New research backs the strategic rationale. Versa’s inaugural State of SASE + AI Report, a survey of 525 senior IT and security decision-makers at U.S. enterprises, found that 35% of organizations suffered a breach in the past year tied to coordination gaps between networking and security teams. Nearly three quarters (73%) say technical integration complexity has delayed or derailed a critical project. Some 99% have named convergence a strategic priority, yet only 30% have done it.
“AI and digital sovereignty are fundamentally changing what customers have to do and what needs to happen,” Kelly Ahuja, CEO of Versa Networks, told Network World.
What the research found
Versa’s report covers organizations across financial services, retail, energy, manufacturing, healthcare, technology and government. Key findings:
- 35% reported a security breach in the past year linked to coordination gaps between networking and security teams
- 53% report higher operational costs from managing redundant tools
- 73% say technical integration complexity has delayed or derailed a critical project
- 99% have named convergence a strategic priority, but only 30% have implemented shared ownership of SASE strategy
- 95% say AI is forcing networking and security teams to collaborate more closely
- 58% cite strengthening security posture as the top driver for convergence, compared to 19% who cited lowering total cost of ownership
Organizations running 50 or more vendors are nearly twice as likely to report delayed application rollouts as those with leaner stacks (61% vs. 34%) and more likely to report inconsistent policy enforcement (57% vs. 40%).
