Macquarie Telecom & Netskope expand Australian SASE

Macquarie Telecom and Netskope have expanded their partnership to deliver a unified Secure Access Service Edge offering for Australian organisations, adding Netskope's SD-WAN to Macquarie Telecom's existing service.

The expanded arrangement combines networking and security in a single managed offering for mid-market and enterprise customers in Australia. It is intended to give customers one platform and one management view across networks, users, data and cloud activity.

The partnership began with the integration of Netskope's Security Service Edge platform into Macquarie Telecom's SASE offer. The latest step builds on that by adding software-defined wide area networking, used to connect offices, users and cloud services across distributed environments.

Under the model, Macquarie Telecom acts as the managed service provider, while Netskope supplies the underlying security and networking technology. The service is intended to reduce the need for organisations to buy separate tools from multiple vendors.

The move comes as businesses and public sector bodies face pressure to secure remote access, cloud use and the growing adoption of artificial intelligence tools. The companies also pointed to Australian regulatory obligations, including the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act and the Essential Eight framework, as factors shaping customer demand.

Netskope's infrastructure includes more than 120 full-compute data centres globally, including seven in Australia. According to the companies, this network supports consistent latency and policy enforcement for users in different locations.

The combined offer also includes controls for AI use, allowing organisations to set security policies around how staff access and use AI services. Netskope has been developing products in this area as companies look for ways to allow experimentation with AI while limiting exposure of sensitive data.

Marija Harris outlined Macquarie Telecom's view of the market shift.

"Our partnership with Netskope has validated our conviction that Australian organisations want and deserve enterprise-grade, unified security without the complexity. We're now able to offer our customers one platform, one portal, and the confidence that their security policies follow them wherever they work," said Marija Harris, Group Executive at Macquarie Telecom.

She added: "With Netskope's industry-leading security and networking capabilities combined with Macquarie Telecom's own long-standing expertise in SD-WAN deployment, government-grade security, and highly regarded customer service, we are uniquely positioned to help Australian organisations keep operations simple and manageable as they strengthen their cyber defences to adopt cloud and AI."

Market demand

Macquarie Telecom is already working with dozens of organisations across sectors including professional services, healthcare, aged care, retail, consultancy, manufacturing and logistics. That spread suggests demand is not limited to heavily regulated industries, but extends to businesses managing distributed workforces, cloud applications and tighter cyber requirements.

For suppliers, the appeal of a single-vendor SASE model lies in simpler procurement and operations. Many IT teams still manage separate products for network connectivity, secure web access, cloud application control and policy management, often across multiple dashboards and support arrangements.

Netskope positioned the partnership as a response to that management burden, particularly as security teams are being asked to support faster AI deployment while maintaining control over data movement and user access.

"IT, I&O and security teams are navigating complex and often conflicting dynamics, such as the balance between aggressive AI adoption and security, that make IT management and decision-making difficult," said Andrew Heywood, Channel Director APAC at Netskope.

He added: "Through this extended partnership we aim to help Australian organisations reconcile security and networking priorities, simplify their management, and keep associated tools robust and relevant in the future. Our positive results to date are a sign that our proposition is resonating with the market, and we look forward to helping more organisations navigate the security and network challenges of the AI era with the Macquarie Telecom team."

Partner focus

The expansion also reflects the growing importance of channel and managed service relationships in the cyber and networking market. Rather than selling software alone, vendors are increasingly relying on service providers to package, operate and support integrated offers for customers that lack the resources to assemble and maintain complex security architectures in-house.

Macquarie Technology Group was recently recognised by Netskope with partner awards in the Asia-Pacific and Japan region. The recognition reflects momentum in the relationship as customers shift towards integrated cloud-based security and networking services.

Netskope has also received repeated recognition in analyst assessments of the SASE and Security Service Edge markets, an area that has become more contested as telecoms groups, network vendors and security companies seek a larger share of enterprise spending on secure connectivity.

For Australian customers, the immediate significance of the deal lies in whether a combined service can reduce operational complexity without forcing trade-offs between network performance and tighter security controls. Macquarie Telecom said the aim is to provide both through a single managed framework backed by local service delivery.