Lumen Technologies Enhances SASE Portfolio For Partners Selling ‘Network-Adjacent’ Services

The company formerly known as CenturyLink has given its SASE portfolio a boost with new features, including Security Service Edge and cloud-hosted gateways, and has aextended the reach of its SASE Solutions portfolio globally.

Lumen Technologies, formerly CenturyLink, has enhanced its Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Solutions portfolio, which the company said is one of its sought-after “network-adjacent” services that are being enabled by the service provider’s core network assets.

The SASE Solutions portfolio now includes Security Service Edge (SSE) and cloud-hosted gateways. The Monroe, La.-based carrier also revealed Tuesday that U.S.-based customers can now deploy premises-based SASE services to locations in Canada and EMEA.

The SASE product enhancements launched Tuesday are a direct result of customer and partner feedback, the company said.

“Our recent enhancements to our SASE offer are another way we have made it even easier to do business with us,” said Sara Seegers, Lumen’s vice president of indirect channel sales, in an email to CRN. “Lumen has the capabilities and resources to evolve with our customers as their businesses transform, and we are built to optimize their WAN transformation journeys without disrupting current infrastructure and day-to-day needs,” she added.

[Related: Lumen Technologies Bets Big On NaaS To Turn Around Struggling Enterprise, Business Revenues ]

Now part of the Lumen SASE Solutions portfolio is SSE, a collection of integrated, cloud-centric security capabilities such as cloud-hosted gateways to grant safe access to websites. It also includes the access and sharing of sensitive data and user permission management for Software-as-a-Service applications, according to Lumen.

Cloud-hosted gateways lets businesses scale up as they grow with network and security management features, without buying premises-based equipment. Cloud-hosted gateways also let customers migrate off shared gateways and onto a dedicated node for more security and reliability, as well as predictable pricing. The feature allows for secure remote access to the customer’s data and cloud applications as well, Lumen said.

Lumen last summer retooled its business segment to focus on growth products. The company broke it down into three categories: the “Grow” segment, which includes strategic services such as SASE, the “Nurture” category, which includes Ethernet services, and the “Harvest” segment, which houses the carrier’s legacy services, such as voice.

Seegers, Lumen’s channel chief, told CRN earlier this month that the adjacent technology conversations that partners are having are revolving around AI, cloud, security and SASE.

Scott Kinka, chief strategy officer for longtime Lumen partner Bridgepointe Technologies, a solution provider specializing in unified communications, networking, cybersecurity and managed services, referred to SASE as a “gateway” to more advanced solutions for customers.

Lumen partners with several third-party technology vendors for its SASE strategy, including Versa Networks, Fortinet and VMware.