Charlie Chan (StarHub)
Singaporean telecommunications provider StarHub has launched a new managed secure access service edge (SASE) offering thanks to a partnership with cyber security vendor Palo Alto Networks.
The StarHub Managed SASE offering, combined with Palo Alto Network’s cloud-delivered security platform, Prisma Access, is designed to help enterprises simplify and automate cyber threat protection and multi-site network management as they operate with and connect through various cloud environments.
“Palo Alto Networks is thrilled to be partnering StarHub to provide enterprises with best-in-class security services,” said Claribel Chai, Palo Alto Networks Singapore country manager. “With Prisma Access, the industry’s most complete cloud-delivered security platform, StarHub's enterprise customers can benefit from a scalable way of enabling secure remote access for every user at any location.
“By consolidating networking and security capabilities into a single platform, StarHub Managed SASE simplifies the delivery of comprehensive and consistent cloud security for customers,” she added.
Credit: StarHub Broadly, the integrated offering, which is fully managed by StarHub, is aimed at helping businesses strengthen their security posture while reducing networking complexity and cost.
The new service, released for enterprise customers on 31 May, is designed to give users access to an easy-to-use online portal to fortify their network perimeter and gain consistent threat prevention, web filtering, DNS security and data protection policies across their entire infrastructure.
As part of StarHub’s integrated approach, enterprises can also aggregate a combination of wired and wireless data connectivity – both existing and new – by setting up SD-WAN with StarHub Managed SASE.
Controlled by software, the offering is designed to give users full visibility over the performance of their networks, with StarHub claiming it can dynamically manage networking deployment and bandwidth to adapt to changing business needs.
According to Charlie Chan, StarHub enterprise business group chief, the new offering represents a challenge to more traditional hardware-based security solutions.
“We recognise that due to the massive shift to remote work, enterprise security and IT teams are re-strategising and transforming their infrastructure to serve more people accessing corporate systems from wherever they are, often over unsecured connections,” Chan said.
“In response, we are challenging traditional hardware-based security and network designs in collaboration with Palo Alto Networks, to offer our enterprise customers significantly simpler and more flexible security, managed as-a-service.
“By moving to the cloud with StarHub, enterprises can deploy customisable security policies company-wide and scale network resources up or down according to bandwidth demands, all without the hassle of hardware ownership and managing multiple vendors,” he added.
In April last year, StarHub partnered with Hong Kong-based PCCW Solutions to spearhead internal IT transformation plans through the adoption of “agile and digital” technologies. Terms of the alliance saw PCCW Solutions help rationalise legacy IT platforms and systems, in addition to operating in-house applications and infrastructure.
The modernisation strategy was also expected to result in the deployment of emerging technologies such as data virtualisation, artificial intelligence (AI), low-code, DevOps, analytics and 5G, with a dedicated team set to transfer from StarHub to PCCW Solutions to oversee the process.
In June 2020, StarHub joined forces with Silver Peak to deliver SD-WAN technologies across the enterprise market in Singapore, operating as a “one-stop service provider partner”.
