Cradlepoint partnership to deliver SASE to Wireless WAN Edge

Cradlepoint, a global provider of cloud-delivered LTE and 5G wireless network edge solutions, has entered into a technology partnership with Palo Alto Networks to provide Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) functionality for wireless WANs.

A new Cradlepoint NetCloud integration will allow customers to connect its wireless edge routers to Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma Access cloud-delivered security platform, providing businesses with a combination of wireless reach and reliability with SASE security.

As organisations move beyond the branch to connect things everywhere and workers in vehicles, on the road and at home, SASE — the convergence of cloud, application and network security — is helpful for the enterprise. Gartner predicts that by 2021, at least 40% of enterprises will have explicit strategies to adopt SASE.

In response, Cradlepoint has integrated its NetCloud Service and portfolio of wireless edge routers with a SASE solution powered by Palo Alto Networks. This will allow enterprises to deploy a unified SASE solution across the entire Wireless WAN, including LTE and 5G connected branch sites, mobile vehicles and IoT devices.

Marc Bresniker, VP of product management at Cradlepoint, said the enterprise WAN is no longer constrained to wired connections, with businesses needing a unified edge security model that can go where their WAN does.

“This is the promise of cloud-native SASE technology, and Palo Alto and Cradlepoint are joining forces to deliver it simply and seamlessly for the Wireless WAN era,” Bresniker said.

The integration of the Palo Alto Networks Prisma portfolio with Cradlepoint’s LTE or 5G cellular routers and adapters addresses a range of enterprise WAN use cases at the branch and beyond, in a variety of industries.

The Prisma Access integration extends SASE security to branch sites utilising LTE or 5G as a primary connection, mobile networks, such as pop-up and in-vehicle networks, and IoT devices. Combining Cradlepoint LTE and 5G adapters with the Prisma SD-WAN branch solution delivers a hybrid WAN with the uptime and application performance optimisation needed for cloud access and a pathway to 5G.

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a sudden shift of workers from on-site to remote work environments. With this fundamental change in the way, businesses need to extend their SASE architecture to the new ‘employee edge’ to mitigate the significantly increased attack surface and enable direct cloud access.

Cradlepoint’s Work from Anywhere (WFX) solution combines a dedicated, IT-managed wireless WAN and Wi-Fi network to connect employees and corporate-owned devices anywhere with Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma Access. The result is a scalable, IT-controlled WFX solution that is easy to centrally provision and manage, and utilises SASE for all applications and devices.

Cradlepoint’s new automated integration for Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma Access is available with any NetCloud Service Plan.

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