Versa Networks' SD-WAN platform now supports IPv6

Versa Networks' SD-WAN supports IPv6

Versa Networks has added IPv6 support to its SD-WAN and software-defined security platforms.

Kumar Mehta, Versa's founder and chief development officer, said the decision to support IPv6 is a reflection of growing customer demand. According to one industry gauge, IPv6 addresses today make up around 26% of overall traffic, and the new protocol continues to gains traction globally.

By retooling its products to support IPv6 as well as IPv4, Versa is making it possible for companies to make a transition without reconstructing their existing WAN designs, said Mark Weiner, Versa's chief marketing officer.

"My guess is SD-WAN is going to be the main WAN architecture for a dozen up to 20 years, so it's great that you can put this [SD-WAN] in as your architecture, and you're ready for IPv6 -- whether you need it now, or whether you need it a year or two from now," Weiner said.

Also on Versa Networks' radar is the ever-growing internet of things (IoT). Weiner said Versa sees the need to help enable and accommodate IoT, especially in regard to meeting the demand for more addresses. Weiner said having an SD-WAN portfolio that supports IPv6 will help accommodate the billions of device addresses that will need to be managed, but Weiner said Versa will also keep an eye on specific IoT use cases as they evolve.

ONUG presents list of speakers for spring conference

The Open Networking User Group released its speaker lineup for the upcoming ONUG Spring 2017 conference. Gap Inc. is hosting the ONUG conference at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco on April 25 and 26. The conference theme will once again focus on digital transformation and how the networking industry can benefit and adapt with the changes.

Rathi Murthy, Gap's senior vice president and chief technical officer, is slotted to kick off the conference with an overview of how Gap has focused on software-defined and cloud industry transitions.

Conference attendees can also expect to hear updates about various ONUG working groups, including Open Hybrid Cloud and Open SD-WAN Exchange. Adrian Cockcroft, Amazon's vice president of cloud architecture strategy, and John Considine, general manager of cloud infrastructure services at IBM, are involved in the Open Hybrid Cloud working group and will present their experience with the public cloud and user requirements.

"ONUG Spring will address the topics of most interest to innovative IT leaders with questions around architecting their own infrastructure to take advantage of the changing industry and deliver digital transformation value," Nick Lippis, ONUG co-founder and co-chairman, said in a statement. "The spring agenda encourages even more interaction and engagement from the community to further spark dialogue and effectuate change."

MegaPath expands its managed SD-WAN services

MegaPath Cloud Company said it is expanding its managed SD-WAN offerings for enterprises and small and medium-sized businesses with the addition of SD-WAN Pro and SD-WAN Enterprise. The company, based in Pleasanton, Calif., already offers a variety of networking and security services, including managed Wi-Fi, but made the move to provide a more flexible SD-WAN deployment roadmap to its customers.

SD-WAN Pro is geared to branch-level private networks, while SD-WAN Enterprise supports business-critical voice and video services in enterprises with multiple site locations, the company said. The two SD-WAN offerings share multiple features like link monitoring, Wi-Fi management, and 3G and 4G failover. SD-WAN Enterprise allows more WAN connection links than SD-WAN Pro and also includes bidirectional priority routing, voice and real-time application failover, and managed internet access. MegaPath's SD-WAN services begin at $57 per month, the company said in the statement.

Earlier this year, MegaPath partnered with VeloCloud, adding that vendor's connectivity options to its repertoire.