Nuage Aims for ‘SASE Enabler’ as Nokia Recalibrates

While the rest of the SD-WAN market has scrambled to build out their security capabilities in the hopes of bringing a secure access service edge (SASE) platform to market, Nokia’s Nuage Networks is taking a different tact. While the rest of the SD-WAN market has scrambled to build out their security capabilities in the hopes of bringing a secure access service edge (SASE) platform to market, Nokia’s Nuage Networks is taking a different tact. Instead of pursuing an end-to-end SASE platform, which would require developing or acquiring cloud security capabilities like secure web gateway, cloud access security broker, and zero-trust network access, Nuage is focusing on what it does best: SD-WAN. “I think SD-WAN is still the platform for SASE,” said Lindsay Newell, head of marketing at Nuage, in an interview with SDxCentral. “We don’t necessarily see ourselves as a SASE solution provider. We see ourselves as a SASE solution enabler.” The enterprise market is too diverse to build a one-size-fits-all SASE platform, he said. “The way that SASE was initially presented as being more intuitive was a bit of nirvana,” Newell said. “This idea that with SASE, it all has to come from one vendor, and it’s all got to be in the cloud, I think we’re a decade away from that in the majority of markets.” Newell claims many vendors have tried to make SD-WAN and SASE a black and white decision, when the reality is somewhere in between. “It’s always easier to try and present A versus B or choice one versus choice two, with everything in binary. The market isn’t like that,” he said. “The reality is there is a spectrum of security needs and wants within the enterprise market. The enterprise market can be a chain of five auto parts stores in one city, or a global bank in 180 countries.” “Those two companies have extremely different requirements,” he added. Nuage’s focus on SD-WAN doesn’t mean the company has given up on SASE or integrated security, the vendor is simply leaving it up to the service provider to decide which services best address the customer’s requirements. “From a network security perspective, we’re going to embed as much security as it makes sense,” Newell said. “For the secure web gateway, for [data loss prevention], for the zero-trust user access, those are things we generally partner for.” Nuage claims its SD-WAN is interoperable with more than 40 technology partners, including Zscaler. This, Newell argues, gives service providers a wider degree of flexibility when working with customers. Newell adds that customers can broadly be divided into two groups: those that aren’t brand sensitive and are buying a solution, and those that are brand sensitive or are already deeply engrained in a particular security ecosystem. By focusing on SD-WAN, and to a lesser degree on-premises security functionality like next-generation firewalls, he argues that Nuage is able to address a wider market than an all-in-one SASE provider, which may struggle to integrate with existing infrastructure or software. And according to Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald, who co-authored the original report on SASE, there is nothing wrong with an SD-WAN vendor partnering with a cloud security vendor, or vice versa, to deliver a SASE experience to customers, as long as it’s done in a single pass arrangement. While it isn’t a requirement, Mauricio Sanchez, research director at Dell’Oro Group, argues that SASE vendors that can offer a full networking and security stack are at an advantage over those that choose to partner. However, he notes that SASE is still an emerging market, and there are plenty of enterprises that may prefer a multi-vendor SASE offering. Nuage’s approach to SD-WAN, network security, and SASE shouldn’t come as a big surprise, given its parent company’s recent restructuring under newly appointed CEO Pekka Lundmark. Since taking over last year, Lundmark has wasted little time enacting sweeping changes to the company’s core philosophies. This will include abandoning its end-to-end strategy, popularized by former CEO Rajeev Suri. Nuage’s SD-WAN platform is fully aligned with Nokia’s core strategy, Newell explained in an email. “Nuage will continue to drive enterprise SD-WAN adoption through service provider managed services as part of Nokia’s strategy to grow its enterprise business.” As part of a three-year turnaround plan unveiled last fall, Lundmark is dividing Nokia’s various properties into four business groups. Of these, Nuage now falls under the company’s Network Infrastructure Business Group, which also encompasses the company’s optical, submarine, and fixed network businesses. And while Lundmark has taken steps to shrink the company’s executive staff, the SD-WAN vendor will continue to be led by Nuage CEO Sunil Khandekar. However, the SD-WAN vendor’s situation could change if Nuage’s strategy doesn’t play out as expected. Lundmark has made it clear that Nokia’s participation in any one market segment will be tied to the company’s leadership in the space and its economic potential. “A very critical belief that we will apply is that in cases where we will not be able to establish or show a path to economic value creation, we will reassess our segment participation,” Lundmark said last year. “So we will not automatically be in all different segments in cases we cannot show economic value creation.”