Three reasons why your Zero Trust project isn’t delivering results (and what to do about it.)

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is relatively easy to understand as a cybersecurity concept. Trust no one. Verify every request to access enterprises resources. Continually monitor end user activity for suspicious behavior.

Implementation, however, has proven difficult for most enterprises. Forrester Research reports that 63% of network security leaders say their firm is struggling to operationalize Zero Trust.[i]  Gartner predicts that 60% of organizations will embrace Zero Trust by 2025, but more than half will fail to realize the benefits.[ii]

Zero Trust initiatives fail to deliver the expected results for at least three main reasons:

1. Lack of internal skills. For IT teams accustomed to operating with a perimeter security mindset, pivoting to the Zero Trust model can be a challenge, particularly since Zero Trust is not a specific product or tool that can simply be plugged in.

Zero Trust is an ongoing journey that requires re-thinking every aspect of networking and security systems and processes. These include authentication of end users and devices, including IoT; identity-based access control at the application level; monitoring of all traffic between and within public clouds; and real-time incident response through techniques such as network segmentation.

2. Lack of centralized management. A successful Zero Trust implementation requires centralized management of all the moving pieces in an enterprise network. If network managers or SOC analysts need to access multiple portals and multiple dashboards in order to gain visibility into what’s happening, that’s a problem. Zero Trust requires a seamless, unified, holistic platform view across multi-cloud environments.

3. Lack of integration. Legacy systems aren’t going away. ZTNA must seamlessly integrate with pre-existing internal and cloud-based resources from multiple vendors.  In addition, organizations should carefully scrutinize the new wave of single-vendor SASE offerings, which are often cobbled together from acquisitions, and fall short when it comes to integration. An effective ZTNA implementation requires out-of-the box integration with the organization’s existing security and networking infrastructure in order to avoid disruptions to operations.

The Alkira approach to Zero Trust

Alkira addresses these challenges with a cloud-based, as-a-service approach to Zero Trust. Built on the company’s global network infrastructure-as-a-service platform, Alkira delivers the level of scalability, reliable performance, centralized management and visibility that IT departments would be hard-pressed to achieve on their own.

Alkira provides out-of-the box integration with existing identity management and access control systems to provide centralized policy enforcement and network segmentation. And Alkira’s vertically integrated network stack enables Zero Trust without disrupting legacy infrastructure. Alkira also enables customers to adopt ZTNA features in stages, which reduces the initial adoption burden and allows organizations to implement additional features as they become ready.

Learn more about how Alkira helps you deliver on the promise of Zero Trust. Visit: Home – Alkira

[i] Forrester Research, Bolster Your Company Defenses With Zero Trust,   https://www.iboss.com/storage/2022/10/iboss-Bolster-Your-Company-Defenses-With-Zero-Trust-Edge.pdf

[ii] Gartner Reveals Top Eight Cybersecurity Predictions, https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2022-06-21-gartner-unveils-the-top-eight-cybersecurity-predictio