More than 90% of organizations (89% in Spain) that migrate to the cloud have implemented, are implementing, or are in the process of implementing, a Zero Trust architecture. This is evidenced by the Zscaler report, The State of Zero Trust Transformation 2023 Where it is also highlighted that Only 22% of IT managers say they are “totally sure” that their organization is taking advantage of the potential of its infrastructure in the cloud. “The presence of Zero Trust in organizations today is encouraging : implementation rates are increasing. But organizations could be much more ambitious. There is an incredible opportunity for CIOs to educate business decision makers on zero trust as a high value business enabler,” explains Nathan Howe, Vice President of Emerging Technology, 5G at Zscaler.
Top Cloud Concerns
IT managers identified security, access, and complexity as their top cloud concerns, making a clear case for zero trust to overcome all these obstacles. When asked about legacy security and network infrastructures, 54% (55% in Spain) said they believed that virtual private networks (VPNs) or perimeter-based firewalls were ineffective in protecting against cyberattacks or provided little visibility into application traffic and attacks. This reinforces the results that 68% (63% in Spain) agree that secure cloud transformation is impossible with legacy network security infrastructure or that ZTNA has clear advantages over traditional firewalls and VPNs for remote access secure to critical applications.
Lack of trust in the cloud
As we move towards zero trust, Zscaler has found that globally only 22% of organizations are fully convinced that they are reaping the full potential of their cloud infrastructure, so while organizations have taken some solid initial steps on their journey to the cloud, there is a tremendous opportunity to take advantage of the cloud. Regionally, the results are different, with 42% of organizations in the Americas feeling completely confident in using of their cloud infrastructure, compared to 14% of organizations in EMEA and 24% in APAC.
A Zscaler study reveals that 90% of companies are already adopting the Zero Trust model, but still do not know how to take advantage of its full potential
While India (55%) and Brazil (51%) lead at the country level, followed by the US (41%) and Mexico (36%), Europeans and Asians are less confident. Sweden (21%) and the United Kingdom (19%) lead in Europe, followed by Australia (17%), Japan (17%) and Singapore (16%). The rest of the European countries lag behind: The Netherlands with 14%, Italy with 12%, France and Spain with 11% and Germany with 9%. The difference between the leading country, which multiplies up to six times the level of trust in the cloud depending on the region, and the one that is furthest behind, represents an opportunity for training and skills development.
4 keys to take advantage of Zero Trust
Here are the four key tips for organizations to take advantage of zero trust:Not all zero trust offers are created equal: It is important to implement a true zero-trust architecture built on the principle that no user or application is naturally trusted. It starts with user identity validation combined with contextual data-driven business policy enforcement to give users, devices, and workloads direct access to apps and resources—never to the corporate network. This removes the attack surface so that threats cannot access the corporate network and move laterally, thus improving the security posture.Zero Trust as an enabler of transformation and business results: With its increased levels of security, visibility, and control, leveraging a comprehensive zero-trust architecture to remove complexity from IT operations and enable organizations to focus on driving better business results as part of their digital transformation initiatives and remain competitiveZero Trust on the Board of Directors: To align with organizations’ business strategies, CIOs and CISOs can leverage the findings of this study to help allay fear, uncertainty, and doubt around what zero trust means and promote its full business impact. before the main decision makers of the companyZero Trust Infrastructures as a Foundation for the Future: Emerging technologies should be seen as a very competitive business advantage, and zero trust will meet the requirements for secure and efficient connectivity of new trends.
