As organizations continue to invest in strengthening their Zero Trust strategies, IT and Security professionals are increasingly scoping out Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) technologies as part of their efforts. In fact, according to the recent Gartner Report: How to Select the Right ZTNA Offering, “in 2021 ZTNA inquiries from our end-user clients increased more than 50% year over year, driven by significant interest from multiple verticals, including government organizations.”
The Gartner Report offers recommendations for security and risk managers looking for a ZTNA that’s a good match for their organizations, mapping out the key use cases for ZTNA, and the ZTNA capabilities aligned to them.
We’ve put together a list of our insights on the key considerations organizations should address when choosing a ZTNA solution, and how security, and IT professionals can best move forward on their journey towards Zero Trust Network Access.
Today’s typical organizational tech stack is more complex and extensive than ever. Companies are relying on an increasingly wide variety of cloud technologies and services, and cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) applications. These shifts to the cloud and cloud-based services expand organizations’ attack surface, and leave organizations more open to risk than ever before.
In order to ensure Zero Trust security throughout the entire organization, it’s important to choose a ZTNA technology that will enable IT and security professionals to segment the network, and prevent lateral movement in it. Micro-segmentation will help secure valuable assets in today’s expansive hybrid and cloud environments against threat actors trying to breach a company’s resources and sensitive data.
Over the past few years, our workspaces have changed dramatically, with the traditional office environment replaced by a hybrid office model. Today’s workforce is global, remote, and mobile, connecting to the network from a variety of locations and devices.
Zero Trust Network Access solutions must address employee’s need to securely connect from any device, and any location or network, without jeopardizing the security of organizational data and resources. Features like Device Posture Check (DPC) help administrators enforce permissions or restrictions for each and every device attempting to connect to the network, based on criteria like operating system version, usage of anti-virus software, disc encryption, and more. Geo-location and time-based restrictions enable an additional layer of access control for enhanced security.
Other factors that are important to consider when choosing a ZTNA solution for a remote or hybrid workforce, are workers’ location and working hours. If the workforce is spread across multiple geo-locations and time zones, the solution should include restrictions based on geo-location and time zones, to ensure connectivity during their working hours.
In addition to enabling fast, scalable, and secure access to a global workforce, ZTNA offerings must also address the “extended workforce” – comprised of suppliers, partners, or companies acquired in an M&A. Recent security breaches show that an organization’s cybersecurity is only as strong as its weakest link.
A Zero Trust Network Access solution must ensure that third-party connections to the corporate network are subject to the Zero Trust principle of least privilege. Advanced ZTNA technologies can help ensure that access is provided to third-parties per application, and device, using advanced authentication to validate user identities. This helps minimize the network’s exposure and hide sensitive company resources from public access.
In order to minimize the network’s exposure to external users and unmanaged devices, ZTNA offerings should be able to provide an agentless option via a secured and isolated web portal. This provides third-party users access to just the resources they need, so that if they are ever compromised, the hackers will have access to the specific applications rather than the entire network.
As organizations’ grow and their networks expand far beyond the traditional perimeter, it’s important to choose a ZTNA solution that won’t slow the company down or hurt business results.
An effective ZTNA solution delivered from the cloud helps organizations avoid network bottlenecks, and promises high-performance connectivity. It also helps companies scale their Zero Trust policies and processes, so that they can easily deploy and implement ZTNA to more users, across more cloud services and applications as the organization grows and its ZTNA strategy matures.
As organizations continue to build and strengthen their Zero Trust strategies, it’s important to first take a closer look at their tech environment, inventory, and workforce, and choose the ZTNA solution that’s right for them.
As the tech stack continues to grow at a rapid pace, and the threat landscape continues to evolve, it’s important to choose an advanced, enterprise-grade ZTNA solution that will seamlessly grow with the organization, and provide the agility needed to address today’s hybrid, global organization.
Perimeter 81’s award-winning ZTNA solution checks all the necessary boxes with secure network access and protection for company resources. Using the principles of least-privilege access, we enable teams to speed up and scale ZTNA across the entire organization packaged in an easy-to-use, cloud-based network security platform.
Implement Zero Trust principles for any device, from any location, across the entire tech stack. Want to see ZTNA in action? Book your demo with Perimeter 81 today.
