Versa Readies SD-WAN for the Digital Transformation and IoT Era

First Company to Support IPv6 SD-WAN

Santa Clara, Calif., February 15, 2017

Versa Networks, a leading provider of software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) and software-defined security (SD-Security) solutions, today announced it is the first company to provide support for both IPv4- and IPv6-based SD-WANs. This support will become increasingly important as companies continue to digitally transform themselves in the coming year, new Internet of Things (IoT) devices are deployed into network environments, and exhaustion of the IPv4 address space continues, there will be a substantial increase in competition for IP addresses as more things become connected and centrally managed.

In the last year, IDC has seen “… tremendous momentum in the influence of digital transformation (DX) on technology spending across geographies and industries.” It says, “Technology is transforming the business by blending the digital with physical with transformative use cases like IOT and next-generation security…IDC believes the key to succeeding in the new digital economy will be the ability to rapidly respond to changes within your ecosystem.” IDC estimates, “… there is the potential for over $18 trillion of new value to be harvested.”

IHS Technology’s 2016 whitepaper, IoT Platforms – Enabling the Internet of Things, predicted that we will see 30.7 billion IoT devices by 2020 and 74.4 billion devices by 2025.

“When IPv4 was introduced by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn in 1974, it was designed to accommodate around 4.3 billion addresses, which back then probably seemed like an adequate number to future proof the protocol for years to come,” said Kumar Mehta, founder and CDO of Versa Networks. “But what the creators couldn’t have predicted was the explosive growth of mobile devices and the ‘always on’ Internet-connected devices, also known as the Internet of Things (IoT), each of which requires its own unique address. While IPv4 addresses are getting exhausted in most geographies, the good news is that IPv6 adoption is on the upswing.”

IPv6 adoption stands at 26.1 percent in the U.S., and in many European countries it ranges from 25 to 49 percent. Statistics from Google show the percentage of users that access Google over IPv6 has markedly increased. For example, in January 2015, only about six percent of Google users accessed Google over IPv6. In January 2016, that number climbed to about 10 percent, and in January 2017, the number jumped to roughly 16 percent.

Given the SD-WAN technology’s integration of Internet connectivity, IPv6 will be essential to its success. In addition to US-based MSOs, web providers, and content providers, the Asian customers are also in need of an SD-WAN solution that supports IPv6 for both connectivity and services. Many MSOs support the IPv6 underlay to the customer base that ranges from 30% to 50% and offer special services for customers connected on IPv6. They are looking for an SD-WAN solution that supports IPv6 on the WAN underlay and on the LAN connectivity as they have readily adopted IPv6. Additionally, MSOs are looking for Dual Stack support and for supporting Direct to internet functionality they need support for NPTv6.

“As customers adopt IPv6, it allows for significant improvement in their internet experiences. If you are embarking on a new service it should be dual stack from the get-go,” Mehta continued. “By supporting both IPv4 and IPv6 for SD-WAN and SD-Security, Versa gives its customers the flexibility to design their WAN under IPv4 today and protect it from obsolescence as they switch over to IPv6. By deploying our technology, organizations can avoid expensive and time-consuming vendor swap-out scenarios.”

All of Versa’s products support dual stack across all Layer 3, Layer 4 and Layer 7 functions. This includes the company’s routing, advanced SD-WAN and advanced security portfolio, which features stateful and next-generation firewalls, URL and content filtering, IPS and anti-virus, DDoS and VPN/next-generation VPN.

Availability

Versa SD-WAN and SD-Security solutions are available now.

About Versa Networks

Versa Networks, the leader in SASE, combines extensive security, advanced networking, industry leading SD-WAN, genuine multitenancy, and sophisticated analytics via the cloud, on-premises, or as a blended combination of both to meet SASE requirements for small to extremely large enterprises and Service Providers, and via the simplified Versa Titan cloud service designed for Lean IT. Thousands of customers globally with hundreds of thousands of sites trust Versa with their networks, security, and clouds. Versa Networks is privately held and funded by Sequoia Capital, Mayfield, Artis Ventures, Verizon Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Liberty Global Ventures, Princeville Capital, RPS Ventures and Triangle Peak Partners. For more information, visit https://www.versa-networks.com or follow Versa Networks on Twitter @versanetworks.