Palo Alto Launches SD-WAN Offering Following CloudGenix Purchase

Palo Alto Networks has unveiled its SD-WAN solution on the heels of its CloudGenix acquisition.

The vendor on Wednesday announced Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation SD-WAN. The offering integrates the CloudGenix SD-WAN solution with Palo’s Prisma Access secure access service edge (SASE) platform.

Palo Alto’s Kumar Ramachandran

Kumar Ramachandran, Palo Alto’s senior vice president of product management for firewall as a platform, said cloud applications are multiplying with the rise of conferencing and collaboration products. As a result, legacy WAN architectures are struggling to adjust.

“First-generation SD-WAN falls significantly short in changing the economics of branch WAN infrastructure and services,” Ramachandran said. “Enterprises are now demanding an autonomous SD-WAN solution that eliminates the need for manual operational tasks. Enterprises also need a cloud-delivered model for security and other branch services to gain cloud-scale economics.”

Ramachandran previously served as CloudGenix’ CEO. Palo Alto announced the acquisition of CloudGenix, the pure play SD-WAN vendor, in the spring. The transaction cost approximately $420 million.

Palo Alto CEO Nikesh Arora said at the time that the acquisition would lead to more agile security and networking solutions for increasingly distributed enterprises.

“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,” Arora said in March.

Palo Alto Networks’ Nikesh Arora

Features

Palo Alto executives described the new SD-WAN offering as “app-defined, autonomous and cloud-delivered.” The offering features machine-based learning to reduce operational costs. Ramchandran said a recent customer reduced WAN costs by 82%.

The offering includes the CloudGenix ION 1000 small form factor application, which works well retail locations and small home offices. Customers can also use the CloudGenix ION 9000 application for large branches.

Rohit Mehra, IDC‘s vice president of network infrastructure, said businesses want SD-WAN to assist their “digital and network transformation.”

IDC’s Rohit Mehra

“Palo Alto Networks SD-WAN approach enables the delivery of security, UCaaS, visibility and monitoring as cloud services, reducing operational costs,” Mehra said. “The use of network analytics and AI/ML to provide autonomous capabilities is another area where enterprises are looking to make enhancements so they can minimize manual troubleshooting and remediation.”

Ramachandran discussed the second generation of SD-WAN in an interview with Channel Partners earlier this year.