The Fast Mode spoke to Deepa Kuppuswamy, Director of Security at ManageEngine of Zoho Corp. on the impact of traffic visibility on ZTNA networks. Deepa 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: Why is ZTNA the future of enterprise security?
Deepa: Today’s digital-first enterprises no longer operate within the confines of a traditional network perimeter. Apps, and their users, are everywhere. With more than 80% of organizations adopting a cloud strategy, business apps are hosted outside the organization's network boundary. The traditional method of using network location for ownership and control of physical assets as parameters for implicit trust is a flawed security paradigm. "Never trust, always verify" should be the philosophy enterprises internalise, implement, and practice.
ZTNA is well-suited for the current landscape because it delivers solid security controls, a seamless employee experience through MFA, and continuous authentication of the users and devices in a network, regardless of their location. The key is to establish strict endpoint management: exercise control over corporate devices, always have visibility into what is happening on devices, and integrate threat intelligence data to provide adaptive access to enterprise resources.
Ariana: Why is Cloud a key component for ZTNA?
Deepa: ZTNA as a technology is well adaptable for the cloud - both in terms of protecting cloud-based workloads and SaaS apps, and also in deployment. Cloud-based ZTNA can be deployed, rolled out, and scaled quickly and efficiently. Moreover, it's easy to integrate cloud-based ZTNA with other cloud apps, as all user traffic isn't hauled back again through the enterprise infrastructure, providing the user fast and direct access to the apps they need.
Deepa Kuppuswamy is the Director of Security at ManageEngine of Zoho Corp.
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.
