In all or most cases, a transition to SASE will be the largest network and/ or security project an organization has ever undertaken. Much more than upgrading a switch or swapping out POTS lines, the process of planning for, purchasing and integrating secure access service edge entails a good amount of heavy lifting. True transformation, after all, is never easy, particularly one that moves disparate systems and vendors to unified security, access and application performance, across all sites, down to the end-user level. Starting the process alone requires buy-in and strategic engagement with decision makers throughout corporate leadership, IT and lines of business. Any mistakes during the planning, RFP, selection, integration and deployment process can, and likely will, produce unintended ripple effects throughout an organization. For all but the largest and most heavily resourced organizations, it’s a lot to ask from already overworked network and security teams – even more to ask them to champion such a change. Not that the challenges are squashing interest and adoption. According to Dell’Oro Group, spending on SASE solutions grew 33 percent year-overyear in Q3 2023, reaching a record $2.2 billion. The research firm expects 2023 SASE revenues to exceed $8 billion. Rather, the realities of SASE sourcing seem to have encouraged organizations to supplement their limited IT resources with the expertise and foresight provided by advisor and consultant types. And they are turning to these partners often and early on in the process, report providers. At Palo Alto Networks, for instance, “We’ve seen that large transformation projects are increasingly led by our partners,” Prem Iyer, senior vice president, global ecosystems, recently told SDxCentral. “Engaging a partner in the journey to acquire and implement a SASE solution offers enterprises many benefits in planning, implementing and operating these solutions,” Iyer said. Robert Arandjelovic, director of solutions strategy at Netskope, agreed that outside of the largest organizations with experience integrating technologies, “many organizations are looking to partner-delivered SASE offerings.” Aryaka Networks, for its part, recently announced record growth of partnerled sales for its managed SD-WAN and SASE solutions. At the close of its fiscal year 2023, Aryaka’s channel revenue accounted for 85 percent of the company’s overall sales, up from an historical average of 73 percent. “The complexity of implementing SASE, due to its extensive network and operational integration requirements, often necessitates the specialized skills of technology advisors and IT consultants,” said Craig Patterson, senior vice VIRTUAL REALITIES Aryaka’s airline win illustrates partners’ role in transformations Helping SASE to Soar By Martin Vilaboy 28 CHANNELVISION | JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2024
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