutions. VeloCloud SASE delivers superior network performance without compromising security while simplifying operations and management.

Bringing connectivity and security leadership together

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN is recognized as a leader, deployed at more than 600,000 sites across 180 countries and many industry verticals. It connects branch and remote users to cloud and data center applications in a reliable, efficient, and optimal manner. Symantec Enterprise Cloud is the leading enterprise-grade cloud security solution deployed by thousands of customers—including the top global financial services firms, leading worldwide telecommunications providers, and the largest and most recognized automobile manufacturers.

Accelerating SASE adoption for enterprise customers

VeloCloud SD-WAN simplifies network connectivity and policy management while offering path optimization and superior network performance for a consistent user experience. It uses a global network of PoPs to connect users to the nearest Symantec Enterprise Cloud location, placing traffic on an optimal path between users and their applications.

Symantec Enterprise Cloud provides proactive network security capabilities delivered as a resilient and high-performing cloud security service. Symantec delivers the entire security stack over optimized Google Cloud backbone enabling access, reliability, and scale. Sitting between employees, wherever they are located, and the Internet, the service protects the enterprise from advanced threats, controls and protects corporate use of cloud applications and the web, prevents data leaks, and ensures compliance with all company information and web or cloud access policies.

Benefits of VMware VeloCloud SASE

The SASE solution offers the following benefits:

  • Enhanced user experience: For a typical enterprise with multiple branch offices and many remote workers accessing applications, local conditions on WAN links can directly impact productivity—for example, long download delays or poor video call quality. Configuring policies to handle these network conditions on a site-by-site basis for each application is too burdensome for IT teams. VeloCloud SD-WAN can automatically recognize over 4300 applications and ensure the correct treatment depending on local last-mile conditions. VeloCloud SD-WAN can also dynamically remediate problems at each location without IT intervention. This automatic recognition and optimization greatly simplify installation, configuration, and operational overhead of network connectivity.
  • Comprehensive threat detection and response: The solution makes it easy for enterprises to automatically hand off the traffic to the nearest Symantec security enforcement points. For enterprise-class customers, critical benefits of Symantec include management flexibility to enforce internet access by device, user, app, and location. Symantec can detect and block malware hidden in encrypted traffic, applying real-time threat intelligence, risk-level ratings, deep file inspection, and sandboxing. Symantec’s innovative web isolation technology can block sophisticated and targeted web threats.
  • Automation to accelerate branch connectivity: Enterprises can directly forward Internet-bound traffic from VeloCloud SD-WAN branch locations to the nearest Symantec Enterprise Cloud location. Adding new branch locations or modifying policies to accommodate new business applications becomes easy to manage.
  • Traffic recognition and steering: VeloCloud SASE application mapping provides seamless integration for existing customers that also use Symantec’s ZTNA solution. The solution can detect devices with the Symantec Enterprise Agent and use bypass policies to place traffic from these devices on the right path for better performance while maintaining security. Symantec agents are typically deployed on user devices to access the nearest Symantec Enterprise Cloud location in the absence of a corporate network. Bypass policies for network traffic redirection can be configured centrally on the VMware Edge Cloud Orchestrator™ and deployed across hundreds or thousands of branch edges, eliminating the complexity of managing these policies site by site.
  • Simplified management: VeloCloud SASE is cloud-delivered, reducing the burden for IT when it comes to designing and deploying the solution for scale, high availability, and lifecycle management. VMware uses the centralized VMware Edge Cloud Orchestrator to manage all the branch connectivity. Policies are configured centrally on the orchestrator and pushed to all branch sites, reducing the risk of human errors, and helping manage change windows and CAB approvals.
  • Streamlined, AI-enabled operations: The solution avoids the need to manually create tunnels every time a new branch is onboarded and simplifies the management of site connectivity. VMware Edge Cloud Orchestrator provides IT with visibility into the quality of experience for users at each location. VeloCloud SD-WAN uses advanced analytics powered by AI and ML to offer visual evidence of user experience, for end user devices as well as IoT devices, when these devices access applications. Symantec has introduced SymantecAI, an advanced suite of security and productivity solutions powered by AI technologies that increases security by simplifying the analysis and remediation of threats, ensuring better data protection, and streamlining security operations.

VeloCloud SASE offers a complete SASE solution with protection for the distributed enterprise edge, improved user experience, simplified management, and better performance and scale with an agile security posture. This powerful combination of connectivity and security will empower organizations to unlock new levels of productivity and drive transformative outcomes.

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