Broadcom repackages VMware SASE, adds Symantec security

Broadcom wasted little time putting an old stamp on newly integrated VMware product – VMware VeloCloud SASE, secured by Symantec – aimed at helping customers secure highly distributed network resources.

The single-vendor SASE offering revives VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN branding and ties that technology with Broadcom’s Symantec Enterprise Cloud security service edge offering to create a secure WAN connectivity package. Broadcom officially acquired VMware last November for $69 billion and bought Symantec’s enterprise security business for $10.7 billion in November 2019.

The VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN software includes SASE, SD-WAN and software-defined cloud access to a global network of points of presence. It features a number of gateway and edge access control technologies, such as Dynamic Multipath Optimization for real-time application delivery and VMware Edge Cloud Orchestrator for centralized installation, configuration, monitoring, and data flow instrumentation.

The Symantec Enterprise Cloud is a security architecture that includes a variety of components, including its own SASE features such as a secure web gateway, zero trust network access (ZTNA), data loss prevention (DLP), cloud access security broker (CASB), and endpoint protection products. 

“For enterprise-class customers, critical benefits of Symantec include management flexibility to enforce internet access by device, user, app, and location,” wrote Abe Ankumah, vice president and general manager for the SD-WAN and SASE business in the software-defined edge division of Broadcom, in a blog about the news. 

“Symantec can detect and block malware hidden in encrypted traffic, applying real-time threat intelligence, risk-level ratings, deep file inspection, and sandboxing. Symantec’s web isolation technology can block sophisticated and targeted web threats,” Ankumah wrote.

The idea of integrating VeloCloud and Symantec technologies is to help enterprises handle the networking and security requirements of complex distributed environments where applications can reside anywhere: data center, public cloud, at the edge, or sourced directly from SaaS vendors, Ankumah wrote. 

“VeloCloud SD-WAN can automatically recognize over 4,300 applications and ensure the correct treatment depending on local last-mile conditions. VeloCloud SD-WAN can also dynamically remediate problems at each location without IT intervention,” Ankumah stated.

A distributed enterprise architecture can significantly increase the points of entry for a breach. VMware VeloCloud SASE, secured by Symantec, which is available now, makes it easy for enterprises to automatically hand off traffic to the nearest Symantec security enforcement points, Ankumah stated. “For enterprise-class customers, critical benefits of Symantec include management flexibility to enforce internet access by device, user, app, and location,” Ankumah stated.

The VeloCloud package was part of a larger Broadcom product introduction at the Mobile World Congress 2024 conference this week, which includes improvements to the VMware Telco Cloud Platform and other service provider-related offerings.