Broadcom has delivered its 2023 teaser of integration between VMware's SD-WAN and Symantec's Security Service Edge, debuting "VMware VeloCloud SASE, Secured by Symantec" today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Symantec Security Service Edge is already classified as a SASE, or Secure Access Service Edge – a term coined by analyst firm Gartner, which defines it as a “converged network and security as a service, including software-defined WAN, secure web gateway, cloud access security broker, next generation firewall and zero trust network access." VMware also offered its own SASE, but that offering was tailored to the needs of its Workspace ONE end-user suite. More on that later.

VMware's VeloCloud SD-WAN is well-regarded, and arguably superior to Symantec's counterpart—if only because it's decently integrated with the VMware NSX network virtualization suite. And since Broadcom's strategy for VMware is to let customers buy more of vStack, it makes sense to bring VeloCloud SD-WAN into the mix.

And so there we have it: first confirmation that Broadcom is planning at least one cross-pollination among its various software brands. However, we can't say whether this is an improvement over either VMware's or Symantec's existing SASEs – there simply aren't enough details publicly available to make that call.