Versa Networks becomes Lumen's third SASE partner; Rapid Threat Defense by Black Lotus Labs incorporated to block threats before they reach the customer's environment

DENVER, April 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The rise of remote and hybrid work – coupled with omnipresent cyber threats – is forcing organizations to accelerate their digital transformations with an explicit focus on securing data-intensive workloads and applications. At the same time, the time it takes for a defender to mitigate a threat translates into millions of dollars saved or lost.

Combined, this evolving landscape has led to unprecedented demand for Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) – software framework that unifies networking services and security solutions. It's also why Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) today announced two major expansions to its SASE product suite:

Partner Expansion: Versa Networks
Every customer's digital transformation journey is unique; however, their end goals are typically the same: to digitally connect people, data and applications quickly, securely and effortlessly. With that in mind, Lumen engineered a digital SASE platform and product portfolio centered around a diverse partner ecosystem that offers extensive choices and customizations. That ecosystem expanded today with the addition of Versa Networks – an industry leader whose SASE solution was ranked as the Unified SASE Market Share Leader for the second year in a row by Dell'Oro Group.

Businesses can check their SASE readiness with the Lumen SASE Assessment, then visit the Lumen® SASE Solutions with Versa website for product details.

"Lumen has provided Versa SD-WAN and security capabilities for more than eight years, so expanding into the SASE space was a natural fit," said Darren Wolner, senior director of SASE product management for Lumen. "We have global IP visibility, unique threat intelligence, and vast experience in networking, cloud, and managed services, which makes us the perfect partner for organizations looking for a single provider to enable their digital transformation. The addition of Versa to our SASE portfolio brings customers a greater selection of best-in-class software providers and enables them to choose the solution that's best for their business."

Lumen SASE Solutions with Versa combines Lumen's expansive network and cloud platform availability with Versa's award-winning software. Companies receive enhanced control, visibility, and simplified management of network and security to deliver cloud-based applications virtually anywhere, on any device.

"Lumen and Versa have had a successful partnership and delivered advanced security and networking managed services to enterprises worldwide," said Hemen Mehta, vice president of sales for managed service providers at Versa Networks. "With Lumen's global infrastructure and Versa's AI/ML-powered Unified SASE platform, we have jointly created a comprehensive suite of services that truly simplify how enterprises protect and connect their users, devices and sites to applications anywhere, anytime. We are excited to extend our partnership with Lumen to address a broad set of network- and application-based attacks, including advanced threat protection, Zero Trust Network Access, Firewall as a Service and SD-WAN."

New Capability: Rapid Threat Defense
Stopping attacks before they reach the customer is critical, so Lumen developed Rapid Threat Defense – a proprietary capability that automatically blocks malicious traffic before it touches the customer's environment. It is available today with some solutions within the Lumen SASE portfolio, and it's offered through Lumen DDoS Mitigation Service, Lumen® Edge Protect, and Lumen Network Firewall Solutions.

The threat intelligence that powers Rapid Threat Defense comes from Black Lotus Labs – Lumen's in-house threat intelligence team. Unlike traditional intelligence feeds that are based on visibility into a customer's environment, Black Lotus Labs has the unique ability to discover, analyze and act on network-level threats on a global scale.

"Our SASE product suite just got a game-changing upgrade with the addition of Rapid Threat Defense," said Darren Wolner, senior director of SASE product management for Lumen. "Integrating Black Lotus Labs threat intelligence into our SASE solution gives our customers another safeguard against bad actors. Black Lotus Labs employs some of the world's most talented threat researchers and data analysts, and they are armed with a powerful weapon: unmatched visibility into threats across the Lumen internet backbone. Because we sit on one of the world's largest and most deeply peered IP networks, we can see more threats. And because we see more, we stop more."

Find us at RSA booth 2145-S! Visit the Lumen RSA event website for a full schedule of activities, including in-booth "lightning talks" about SASE and Rapid Threat Defense.

Additional Resources

• Take a deep dive into Lumen SASE with Versa by visiting the website and reading the data sheet.
• Introduce yourself to Versa by watching this video.
• View the Rapid Threat Defense data sheet for more information about this capability.
• Learn everything there is to know about SASE by reading Lumen's extensive SASE blog series.
• Discover Lumen's other SASE solutions on the Lumen SASE website.
• Read about Lumen's managed security and professional security services.

About Lumen Technologies
Lumen connects the world. We are dedicated to furthering human progress through technology by connecting people, data, and applications – quickly, securely, and effortlessly. Everything we do at Lumen takes advantage of our network strength. From metro connectivity to long-haul data transport to our edge cloud, security, and managed service capabilities, we meet our customers' needs today and as they build for tomorrow. For news and insights visit news.lumen.com, LinkedIn: /lumentechnologies, Twitter: @lumentechco, Facebook: /lumentechnologies, Instagram: @lumentechnologies, and YouTube: /lumentechnologies.

About Versa Networks
Versa Networks, the leader in single-vendor Unified SASE platforms, delivers AI/ML-powered SSE and SD-WAN solutions. The platform provides networking and security with true 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. Thousands of customers globally with hundreds of thousands of sites and millions of users trust Versa with their mission critical networks and security. Versa Networks is privately held and funded by Sequoia Capital, Mayfield, Artis Ventures, Verizon Ventures, Comcast Ventures, BlackRock Inc., 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.

Services not available everywhere. Business customers only. Lumen may change, cancel or substitute products and services, or vary them by service area at its sole discretion without notice. ©2023 Lumen Technologies. All Rights Reserved.

SOURCE Lumen Technologies