The Secure Services Edge (SSE) grew 40% year-over-year to over $800 million in revenue in Q1, according to Dell'Oro Group.

Colt's new SASE service can be deployed via the cloud and/or on-premises; Colt is deploying the Versa Secure Web Gateway and other Versa services within its own cloud.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange Spain cuts deal with DAZN; London mayor tackles digital exclusion; Italian hacking job raises Google's hackles.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: MTN unveils 5G target; Ekinops passes the Microsoft audition; Zen and the art of getting a decent Wi-Fi signal.

Orange Business Services executives discuss the SD-WAN deployment to nearly 1,200 Siemens sites plus the launch of Service Manage-Watch.

Also in today's EME regional roundup: Sparkle connects Benetton; Three hikes prices for pay-as-you-go customers; Salt savors network success in Switzerland.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia tackles energy management with SaaS; Telia workers get trained up in the cloud; Tesco Mobile takes the pistachio.

CTO Pascal Menezes says the new advisory board will give technology supplier members more of a voice in MEF's strategic vision around cybersecurity, business automation, SD-WAN, underlay connectivity and edge computing.

This is a considerably large SD-WAN deployment for an enterprise with 370,000 employees. Orange's John Isch usually sees an SD-WAN deployment of this size in retail locations.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: A1 has a decent first quarter, faces possible trouble in Belarus; Airties bought by private equity firm; Orange Business Services completes Siemens' SD-WAN.

The MEF's work on a universal SD-WAN edge standard is good for equipment vendors and service providers. But does it go far enough?

Edge computing use cases, an increased use of machine learning and artificial intelligence, and growth in IoT are also increasing demand for SD-WAN services, said Omdia.

Also in today's SASE roundup: Palo Alto expands availability of its Okyo Garde Enterprise Edition router to the US and Canada.

Juniper's M&A strategy is helping it build a managed services arsenal that adds more value to service provider connectivity in the enterprise market.

OfficeSuite UC, Windstream Enterprise's Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) platform, is now available outside the US and Canada, for a total of 16 locations.

Vertical Systems Group says Comcast Business's rise on the Leaderboard is due to 'organic growth' plus sites added from the Masergy acquisition.

Dell'Oro Group predicts the SASE market will reach double-digit billion-dollar revenue by 2025.

Charter's Spectrum Enterprise unit is putting more emphasis on the higher end of the market with Enterprise Network Edge, a platform that features advanced security and SD-WAN capabilities.

The managed SASE service includes five components: SD-WAN, firewall-as-a-service (FWaaS), secure web gateways (SWGs), zero trust network access (ZTNA) and cloud access security broker (CASB).

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: 25G PON in Croatia; Teldat chooses Telefonica Tech's public cloud; EU, UK probe Google/Meta deal on advertising.

Fortinet is Orange's first vendor partner in the SASE space, but the service provider expects to add more managed SASE options in the future.

Threats during 2H 2021 were more destructive and unpredictable, according to the FortiGuard Labs Global Threat Landscape Report. Bad actors are also taking advantage of a broader attack surface with a more distributed workforce.

The $162 million acquisition comes on the heels of Cloudflare's purchase of CASB startup Vectrix earlier this month.

More insight into Cato's financials could be coming soon - the company plans to go public in a few years, said Cato VP Eyal Webber-Zvik.

Spectrum Enterprise, Charter's business services unit, is using Cisco's Meraki platform to tack on critical support for remote workers and teleworkers and for secure connections to AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.

Juniper hasn't disclosed financial details of the deal nor WiteSand's head count but has shared plans to bring on WiteSand's engineering team in addition to its Network Access Control technology.

Protection for cloud applications - run in data centers and public clouds - is increasingly critical as workers connect to business applications from anywhere.

Lavelle Networks is a Bengaluru-based company specializing in software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN).

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vantage Towers feels the supply chain crunch; HBO Max spreads its wings; Deutsche Telekom and Google extend their love-in.

CEO Rami Rahim said he remains optimistic for growth in 2022 despite supply chain challenges.

Juniper has updated its Session Smart Router (SSR) SD-WAN platform with intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS), URL filtering capabilities and Juniper-branded hardware.

Zayo's CTO says the team-up with QOS will provide customers with more options for managed and co-managed SD-WAN services.

Kevin Hart, Cox's former CTO, said fiber-focused Segra will pursue growth by expanding into adjacent areas, broadening its product slate and seeking opportunities in unserved and underserved markets.

Returning guest Mike Frane discusses the top-of-mind trends for enterprises this year around securely connecting the distributed workforce.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ericsson's Cloud RAN passes the audition; AccelerComm joins Small Cell Forum; TalkTalk rejigs wholesale team.

The updated SD-WAN standard includes new metrics for application performance within and across multiple service provider networks and supports application-based security outlined in MEF 88.

Each vendor, service provider, customer, etc. has their own take on the definition of the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), which makes it difficult to find a one-stop-shop that provides a full SASE suite, explains Verizon's Vincent Lee.

Ed Fox explains how MetTel's own approach to SASE has evolved and which components are key to any SASE service, such as Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). In addition, Fox shares how the service provider is working with customers making the shift from copper wire networks to fiber, cellular and VOIP networks.

Aryaka CMO Shashi Kiran says one reason the company has updated its SASE and SD-WAN service is to achieve an 'overarching goal of simplicity' and provide more choices for enterprises trying to balance their networking and security needs for a more distributed workforce.

Commercial customers are in a 'renew phase' as they move workloads into the cloud, shift to SD-WAN and continue to embrace remote access products and technologies, says Spectrum Enterprise's Bob Schroeder.

Sites Digest and Device Digest identify a baseline of network behavior and pinpoint any anomalous activity, says Windstream Enterprise's Mike Frane.

Lumen's uCPE focuses on improving and consolidating the delivery of IT applications and WAN management.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom tests hybrid 5G; Telefonica chosen by SMCP for SD-WAN and more; A1 Telekom Austria and the BBC snuggle up.

AT&T and Cisco are launching a new managed SASE service which brings together SD-WAN and Cisco's security portfolio.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia's Nuage Networks lands SD-WAN deal in Iraq; Telecom Italia takes out digital insurance; Swisscom gets its groove on.

Cato's largest funding round so far brings the SASE provider's total financing to $532 million.

SD-WAN product revenues reached $844 million in Q2, an increase of more than 30% year-over-year. This shows, overall, that the pandemic hasn't negatively impacted the SD-WAN market, says Omdia's Dominika Koncewicz.

While 64% of companies say they are using AIOps, ZK Research's Zeus Kerravala says many AIOps services are missing a key component - artificial intelligence.

The 2021 Leading Lights Awards winners have been announced during our online video ceremony where we linked together Light Reading's editors from all over the globe to announce the results.

Orange Business Services ranks first in Vertical Systems Group's SD-WAN Global Leaderboard, followed by AT&T, Verizon and NTT.

On the heels of MEF's recent update to its LSO Sonata APIs, Light Reading caught up with Colt's Fahim Sabir to hear more on what Sonata's facelift means for MEF's service provider members.

Extreme's CTO Nabil Bukhari discusses the company's decision to acquire Ipanema and its plans for entering the SD-WAN market.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange turns to Ericsson for mobile money boost; Vodafone, ITU combine on mobile Internet initiative in Africa and beyond; BT's emissions target moves closer.

This is the first SD-WAN service Logix is deploying; executives say security, network visibility and application prioritization are among key features.

Concerns around cost and ease of use stalled SD-WAN deployments for remote workers, but the tide is turning as remote access tools improve and enterprises budget for a long-term distributed workforce.

Light Reading editors discuss trends they're seeing, what's happening in the awards categories that they're judging and what they've learned from the contest entries as they dig in and prepare to announce this year's winners.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom lands new deal with Asahi; BT enters the quantum realm; MTN gets an upgrade from Nokia.

Light Reading is delighted to announce the finalists for this year's Leading Lights Awards program, which is now in its 17th year.

As an MPLS, VPN, SD-WAN and managed services provider, Masergy is a great fit for Comcast Business, says Vertical Systems Group's Rosemary Cochran.

Play for Masergy, a key supplier of SD-WAN and cloud services with more than 1,400 customers worldwide, aims to accelerate Comcast Business' plans to serve midsized and enterprise-level customers.

The acquisition is expected to close in October 2021.

Colt says Remote Access provides users with secure access to their business data and applications, based on their role or profile, from any location.

The patent-pending Performance Edge service is aimed at assisting home workers, SD-WAN, SASE and MPLS customers in improving their broadband performance by reducing packet loss.

The vendor is still finding it difficult to make headway against SD-WAN incumbents such as Cisco and VMware.

MEF says certifications are up 75% since May 2020 among service providers - of the 60 certifications, 42 are service providers.

This brings SASE supplier Versa Network's total funding raised to a cool $196 million.

While enterprises might not be familiar with Gartner's terminology around SASE, many do see the combining of networking and security services as an important step for their businesses.

Windstream Enterprise plans to make VMware's new cloud-based security service available to its SD-WAN customers later this year.

Performance on the Internet middle mile, once the network service provider's problem in the MPLS network, is now a concern for the enterprise, writes TeleGeography's Greg Bryan.

Secucloud provides Aryaka with a SASE platform that includes a cloud-based firewall-as-a-service, DNS security and secure web gateway with advanced threat protection capabilities.

Partnering with a tier 1 service provider is a new move for Cato, which historically competed with telcos on the SD-WAN front and dubbed itself the 'un-carrier' of managed SD-WAN services.

The service provider is launching the new teleworker SD-WAN service to address a growing hybrid workforce that is accessing business applications both on-premises and in the home.

MetTel CTO Ed Fox discusses how the service providers' customers are balancing the use of collaboration applications, SD-WAN, VPNs and SASE to support their employees working on-premises and remotely.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Italy reconsiders single network plan; Nokia squints into the middle distance; Post Luxembourg taps Smartoptics.

Versa says the update to Versa Titan will now provide businesses with small or 'Lean IT' teams with access to all of Versa's secure access service edge (SASE) capabilities, which includes a Secure Web Gateway (SWG) and local firewall access for home workers.

'The requirement for a completely new architecture for developing service products and then delivering and managing them became apparent to me,' says CEO Harley Stowell.

While enterprise customers are quickly adopting SD-WAN, Colt's Peter Coppens says the wholesale market has faced unique challenges in delivering SD-WAN services versus MPLS.

Tune in to the podcast to hear from MNJ's COO Ben Niernberg on how the SD-WAN market is evolving, and how COVID-19 is impacting customer demand for unified communications services.

Juniper says that by now bringing telemetry data from Session Smart Routers into the Mist AI engine, customers can better manage service levels across the WAN, and proactively detect anomalies to improve user experience.

Windstream Enterprise is backing the new customer commitment with contract flexibility, free upgrades and guaranteed 100% uptime for customers of both its OfficeSuite UC and SD-WAN Concierge services.

Verizon Business is expanding its SD-WAN services by providing customers with the options of co-managed Cisco SD-WAN by Viptela, managed SD-WAN by Viptela for the Cisco ISR1100 Series platform, and new managed service tiers for Cisco Meraki.

A new report reveals that comprehensive network performance management across legacy and SD-WAN deployments will be key to driving successful managed services.

Over 60% of enterprises aim to increase or significantly increase their SD-WAN usage this year, and 59% plan to increase MPLS usage in 2021, Avant study finds.

Fortinet has added 300 new features to its operating system, including updates to ZTNA, SD-WAN, SASE and more.

Charter taps Cisco's platform for modular, national service offering for SMB and enterprise customers, while Comcast uses it to expand on its new teleworker product.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia and Vodafone tout 100G technology; Orange explains the point of 5G; Aryaka notches wins; who's using 5G in the UK?

SPONSORED: The findings from Heavy Reading's "The Carriers Speak" report show that both the key differentiators and challenges for SD-WAN managed services focus on how to meet enterprise business needs.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: O2 toots 5G trumpet; BNP Paribas goes with Orange for SD-WAN; small cells help big ships.

SPONSORED: Findings from Heavy Reading's 'The Carriers Speak: The Future of Managed SD-WAN Services' report suggest that SD-WAN SPs are focused on automating processes to accelerate growth of the service and monetize it more effectively.

Silver Peak has a number of other features that Verizon hopes will appeal to customers including improved management and access to cloud applications.

Verizon initially will provide services including Wi-Fi and SD-WAN, but company officials said the deal sets the stage for other, more advanced products like edge computing.

The managed service integrates with Aryaka's SASE and SD-WAN services, with the goal of providing teleworkers with reliable, high-performance access to their enterprise applications.

Omdia expects uCPE revenues to more than triple to reach $93.5 million in 2021 and then $1.78 billion by 2024. Enterprise SD-WAN is a key driver of all that growth.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ziggo adds probes to boost network performance; Colt upgrades its SD-WAN offering; Iskratel touts new OLT for easier virtualization.

Once the process of bringing 128 into Juniper amps up next year, it will be clearer how this acquisition repositions Juniper in the WAN space, and whether this move can improve Juniper's service provider business.

Frost & Sullivan's Roopa Honnachari explains how COVID-19 has impacted growth in the SD-WAN and cloud services markets, plus her forecasts for growth over the next few years.

This brings total funding to $332 million for the Israel-based secure access service edge (SASE) provider. In addition, Cato claims the company is valued at $1 billion.

In addition to examining the evolution of UCaaS, Niernberg explains how a managed approach to SASE assists enterprises in navigating the crowded market of so many security and SD-WAN vendors.

In addition to the firewalls protecting network traffic at a packet level, Masergy is providing customers with Fortinet's secure web gateway (SWG) service for IP traffic protection at the application level in the cloud and on-premises.

Vertical Systems Group's Erin Dunne explains how organizations such as MEF are impacting the standardization of SD-WAN, and shares predictions on how the SD-WAN market might fare in 2021.