In a bid to shake up what it says is an outmoded model for deploying and managing software-defined wide-area networks, Aryaka Networks Inc. today rolled out new SD-WAN and secure access service edge offerings as managed services.

The company says they bypass the need to work with telecom carriers and the expensive multiprotocol label switching technique for routing internet protocol traffic.

Aryaka, which has raised $184 million in its campaign to build a globally distributed network oriented toward transporting enterprise data across long distances, said it has added a global Layer 3 private core network called Aryaka FlexCore. It supplements its existing Layer 2 offering that connects to nearly 40 points of presence that Aryaka says reach 98% of the world’s knowledge workers with round-the-clock monitoring, alerting and service activation.

FlexCore enables customers to map their sites to the core network of choice based on their own criteria. The company is also announcing AppAssure, a software capability that provides deterministic visibility, observability and control for more than 3,500 applications.

Enabling SASE

SD-WAN is a critical part of the SASE architecture outlined by Gartner last year which the research firm expects to grow 42% annually through 2024, at which time 40% of enterprises will have adopted it. SASE shifts away from traditional perimeter protections to a system of identity-based controls that securely connect people with data and applications from any device and location without the need for a virtual private network. It combines cloud access security brokers, secure web gateways and firewalls-as-a-service inside a zero-trust network access framework on top of flexible SD-WAN networking.

Aryaka proposes to simplify the management of long-distance connections within an enterprise’s network while also providing faster and more reliable connectivity for applications, devices and public cloud infrastructure. The company’s network transports data using high-speed pipes it leases from carriers rather than the less predictable public internet. Aryaka claims its approach can boost application performance as much as 40-fold while simplifying network maintenance and costing half to two-thirds as much as carrier-provisioned networks.

“The network we’ve built is optimized for application delivery and allows us to bring consistent deployment in areas where telcos are challenged,” said Chief Marketing Officer Shashi Kiran. “We are probably best-in-class in offering a managed SD-WAN and now we’re bringing SASE to it.”

FlexCore is the foundation for a new managed SASE offering being announced today that’s based on technology Aryaka acquired with German SASE firm Secucloud GmbH last spring. Aryaka Prime EZ is initially aimed at small- to medium-sized companies. It provides a web gateway, firewall-as-a-service and web filtering delivered and managed via Aryaka points of presence.

A new managed SD-WAN service called SmartConnect Pro optimized for performance and aimed at larger enterprises uses the company’s Layer2 private core to deliver high performance and application predictability. There’s also a low-cost SD-WAN offering called SmartConnect EZ that runs on top of the Layer 3 core and provides greater simplicity of deployment and management.

Out with MPLS

“We expect SmartConnect EZ will replace traditional internet connections whereas SmartConnect Pro replaces MPLS,” Kiran said. MPLS is a mature but expensive technique that routes traffic using predetermined “labels,” rather than leaving it up to routers to decide where to send packets. Aryaka asserts that the approach is out of step with the digital transformation mandates many companies have initiated.

“Businesses want to know how to make their infrastructure more cloudlike so they can consume it as a service,” Kiran said. “MPLS is static. It’s good once you nail it down, but the protocol doesn’t lend itself to flexibility and change.”

Aryaka also aims to make the simplicity of deployment a virtue. “Customers usually buy the technology and manage with their own IT team or go through the telco,” Kiran said. “We do all these things ourselves.”

Aryaka SmartConnect EZ and SmartConnect Pro will be generally available late in the first quarter of 2022. Aryaka AppAssure will also be made available as a no-cost addition to all customers starting January.

Image: Aryaka