on Posted on Reading Time: 4 minutes
Service providers building SASE offerings bring together technology, connectivity, and operational expertise to meet enterprise requirements. Customers need confidence in the security technologies behind those services, and providers need a credible way to demonstrate that confidence. Mplify’s SASE certification inheritance model connects independent technology validation with the services providers bring to market, giving eligible offerings a streamlined path to certification.
At Mplify’s Member Summit Americas held in Boston 23-24 September, a panel on evolving certification explored its role in product development, ecosystem collaboration, and customer trust. The discussion provides useful context for certification inheritance: the value starts with independently tested technology and extends into how service providers define, position, and sell their offerings.
A business case that begins with the service
During the Boston panel, Chetan Narang, Director, AI Product Strategy at Colt, identified three areas where certification creates value: product development, interoperability, and customer credibility. Standards help providers define their products and establish a foundation for lifecycle automation, while validation against neutral specifications gives customers a reason to trust the offering. He described certification as a common language that helps define the product, connect the ecosystem, and build trust with the customer.
That perspective is especially relevant to service providers assembling SASE offerings from technology partners. Their commercial proposition depends partly on capabilities supplied by other organizations. Certification provides a recognized basis for explaining the validation behind those capabilities, and inheritance gives providers a route to certification for services using eligible certified technologies. It connects technology selection with a customer-facing service credential.
The commercial value becomes more tangible when providers use certification in customer conversations. A public registry listing and certification marks help make the certification status visible in proposals, sales materials, and procurement discussions. Providers can identify which components are certified and explain the scope of the validation supporting their offering. This gives customers a clearer basis for evaluation and providers a concrete way to differentiate their services.
The independent testing behind inheritance
The foundation of inheritance is the testing performed on technology provider solutions. Mplify SASE Certification addresses Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), Security Service Edge (SSE), and Zero Trust, with eligible technologies evaluated against open, industry-defined requirements for security, service functionality, and performance. Service providers using those eligible certified technologies can inherit the corresponding certifications after Mplify validates eligibility.
Speaking at the Boston panel, Samaresh Nair, Director, Product Management at Palo Alto Networks, explained that certification helps reassure customers that their investment delivers the protection promised by the technology provider. Independent testing also helps technology providers identify and address gaps in their solutions, strengthening the protection they deliver to customers. His comments highlight the importance of the evaluation behind the certification and the evidence it gives providers to support customer confidence.
Mplify’s work with SecureIQLab as its Accredited Test and Certification Partner supports that foundation. SecureIQLab brings independent cybersecurity evaluation expertise to testing eligible solutions and works with Mplify to advance the methodology as technologies, risks, and enterprise requirements evolve. For service providers pursuing inheritance, the value rests on this independent validation of the underlying technologies. Testing takes place in the technology provider environment; the inheritance process does not require additional service provider testing or live network testing.
A certification path that fits the portfolio
Inheritance supports different service portfolios. Providers can inherit SD-WAN, SSE, or Zero Trust certification individually, or achieve full SASE certification by inheriting all three. They can also inherit eligible certifications from one or more technology providers, allowing the certification path to accommodate services built with multiple technology partners.
For example, a provider offering a service based on eligible certified SD-WAN technology can pursue SD-WAN service certification through inheritance. A provider using eligible certified SD-WAN, SSE, and Zero Trust technologies can pursue full SASE service certification, subject to Mplify’s validation. This flexibility allows providers to align certification with the scope of the services they offer.
The process begins by engaging Mplify to discuss the offering and appropriate certification scope. The service provider then completes an inheritance questionnaire, identifying the certified technologies supporting its service. Mplify validates eligibility and, once approved, certifies the service and publishes the certification in the public registry. These four stages, request, declare, validate, and certify, establish a defined route from initial engagement to published certification.
This approach lets providers build on technology testing already completed through the program. The resulting service certification makes that relationship visible to customers and partners, while Mplify’s eligibility review provides the link between the certified technology and the service seeking inheritance.
Building confidence across the NaaS ecosystem
The broader Boston discussion also addressed why certification matters as infrastructure becomes more distributed. Dawn Howell, Director, Interconnection Product Management at Equinix, described customers operating across clouds, private data centers, edge locations, and AI providers. In that environment, standards define how capabilities should work together, and certification gives businesses confidence in the capabilities they depend on.
For SASE service providers, this reinforces the importance of being able to explain the security technologies supporting connections across environments. As enterprise applications, data, and AI workloads become more distributed, providers must bring together capabilities from across their partner ecosystems. Independently validated technologies contribute to the trusted foundation for those services and to Mplify’s broader work on NaaS for AI and AI-ready digital infrastructure. Inheritance gives providers a practical way to connect that foundation with their own service portfolios. By selecting eligible certified technologies and completing Mplify’s validation process, they can establish a recognized certification status for their services and communicate it clearly to the market.
Learn More
- Explore Mplify’s SASE Certification for service providers.
- What can you achieve with Mplify’s SASE certification?
- Read more about:
- SD-WAN certifications for service providers
- SSE certifications for service providers
- Zero Trust certifications for service providers
- See Mplify’s latest SASE press release highlighting our new Accredited Test and Certification Partner, SecureIQLab: Mplify Strengthens SASE Certification for Secure NaaS and AI-Ready Digital Infrastructure