iOCO brings Cato Networks SASE platform to South African enterprises

iOCO has expanded its managed cybersecurity portfolio through a collaboration with Cato Networks, bringing the company’s cloud-native Secure Access Service Edge platform to enterprise customers in South Africa. As IOL reported on 21 September, the JSE-listed technology services group is positioning the offering around the cybersecurity demands of South African organisations as cyber risks rise, artificial intelligence adoption accelerates and hybrid and cloud environments grow more complex.

The arrangement builds on iOCO’s existing Zero Trust and managed cybersecurity operations. Customers get advisory and architecture work, migration and integration, security operations and ongoing optimisation, rather than having to build and staff those functions entirely in-house.

Cato’s platform combines networking and security in one cloud-native environment, giving organisations unified visibility, context and control over the use of AI tools and agents. Gartner named Cato a Leader in its 2026 Magic Quadrant for SASE Platforms for the third consecutive year.

Neels Pretorius, Managed Security Executive at iOCO, said Cato provides capabilities built specifically for managed SASE and security service partners, including multi-tenant management that lets a provider such as iOCO run multiple customer environments efficiently.

“Together, Cato and iOCO provide the right technology platform with the resources, operational capability, integration expertise and customer context required to turn that technology into a managed business service,” Pretorius said.

Richard Tsalavoutas, Enterprise Sales Director for Africa at Cato Networks, said South Africa is an important market for the company and that working with a provider already running security operations at enterprise scale gives customers architecture and operational support together. He said AI security has become a growing concern for customers, and that Cato has incorporated AI security capabilities into its unified SASE Cloud offering to help enterprises govern AI use, protect AI applications and secure AI agents alongside other network interactions.

The service targets small, medium and large enterprises with distributed and complex technology environments. That includes organisations with multiple branches or operating locations, geographically dispersed users, hybrid or multi-cloud infrastructure, remote and mobile workforces, and legacy WAN or MPLS networks.

The managed model is aimed squarely at a market short of skills. A national cybersecurity survey conducted by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research at the end of the 2023/24 financial year found that 63 percent of cybersecurity roles were partially or fully unfilled. That figure is the clearest measure of why a managed service, rather than an in-house build, is the practical route for many South African organisations.

Pretorius said the collaboration would combine the Cato SASE Platform with iOCO’s security, networking, cloud and service-management capabilities, supporting customers from initial architecture and migration through to ongoing operations and optimisation. He said iOCO has seen a significant improvement in cybersecurity posture maturity among customers adopting SASE, and expects Cato’s unified approach to accelerate that improvement in cyber-threat and risk management.

The work forms part of iOCO’s broader strategy to expand its managed cybersecurity and network services as the SASE market grows. Gartner expects the global SASE market to exceed US$18 billion in 2026 and forecasts compound annual growth of 23 percent between 2025 and 2030, driven by hybrid workforces, increased multi-cloud adoption and the need to secure access to AI.

iOCO is one of South Africa’s largest technology services providers, offering services across the IT value chain including software development, data and analytics, automation, cloud services, cybersecurity and proprietary applications. The group employs more than 4,300 people, serves over 4,000 clients and operates in 10 countries.

Source: IOL, South African tech services company expands cybersecurity portfolio