Best ZTNA Solutions

ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access) focuses on understanding who and what is accessing the network. It is often discussed as an alternative to using a traditional VPN (virtual private network). While VPNs have been a mainstay for decades, organizations are now shifting toward ZTNA to meet their plans and objectives. Here’s a quick look at some of the differences between VPNs and ZTNA:

• The ZTNA architecture allows a granularity of access. In contrast to a VPN perimeter, where a user gains complete access to the entire system, ZTNA grants no access at all unless a user is specifically authorized to access an asset, an application, or service data.
• ZTNA offers flexibility and agility that VPNs do not. While it can be challenging to install and configure VPN software, ZTNAs simplify this task.
• ZTNAs provide continuous verification based on identity authentication.
• Accessing the internet directly, whether on-premise through a VPN or via the cloud, can leak IP addresses, increasing the chance of resources or users being attacked. With ZTNA, IP addresses are hidden, which reduces the attack surface and therefore offers more security than a VPN.
• Though they are deployed in many organizations, VPNs still present security gap risks. They are slow, not particularly user-friendly, are difficult to configure, and are subject to security breaches. ZTNA is a safer choice.
• ZTNA identifies malicious behaviors and other suspicious patterns. For example, it flags attempts of downloading massive amounts of data or attempts to access restricted resources.
• The zero-trust model aims to prevent an attacker's internal lateral movement by assuming that the attacker is already in the network. Once a user logs in and is connected to a network, the VPN cannot trace his or her actions. In contrast, ZTNA can monitor who logs in to which resources.

To support the remote workforce, many companies are using VPNs (virtual private networks). However, ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access) can be a wiser choice because, among many other limitations, VPNs lack integrated security and scalability options.

The benefits of implementing ZTNA include:

• Decreased risk of cyber threats: Because VPNs grant authenticated users with complete access to the network, the risk of cyber threats is higher. ZTNA works independently of the network and is still able to provide access to everything remote workers may need.
• Secure cloud access: Cloud computing is becoming more common, and cloud-based resources need to be protected. ZTNA reduces an organization’s attack surface by limiting access to cloud environments and applications based on business needs.
• Fast and easy deployment: Every company loves to see a quick deployment timeframe when implementing a new solution to its environment. Implementing ZTNA does not require a significant network redesign, saves organizations time, and combats the setbacks a VPN causes.
• Minimized risk of account compromise: Implementing ZTNA can prevent cybercriminals from attempting to steal a user’s account credentials. The attacker is limited by the permissions and rights assigned to the compromised user account and is unable to move laterally through an organization's ecosystem. Even if a network asset is compromised by a malicious user, ZTNA can minimize the amount of damage that can be done.
• Improved user experience: VPNs have a flawed security design. They are not seamless or intuitive, and therefore create a poor user experience. Not only does a VPN tunnel require selecting a location to connect to, but depending on the type of connection, it can be slow and can affect productivity. Unlike a VPN, ZTNA creates a seamless user experience and is as simple as opening a browser.
• Less infrastructure for IT to manage: Deploying a corporate VPN can be a complicated technical endeavor, requiring network administrators to replicate gateways at several data center locations. By implementing a cloud-hosted ZTNA solution, the need to host and manage infrastructure is eliminated.
• Cost Savings: As opposed to remote access VPNs, ZTNA solutions are less expensive to operate.

SASE, or Secure Access Service Edge, combines multiple network and security technologies into a single solution. Zero-trust defines how authentication should be performed but does not define a specific implementation like SASE does. SASE focuses less on the details of security than on the deployment model, while still following zero-trust principles. Rather than SASE being a set of standards to follow, it is more of a philosophical approach. While SASE is an identity-centric secure access platform, it utilizes zero-trust capabilities and supports the implementation of a zero-trust model to ensure secured access among applications, services, endpoints, and distributed users.

Although ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access) is just a small part of SASE (Secure Access Service Edge), when enterprises leverage the SASE architecture, they receive the benefits of ZTNA, as well as a full suite of network security solutions that is not only highly scalable but also simple to manage. When combined with SASE, ZTNA is more granular, more secure, faster, and more reliable. When properly executed, SASE makes businesses more agile in a constantly changing world.

It is clear that ZTNA is the next evolution of VPN (virtual private network). With so many people accessing critical resources and applications from outside the network perimeter, it is obvious why security experts are shifting away from the paradigm of an open network built around inherent trust and moving toward a zero-trust model. The authentication method that ZTNA technology uses is both superior for users and more powerful for security teams. As businesses look to keep today’s highly complex networks secure, ZTNA seems like more and more of a reliable and promising alternative.