The Fast Mode spoke to Kris Lovejoy, Global Practice Leader, Security and Resiliency at Kyndryl on the impact of traffic visibility on ZTNA networks. Kris joins us in a series of discussions with leading cybersecurity and networking vendors, assessing the evolution of ZTNA technologies, the roadmap for ZTNA deployments, the benefits of ZTNA for enterprise and telco networks, and the need for real-time traffic visibility technologies such as DPI for ZTNA.
Ariana: What do you consider are the core features (must have) of ZTNA?
Kris: Zero trust frameworks are based on the mindset to “trust no one implicitly.” With that foundation, it’s important to take inventory of all digital assets – e.g., workloads and applications – and build the IT security strategy around them rather than building it around a patchwork of security tools. It’s also critical to align an organizations’ security strategy with its business strategy. When these are tied, it ensures the right security measures are implemented to deliver the desired business outcomes. Once the Zero Trust strategy is created, organizations must have a strong governance program to ensure the security strategy is on track with the business’s vision, goals and objectives, while also enabling the flexibility to evolve as the digital landscape changes. ZTNA is a very limited use case for where Zero Trust can be applied. We often see customers adopt Zero Trust with this narrow scope and miss larger opportunities to use Zero Trust to secure all digital assets or at least those that are more important to an organization. There are many use cases and digital assets that won’t be exposed externally but still require robust security.
Ariana: How has ZTNA transformed today’s networks and what are its greatest benefits?
Kris: Zero Trust should provide value beyond just reducing risk and achieving compliance, which are considered the two most obvious benefits that organizations expect. However, equally important benefits that organizations should consider are enabling businesses to adopt new technology advancements and opportunities like edge compute, cloud services, partner collaboration, to name a few. Zero Trust can also help improve user experience, operational efficiency and operational improvements.
This interview is a part of The Fast Mode's Next-Gen DPI Traffic Visibility for ZTNA segment, featuring over 40 leading cybersecurity and networking solution providers and their views on the importance of traffic visibility for ZTNA. A research report on this topic will be published in January 2024 - for more information, visit here.
