AT&T will offer a converged network and security management suite called SASE with Cisco, an effort to boost the operator’s managed services business by helping enterprises safely connect users across locations and devices.

Cisco and AT&T both independently offer secure access service edge (SASE), which combines a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) with dedicated security hardware and firewall services, as well as a cloud access security broker.

“It’s important to provide customers with a choice of managed SASE solutions to meet their unique needs”, stated Rupesh Chokshi, VP, AT&T Cybersecurity. The combined solution will enable enterprises to optimise their networks on a site-by-site basis and dynamically route traffic across multiple WAN connections, the operator stated.

Shailaja Shankar, SVP and GM, Cisco Security Business Group, said the combined solution will “provide customers with an innovative way to gain seamless, secure access to any application, from any location in a way that is straightforward to procure, easy to set up, and simple to use and manage through a single cloud dashboard”.

AT&T explained the converged offering has three components: a cloud-delivered overlay WAN architecture, a zero trust network access (ZTNA) solution, and a secure web gateway.

The operator noted customers will be able to use the solution to control access for any device on any network and apply consistent security policies across users.

The SASE offering is the latest in a series of collaborations between AT&T and Cisco. The two have also partnered to create tools for monitoring and controlling IoT devices on 5G networks, and AT&T Business offers Cisco’s Webex cloud-based videoconferencing software.