As cyber threats continue to evolve and organizations become more reliant on cloud-based applications as well as remote and hybrid work models, the adoption of zero trust network access (ZTNA) has grown significantly in recent years.
According to Gartner, ZTNA is the fastest-growing segment in network security, projected to grow 31% in 2023. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2025, at least 70% of new remote access deployments will be served predominantly by ZTNA as opposed to VPN services, up from less than 10% at the end of 2021.
With this growing interest in ZTNA, the number of vendors offering ZTNA products has also increased. This can be confusing for organizations that are researching ZTNA options and trying to determine which vendor is the right fit for their needs.
The Types of ZTNA Vendors
There are many different ZTNA vendors on the market, each offering a range of features and pricing plans. This can make it difficult for organizations to compare and contrast different options and determine which one is the best fit for their needs.
There are several different types of Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) vendors, such as:
1. Security Service Edge (SSE) vendors
SSE vendors are those who offer products related to SSE architecture and implementation. SSE is essentially a combination of cloud-based security technologies designed to protect a business’s edge network and gives remote users access without being in the office.
SSE architecture is usually made up of three components – ZTNA, Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) and Secure Web Gateway (SWG). SSE vendors will therefore add ZTNA to their standard security services, such as firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, and virtual private networks (VPNs).
2. Network security vendors
These vendors offer SSL/TLS solutions along with other types of security products and services, such as firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, and virtual private networks (VPNs). These solutions may have had traditional network security as their focus until now but with the rise of remote and hybrid work they have realized the risk these trends pose to the network. Subsequently, they might have therefore included ZTNA features as an added benefit.
3. Identity and access management (IAM) vendors
Some IAM vendors offer ZTNA solutions that focus on user authentication and authorization. These solutions may be particularly useful for organizations looking to strengthen their identity and access controls as part of a ZTNA implementation.
4. Cloud security vendors
Cloud security vendors are those which offer solutions which involve procedures and technology that are designed to secure organizations as they incorporate more cloud-based tools and services in their infrastructure. These could be of a few different types such as the above-mentioned IAM tools and services, DLP services, Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) or Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery solutions.
CDNetworks falls under this category and provides businesses with a number of cloud security products such as
- Application Shield for securing web applications and ensuring availability
- Bot Shield which defends applications against bot-based attacks from
- Flood Shield which delivers fast, simple, and effective DDoS protection
- API Shield, a service designed to identify flaws in APIs
- Enterprise Secure Access, a cloud based ZTNA solution for hybrid work
What should you consider when choosing a ZTNA provider
In planning for the adoption of ZTNA, businesses can be slowed down due to the complexity of implementing and managing these solutions. ZTNA involves a number of different components and technologies, such as identity and access management, network segmentation, and multi-factor authentication, and integrating these can be challenging. So before you choose your vendor, think about these critical considerations.
- Platform and capabilities: Make sure that the zero-trust provider offers the features and capabilities that your organization needs. For example, do they support multi-factor authentication, network segmentation, and access controls? Or do they have a fully fledged SSE platform if that is what you are looking for?
- Geographic footprint: In today’s hybrid-work world, it’s important to look for a vendor with a global footprint to match your expansion plans. Check whether the ZTNA provider has data centers in all major geographic locations where your employees may be connecting from.
- Ease of use: Look for a zero-trust provider that offers a user-friendly interface and easy-to-use tools. This will make it easier for your team to manage and maintain the security solution. For example, check how many steps are required to configure identity and access policies using a unified console.
- Data protection: Your ideal solution should be able to detect data usage, activities and behavior anomalies (UEBA). It should be able to enforce advanced DLP rules and policies, and apply adaptive access policy based on user risks. When choosing a provider, look for one that gives you multiple options to help your organization protect your sensitive information.
- Integration with existing systems: Consider whether the zero-trust provider can easily integrate with your organization’s existing systems and infrastructure. This will ensure that the transition to a zero-trust model is smooth and seamless. This is especially critical if you have a multivendor environment, where integrations and exchange with other systems will be essential. Ideally, such exchanges should offer user and device trust scores that are normalized across the environment and which can trigger adaptive access controls, user group settings, and automated ticketing for investigation.
- Scalability: You also need to keep in mind your organization’s growth in the future and choose a provider that is scalable. This will ensure that your security solution can keep pace with your needs over time.
- Visibility: A good ZTNA solution should also give you complete visibility into the performance of your applications as well as user behavior and device security by doing real-time monitoring and evaluating threat intelligence.
The Zero Trust Solution from CDNetworks
CDNetworks offers businesses the Enterprise Secure Access (ESA, a cloud service that provides enterprises with secure remote access. ESA uses a Zero Trust implementation with a Software-Defined Perimeter(SDP) infrastructure to control access to and from any platform in any environment on any device.
ESA helps reduce the likelihood of attacks by shielding the origin server IP address and ports behind a security gateway. The users who are authorized to access applications are still scrutinized using strict least-privilege verification and authorization. Even after being logged, these users will be monitored for their behavior, device security, audit and scored to match with enterprises’ security posture. With CDNetworks’ distributed network, ESA also provides the security gateway with real-time protection against cyberattacks, including DDoS attacks.
Productivity is not compromised either, as CDNetworks’ globally distributed Content Delivery Network, ensures stable, low-latency transmissions to deliver a smooth experience for all users. ESA’s all-in-one portal allows users to access enterprise data securely and instantly.
