Aryaka debuted its first secure access service edge (SASE) product and a fresh SD-WAN offering, both of which are based on a new layer 3 architecture the company hopes will allow it to gain traction in price-sensitive verticals.
One of the early SD-WAN vendors, Aryaka is known for having built out its own global network of points of presence. Shashi Kiran, Aryaka’s CMO, told Fierce the new layer 3 private core is connected to the same points of presence as its original layer 2 private core and is similarly meshed. The big difference between the two, he said, is that its layer 2 architecture is designed for mission-critical applications where its layer 3 core is optimized for cost and non-mission critical applications or sites that don’t require top-tier performance.
“It allows us to go after segments that are price-sensitive,” Kiran explained. “It really gives us the flexibility and customers the flexibility to choose the profiles that they want for their sites, whether it be optimized for performance or optimized for cost and bring it under the same management construct.”
Both of the company’s layer 3 offerings are part of a new “EZ” line, with the SASE product dubbed “Prime” in the same way its SD-WAN services are branded “SmartConnect”. New products include Aryaka Prime EZ and Aryaka SmartConnect EZ. Kiran said Aryaka believes the layer 3 rollout will increase its service addressable market by a factor of 3X or 4X, with the EZ line expected to be “very attractive” to channel partners.
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The debut of Aryaka’s first SASE offering comes eight months after its acquisition of German security company Secucloud. Kiran said the offering will initially comprise a secure web gateway functionality with filtering, threat protection, AV scanning and firewall as a service targeted at small and medium businesses. However, Aryaka is working to harden all of the secure gateway functionalities and plans to rollout new capabilities like zero trust. It expects to launch a layer 2 version of the SASE product in the next year or so, he added.
Aryaka also revamped its pricing model with what it called “T-shirt sized” tiers (think Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large), which Kiran said will make it easier to give clients quotes. “Quoting was very complex because we had so many SKUs and line items,” he explained. But now, “essentially it becomes one SKU that pulls in the connectivity, the bandwidth requirement and all of the other things that go along with it and it becomes far more easier to quote, deploy, track and make changes because its based on these distinct sizes.”
Analyst Zeus Kerravala of ZK Research said in a statement he expects the new products from Aryaka to be “very well received by enterprise customers,” adding the new pricing strategy “should ease enterprise adoption and generation traction within the channel.”