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Optimize Your Infrastructure with Strata Networks Managed IT Solutions

Strata Networks provides high-speed fiber internet and advanced telecommunications to rural communities, offering localized service and infrastructure stability.

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IoT Solutions
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Network & Perimeter Security
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Private WAN & Transport
Satellite & Fixed Wireless
Unified Communications (UCaaS)

Overview

Strata Networks is a premier telecommunications provider headquartered in Roosevelt, Utah, serving as the leading provider of high-speed internet, television, and voice services in the Uintah Basin and surrounding regions. Founded as a cooperative, the company has evolved from a local telephone utility into a sophisticated technology leader with a significant market presence in the Intermountain West.

The vendor’s core focus is the delivery of high-capacity fiber-optic connectivity to residential, business, and governmental sectors. Strata’s service portfolio is comprehensive, encompassing multi-gigabit fiber internet, advanced wireless LTE/5G mobile services, and managed IT solutions. They serve a diverse target audience ranging from individual rural households to large-scale industrial operations in the energy and healthcare sectors.

Throughout its history, Strata has been characterized by its commitment to infrastructure investment. The company has successfully navigated the transition from legacy copper networks to a state-of-the-art fiber-optic grid, positioning itself as a critical enabler of the digital economy in areas traditionally underserved by national carriers. Their business focus remains centered on closing the digital divide by leveraging federal and state grants alongside private investment to expand their footprint into the most remote areas of their service territory. Today, Strata is recognized not just as an ISP, but as a critical infrastructure partner essential for regional economic development and educational equity.

Positioning

Strata Networks positions itself as the "Local Leader in Global Connectivity," strategically bridging the gap between the personalized service of a local cooperative and the technological sophistication of a national carrier. Their market positioning is built on the pillars of reliability, community investment, and technical superiority.

In a market often dominated by large, impersonal telecommunications conglomerates, Strata differentiates its brand by emphasizing its deep roots in the communities it serves. Their messaging focuses on "unlimited potential," highlighting how their high-speed infrastructure enables rural businesses to compete on a global stage and allows residents to access world-class remote work and telehealth opportunities.

Strategically, Strata targets three primary segments:

  1. The Modern Rural Resident: Positioning fiber as a lifestyle upgrade that supports streaming, gaming, and remote learning without the data caps or latency of satellite providers.
  2. The Scalable Business: Messaging focuses on uptime guarantees, local support, and enterprise-grade security that rivals urban fiber offerings.
  3. Public Sector and Education: Positioning themselves as the backbone of community infrastructure, facilitating smart-city initiatives and high-bandwidth educational tools.

Compared to competitors, Strata avoids the "race to the bottom" on price, instead positioning itself as the high-value, high-performance choice that offers superior local accountability and a more stable, future-ready network.

Differentiation

The primary technical differentiator for Strata Networks is its aggressive deployment of Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology in geographic areas where traditional providers rely on aging copper or satellite links. By prioritizing a "future-proof" infrastructure, Strata offers symmetrical upload and download speeds that are often unavailable in rural markets, reaching up to 1 Gbps and beyond.

Key product advantages include:

  • Infrastructure Reliability: Their network is engineered for high redundancy, utilizing a robust fiber backbone that minimizes latency and jitter, which is critical for cloud-based enterprise applications and VoIP services.
  • Integrated Managed Services: Beyond raw connectivity, Strata provides a managed Wi-Fi ecosystem that allows residential and business users to control their networks via intuitive mobile applications, featuring advanced security protocols and parental controls.
  • Scalable Enterprise Solutions: For business clients, Strata offers dedicated internet access (DIA), hosted PBX systems, and sophisticated Ethernet services (E-LAN/E-Line) that allow multi-location businesses to operate on a seamless private network.
  • Technological Agility: Strata consistently updates its hardware stack, moving toward XGS-PON technology to provide 10-Gigabit capacity, ensuring that their product suite stays ahead of the increasing bandwidth demands of modern smart homes and digital businesses.

Ideal Customer Profile

The ideal customer for Strata Networks typically fits the following profile:

  • Company Size: Mid-market to large Enterprise (500 to 10,000+ employees).
  • Industry: Particularly strong in highly regulated or distributed sectors such as Finance, Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Technology.
  • Technical Maturity: Organizations currently undergoing a digital transformation or "cloud-first" initiative. They likely have a hybrid or multi-cloud footprint.
  • Pain Points: Suffering from high latency in global applications, struggling with the management of multiple point security products, or looking to retire expensive MPLS circuits.
  • Budget: Organizations with established IT budgets for networking and security who value operational efficiency and reduced downtime over the lowest possible 'sticker price.'

Best Fit

Strata Networks excels in the following scenarios:

  • Multi-Cloud Complexity: Best for organizations struggling to maintain consistent security and performance across AWS, Azure, and on-premises data centers. Strata provides a 'single pane of glass' for multi-cloud networking.
  • Rapid Global Expansion: Ideal for companies that need to spin up secure, high-performance network nodes in new geographic regions quickly without deploying physical hardware.
  • Legacy VPN Replacement: A top choice for businesses moving away from traditional, bottleneck-prone VPNs toward a modern Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) architecture.
  • High-Bandwidth Hybrid Work: Excels at optimizing application performance for distributed workforces using latency-sensitive tools like VoIP, VDI, and real-time collaboration suites.

Offerings

Strata Networks categorizes its offerings into three primary pillars:

  • Strata Connect (SDCI): The foundational networking layer. It provides high-performance, private middle-mile connectivity and automated cloud on-ramps. Ideal for businesses looking to replace MPLS or optimize multi-cloud traffic.
  • Strata Secure (SASE): The integrated security layer. This combines the networking power of Strata Connect with a full security stack, including ZTNA, Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB).
  • Strata Edge: Specialized hardware and software agents designed for branch offices and remote workers. This includes physical SD-WAN appliances for large sites and lightweight software clients for mobile devices.
  • Strata Insights: An advanced analytics add-on that provides deep visibility into application performance, user behavior, and predictive threat intelligence.

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Buying Guide: Strata Networks

Everything you need to evaluate Strata Networks— from features and pricing to implementation and security.

Introduction

Welcome to the comprehensive buying guide for Strata Networks. In an era where the traditional corporate perimeter has dissolved, IT leaders face the dual challenge of ensuring seamless global connectivity while maintaining a rigorous security posture. Strata Networks provides an industry-leading Software-Defined Cloud Interconnect (SDCI) and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platform designed to bridge the gap between distributed workforces, multi-cloud environments, and legacy data centers.

This guide is designed to help CIOs, CISOs, and Network Architects evaluate Strata Networks' suitability for their specific infrastructure needs. You will learn about the platform’s core capabilities, the ideal organizational profile for deployment, technical prerequisites, and the practical steps required for a successful implementation. By the end of this guide, you will have a clear framework to determine if Strata Networks is the right partner to modernize your enterprise connectivity.

Key Features

Strata Networks offers a converged suite of networking and security capabilities:

  • Global Private Fabric: A high-speed, carrier-grade backbone that bypasses the congested public internet to provide predictable latency for mission-critical applications.
  • Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA): Replaces traditional VPNs with identity-aware access controls, ensuring users only access the specific applications they are authorized to use.
  • Cloud-Native Firewall (FWaaS): Integrated Layer 7 firewalling across the entire network fabric, providing deep packet inspection and threat prevention without hardware appliances.
  • Intelligent Traffic Steering: Automated path selection based on real-time network conditions, ensuring that high-priority traffic (like video conferencing) always takes the optimal route.
  • Unified Management Dashboard: A single interface for configuring global policies, viewing real-time telemetry, and troubleshooting connectivity issues across the entire estate.
  • Edge Compute Integration: Capability to run lightweight containerized applications at the network edge to reduce latency for IoT and localized processing.

Use Cases

  • Manufacturing (Global Supply Chain): A global manufacturer uses Strata to link 15 factories across Asia and Europe to a centralized ERP in Azure. By using Strata’s private fabric, they reduced ERP latency by 40% and secured industrial IoT devices using micro-segmentation.
  • Financial Services (Secure Remote Work): A mid-sized investment firm replaced their aging VPN with Strata’s ZTNA. This allowed 500+ remote employees to securely access sensitive trading apps while ensuring strict compliance with FINRA data access regulations.
  • Retail (Rapid Site Deployment): A national retail chain uses Strata to bring new 'pop-up' locations online in hours rather than weeks. They use cellular LTE/5G backhaul secured by Strata’s cloud firewall to process payments instantly.
  • Healthcare (Telehealth Performance): A healthcare provider utilizes Strata’s intelligent traffic steering to prioritize telehealth video traffic over standard web browsing, ensuring high-quality patient consultations across 50 regional clinics.

Pricing Models

Strata Networks utilizes a subscription-based pricing model designed for scalability:

  • Consumption-Based Components: Pricing is primarily driven by total bandwidth (throughput) across the fabric and the number of connected sites/cloud on-ramps.
  • User-Based Licensing: For ZTNA and remote access features, pricing is typically calculated per-user, per-month, often with tiered discounts for larger volumes.
  • Platform Tiers:
    • Standard: Basic connectivity and SD-WAN features.
    • Advanced: Includes full SASE security stack (FWaaS, SWG, ZTNA).
    • Enterprise: Adds dedicated support, custom SLAs, and advanced analytics.
  • Additional Costs: Consider one-time professional services for complex migrations or specialized hardware edge connectors if physical site integration is required.

Technical Requirements

To deploy Strata Networks, your environment should meet the following specifications:

  • Virtualization: Support for VMware ESXi, KVM, or Hyper-V for hosting virtual edge connectors.
  • Cloud Access: Administrative permissions for AWS, Azure, or GCP environments to establish API-based peering.
  • Browsers: Modern web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) for the management console.
  • Network Hardware: While Strata is software-defined, physical edge appliances may require standard 1U rack space and 1GbE/10GbE copper or fiber interfaces.
  • Bandwidth: Minimum 100Mbps stable internet connection at physical sites for optimal tunnel performance.
  • Operating Systems: Strata agents for ZTNA support Windows 10/11, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.

Business Requirements

To successfully adopt Strata Networks, organizations should meet the following business prerequisites:

  • Stakeholder Alignment: Buy-in is required from both the Networking and Security (InfoSec) teams, as Strata’s converged model blurs the lines between these traditionally siloed departments.
  • Cloud Maturity: While not strictly required, organizations with an established cloud presence or a 'cloud-first' mandate will see the fastest ROI.
  • Process Readiness: A willingness to move away from perimeter-based security models toward identity-centric, Zero Trust policies.
  • Skill Sets: Internal teams should have a foundational understanding of software-defined networking (SDN) and cloud-native architecture.
  • Executive Sponsorship: Given that this often involves a fundamental shift in corporate infrastructure, a C-level sponsor (CTO or CISO) is recommended to drive change management.

Implementation Timeline

A typical enterprise rollout of Strata Networks follows this phased approach:

  • Phase 1: Discovery & Design (2-3 Weeks): Audit of current network topology, identification of key application flows, and definition of initial security policies.
  • Phase 2: Core Setup & PoC (2 Weeks): Configuration of the Strata management plane and deployment of a proof-of-concept (PoC) in a non-production environment.
  • Phase 3: Migration & Integration (4-8 Weeks): Gradual migration of workloads. This timing varies based on the number of sites and the complexity of existing third-party integrations (IdP, SIEM).
  • Phase 4: Training & Optimization (2 Weeks): Handover to internal IT teams, administrator training, and fine-tuning of performance policies.
  • Go-Live: Total timeline typically ranges from 10 to 15 weeks for a mid-to-large enterprise.

Support Options

Strata Networks provides several tiers of support to ensure platform reliability:

  • Standard Support: 8x5 technical assistance via email and portal, access to the knowledge base, and standard hardware replacement (if applicable).
  • Premium Support: 24x7x365 coverage with guaranteed response times (SLA) for critical issues, plus access to a dedicated technical account manager (TAM).
  • Professional Services: Available for architecture design, complex migration planning, and customized training workshops.
  • Strata Academy: An online learning management system providing certification tracks for network and security administrators.
  • Community Forum: A peer-to-peer network for sharing best practices and configuration templates.

Integration Requirements

Strata Networks is built on an open, API-first architecture designed to fit into modern IT stacks:

  • Identity Providers (IdP): Native, pre-built connectors for Okta, Microsoft Azure AD (Entra ID), Ping Identity, and Google Workspace.
  • Security Operations: Out-of-the-box integration with leading SIEM/SOAR platforms like Splunk, Sentinel, and Palo Alto Cortex for automated threat response.
  • Cloud Service Providers: Deep integration with AWS Transit Gateway, Azure Virtual WAN, and Google Cloud VPC to automate route propagation.
  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Fully documented Terraform and Ansible providers for automated provisioning and configuration management.
  • API Access: RESTful APIs are available for custom orchestration and reporting needs.

Security & Compliance

Security is the core of the Strata Networks architecture:

  • Certifications: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and HIPAA compliance.
  • Data Sovereignty: Global Points of Presence (PoPs) allow customers to select specific regions for data processing to meet GDPR and local residency requirements.
  • Encryption: All data in transit is encrypted using AES-256, with customer-managed key options available for high-compliance environments.
  • Identity-Centric Security: Integration with MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) and continuous risk assessment of device posture before granting access.
  • Auditability: Comprehensive logging of every connection attempt and policy change, exportable to external auditing tools for forensic analysis.

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