Both products received “AAA” Ratings, the highest achievable overall score.
Austin, TX – August 26, 2024 – CyberRatings.org (CyberRatings), the non-profit entity dedicated to providing confidence in cybersecurity products and services through its research and testing programs, has completed an independent test of two market-leading Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) products: Forcepoint FlexEdge Secure SD-WAN and Versa Networks Secure SD-WAN.
SD-WAN technology helps organizations achieve operational savings by enabling remote configuration of new locations rather than requiring engineers to be onsite. Many vendors offer zero-touch provisioning (ZTP), where onsite engineering expertise is optional, other than the ability to connect a device to the appropriate internal and external links and power up the device. Once online, the device will call “home” to either headquarters or a cloud configuration service to download the operational configuration.
The testing combination of devices consisted of a high availability pair at the head-end, corporate headquarters representing Branch 1, a regional office (Branch 2), and a retail outlet (Branch 3). Each use case was tested for traffic content, throughput, transport, and impairments to see how the SD-WAN performed. A “AAA” score was based on Management, Routing & Access Control, Stability & Reliability, and the Mean Opinion Score (MOS).
Maximum MOS scores for Voice Over IP (VoIP/audio) are 4.41 and 4.53 for video. Forcepoint achieved a 4.40 MOS score for audio and a 4.48 score for video. Versa’s MOS score for audio was 4.41 and 4.37 for video.
“These are mature, full-featured SD-WAN products that proved to be highly efficient,” said Vikram Phatak, CEO of CyberRatings.org. “Enterprises should have them on their shortlist.”
Key Findings for both the Forcepoint and Versa Networks products:
- Management and Deployment: Effectively supported Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP), facilitating remote configuration and deployment across multiple branches.
- Routing and Policy Enforcement: Successfully enforced simple and complex network policies, including site-to-site VPNs and direct internet access, ensuring secure and efficient traffic routing.
- Quality of Experience: Delivered consistent MOS for audio and video, even when subjected to various WAN impairments such as packet loss, delay, and reordering.
- Capacity and Performance: Handled traffic loads well and achieved high throughput with minimal latency.
- Stability and Reliability: Maintained operational stability under extended adverse conditions and high traffic loads preserving state and ensuring the continued passage of traffic.
Keysight provided its CyPerf, BreakingPoint and Network Emulator tools to test performance, TLS functionality, stability and impairment.
The in-depth Forcepoint and Versa Networks SD-WAN test reports with scores for Management, Routing & Access Control, Stability & Reliability, and the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) are available at cyberratings.org.