When I see news about solutions provider Versa Networks, my mind instinctively hops to “OK, what’s the latest award?”

Trends create meaningful recognition. So, when Versa rakes in awards, why wouldn’t it be one’s first thought that they earned another?

Versa Networks, as I detailed in a recent article, has been on a hot streak, both awards-wise and innovations-wise, to boot. The renowned SASE vendor has:

• Earned its official Recommend Rating from CyberRatings
• Been listed by Gartner (News - Alert) as a reputable Sample Vendor for Universal ZTNA
• Become a Leader, according to Forrester (News - Alert), for Zero Trust Edge Solutions

And it doesn’t stop there. Though in today’s case, it’s less about a new award and more about what’s new to Versa that may earn more recognition down the road.

Versa Networks has proudly announced a new set of enhancements for its VersaAI. The new capabilities – which we’ll detail in just a moment – are, per the company, “powered by a shared set of fine-tuned AI/ML engines natively integrated into the Versa Unified SASE platform” are used across its award-winning product portfolio.

So, why new AI-assisted innovations?

Versa knows that, in today’s business environments, networks and security (i.e. as key areas when separate and when considered jointly) are indispensable. However, the infrastructure to deliver these services has grown massively complexity-wise and risks-wise due to the rise of public cloud ecosystems, SaaS (News - Alert) application prevalence, and more. Networking and security teams face barrages of threats from bad actors, as well as the undue hindrances of outages.

Threats and outages can be debilitating and super expensive. According to CSO Online and IBM, the average cost of a data breach hit an all-time global high of $4.45 million this year, a 2.3% increase from 2020. So, breaches impact wallets and brand perception in lockstep, and outright outages are known to cost up to $300,000 per hour, in some cases.

Thus, companies like Versa recognize – in the face of such overwhelm – an intervention by increasingly valuable AI systems is in order.

That’s the backdrop: VersaAI delivers advanced pros against cons that are part-and-parcel ticks on the hide of forward-thinking industries.

With VersaAI, customers can access a comprehensive set of tools for protecting against threats and keeping sensitive data safe. The integration of VersaAI capabilities into the existing Versa Unified SASE platform will benefit both NetOps and SecOps alike.

So, what specifically is new to Versa Networks via VersaAI for security and networking use cases?

• VersaAI for Security is built on current UEBA and AIOps modules that quickly identify threats and anomalous behaviors, delivering in tow actionable insights for accelerated remediation. This includes AI/ML-Enhanced Malware Detection for Advanced Threat Protection, plus AI-Powered Adaptive Microsegmentation for enforcing Zero Trust conditional access controls when it comes to users, IT and OT devices, and other resources. Versa deploys multi-stage AI/ML for real-time pre-processing of files and code snippets to identify malware, too. Also, a GenAI upgrade for Versa delivers granular, policy-based controls for tools like ChatGPT to further help enterprises protect against unauthorized access and user actions.
   
• VersaAI for Networking is built on Verbo (an NLP-based chatbot) and VANI (a specialized ML core for detecting and predicting anomalies), and the features here include automated troubleshooting, reduced network downtime, etc. This also now includes VersaGPT for easing daily ops via GenAI-powered access to Versa’s documentation and knowledge base. This guides users’ experiences as they more reliably access how-to guides, configuration info, recommendations, and other support.

“With our vast SASE deployment base,” said Versa Networks Chief Development Officer Kumar Mehta, “we’re extremely excited about the potential our new AI capabilities yet have in store. At Versa, we remain committed to continuous innovation by helping the customers in need to harness the potential of AI for better networking, better security, and better overall business outcomes.”

Read more here.