Study finds Versa Networks helps reap rewards of 130% ROI

Versa Networks, the recognised secure access service edge (SASE) leader, has announced findings from a commissioned Total Economic Impact (TEI) study conducted by Forrester Consulting.

The study, Total Economic Impact of Dell Virtual Edge Platform (VEP), commissioned by Dell Technologies, revealed that organisations using Dell VEPs powered by Intel processors running Versa Operating System (VOS) realise benefits of $1.53 million over three years versus costs of $663,000, resulting in a net present value (NPV) of $864,000 and a return on investment (ROI) of 130%, with the combined solution paying for itself in nine months.

To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed four enterprise customers with experience using Dell VEPs powered by Intel processors running Versa Operating System (VOS) in a secure software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) environment.

To create a framework to quantify benefits, Forrester constructed a financial model representative of the interviews using the TEI methodology and risk-adjusted the financial model based on issues and concerns of the interviewees' organisations. The model measured a three-year ROI based on customer and Forrester interviews, and financial analysis.

According to the study, "By implementing the Dell VEP devices running the Versa Operating System (VOS), users can enhance their existing digital networking stack to promote the efficiency of data transfer throughout their organisations.

"The senior network engineer for a localisation, translation, and videogame testing organisation said: 'The preinstalled Versa software offers remote-access VPN. With our Dell VEP devices already in place, we can easily start utilising that without having to buy anything else.'

The independent study found that prior to using Dell VEP and Versa, the organisations used a combination of networking technologies and vendors to manage their networks. Their solutions were limited, slow, and lacked newer technology integrations. Outages were frequent and expensive, and management continually fielded complaints regarding connection speed and downtime. The organisations also faced global supply chain and product quality issues.

According to the study, "The central platform for managing the combined Dell VEP, Intel, and Versa solution allows organisations to monitor and gather accurate data across all appliances and realise efficiencies in responding to that data. One manager explained: 'With the Dell VEP and Versa combination, we get components that manage the whole solution, all the appliances at all the sites and all the configurations. Now we can do that all in one place, whereas before, it was going to every single router when you needed to make a change. So the centralised management, logging, and reporting have been key to us.'

Based on the interviews, Forrester constructed a TEI framework, a composite company, and an ROI analysis that illustrates the areas financially affected. The composite company is representative of the four companies that Forrester interviewed and is used to present the aggregate financial analysis.

According to the study, with Dell VEP devices powered by Intel processors running VOS, organisations found a cost-effective solution that met networking requirements, supported their SD-WAN strategy, and came from a vendor that could deliver reliably worldwide.

Quantified benefits attributable to Dell VEP and Versa include:

• Avoided unnecessary purchases, with a three-year total savings of $216,000
• Employee productivity gains from improved supply chain, with a three-year total savings of $237,500
• IT resource time saved, with a three-year total savings of $335,160
• Multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) cost savings, with a three-year total savings of $1,058,063

Unquantified benefits that customers experience include a reliable partnership with Dell; centralised management, reporting and logging; improved visibility and analytics; upgraded security posture; enhanced user experience due to improved traffic steering; and flexibility.

A director of IT network infrastructure at an oil and gas equipment and services organisation commented on the combined value of Dell VEP and VOS SD-WAN: "The benefit is that I have a central policy and can push it everywhere. The activation of a device at a new location is a lot easier as well. You just pull the configuration from the directory - you don't have to individually program it.

Michael Wood, chief marketing officer for Versa Networks, says, "The customers featured in this study have established Versa as their strategic partner for addressing their complex secure access, networking and digital transformation needs.

"Versa SASE delivers unique integration of networking and security SASE services - including SD-WAN - via the cloud or, if customers prefer, delivered on-premises or as a blended combination of both. We feel this study by Forrester Consulting highlights the experiences of our customers and affirms the employee productivity gains, IT resource time saved, and upgraded security posture that organisations can achieve with Versa.

Versa SASE delivers tightly integrated services via the cloud, on-premises, or as a blended combination of both via VOS with a Single-Pass Parallel Processing architecture and managed through a single pane of glass.

Versa began delivering SASE services such as VPN, Secure SD-WAN, Edge Compute Protection, Next-Generation Firewall, Next-Generation Firewall as a Service, Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and zero trust network access (ZTNA) more than five years ago.

Versa provides contextual security based on user, role, device, application, location, security posture of the device, and content.