Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZS), the leader in cloud security, found
that more than 90% of IT leaders who have started their migration
to the cloud have implemented, are implementing, or are planning to
implement a zero trust security architecture. Supporting the mass
migration to zero trust to secure users and the cloud, more than
two thirds (68%) believe that secure cloud transformation is
impossible with legacy network security infrastructures or that
ZTNA has clear advantages over traditional firewalls and VPNs for
remote access to applications. This is according to The State of
Zero Trust Transformation 2023 report, which draws on a global
study of over 1,900 senior IT decision makers at organizations
globally, which have already started migrating applications and
services to the cloud.
Zscaler’s research shows that against a backdrop of rapid
digital transformation, IT leaders believe zero trust – built on
the principle that no user, device or application should be
inherently trusted – is the ideal framework for securing enterprise
users, workloads and IoT/OT environments in a highly distributed
cloud and mobile-centric world. Approached from a holistic IT
perspective, zero trust has the potential to unlock business
opportunities across the overall digitization process, from driving
increased innovation to supporting better employee engagement, or
delivering tangible cost efficiencies.
The Leading Cloud Concerns
IT leaders identified security, access and complexity as top
cloud concerns, creating a clear case for zero trust to overcome
these hurdles. When asked about legacy network and security
infrastructures, 54% indicated they believed VPNs or
perimeter-based firewalls are both ineffective at protecting
against cyberattacks or providing poor visibility into application
traffic and attacks. This further validates the findings that 68%
agree that secure cloud transformation is impossible with a legacy
network security infrastructure or that ZTNA has clear advantages
over traditional firewalls and VPNs for secure remote access to
critical applications.
The Cloud Context – A Lack of Confidence
While progress on zero trust is strong, Zscaler found that
globally only 22% of organizations are fully confident they are
leveraging the full potential of their cloud infrastructure, so
while organizations have made solid initial steps on their cloud
journey, there is a massive opportunity to capitalize on the
benefits of the cloud. Regionally, the results vary with 42% of
organizations in the Americas feeling fully confident in the use of
their cloud infrastructure, compared with 14% of organizations
across EMEA and 24% in APAC. While India (55%) and Brazil (51%) are
leading on a country level followed by the US (41%) and Mexico
(36%), European and Asian countries are less confident: in Europe,
Sweden (21%) and the UK (19%) are leading followed by Australia
(17%), Japan (17%) and Singapore (16%). The remaining European
countries are lagging behind: The Netherlands with 14%, Italy
(12%), both France and Spain at 11% and Germany with 9%. This chasm
between the most progressive country being more than six times the
most laggering country shows varying confidence levels of the cloud
by region and further presents an opportunity for education and
closing the skills gap.
While at first glance security appears to stand in the way of
fully realizing the full potential of the cloud, the motivations
behind cloud migration suggest a more fundamental barrier in how IT
leaders view the cloud. IT leaders cited data privacy concerns,
challenges to securing data in the cloud, and the challenges of
scaling network security as among the top barriers to embracing the
cloud’s full potential. However, when asked about the main factors
driving digital transformation initiatives in their organizations,
the top three factors were cost reduction, managing cyber risk, and
facilitating emerging technologies like 5G and Edge computing,
suggesting there may still be a distinct lack of understanding
around how to fully capitalize on its broader business
benefits.
Meeting the Hybrid Mix with Zero Trust
IT leaders surveyed in Zscaler’s research predicted that in the
next 12 months, their organizations’ employee base will continue to
be fully embracing the different work style options available to
them, split between full-time office workers (38%), fully remote
(35%) and hybrid (27%). However, it also found that organizations
may still be unequipped to handle the ever-evolving mix of hybrid
working requirements.
Globally, only 19% indicated that a hybrid work specific zero
trust-based infrastructure is already in place, suggesting that
organizations are not fully ready to handle the security of this
highly distributed working environment on a broad scale. Next to
those who have already updated their infrastructure, a further 50%
are in the process of implementing or are planning a zero
trust-based hybrid strategy.
Employee user experience was mentioned as the top reasons for
implementing a zero trust-based hybrid work infrastructure. More
than half (52%) agreed that implementation would help tackle
inconsistent access experiences for on-premise and cloud-based
applications and data, 46% that it would tackle productivity loss
due to network access issues, and 39% that using zero trust would
allow employees to access applications and data from personal
devices. These views reflect the wider challenge beyond security
that hybrid working presents around access, experience and
performance, and the role zero trust plays in response.
The Potential of Zero Trust as a Business
Enabler
In line with the motivations behind cloud migration, Zscaler
found that a focus on wider strategic outcomes is missing from how
organizations are planning emerging technology initiatives. Asked
about the single most challenging aspect of implementing emerging
technology projects, 30% cited adequate security, followed by
budget requirements for further digitization (23%). However, only
19% cited dependency on strategic business decisions as a
challenge.
While budget concerns are natural, the focus on securing the
network while ignoring strategic business alignment suggests
organizations are focused on security without a full understanding
of its business benefit, and that zero trust itself is not yet
understood as a business enabler.
“The state of zero trust transformation within organizations
today is promising – implementation rates are strong,” said Nathan
Howe, VP of Emerging Tech, 5G at Zscaler. “But organizations could
be more ambitious. There’s an incredible opportunity for IT leaders
to educate business decision-makers on zero trust as a high-value
business driver, especially as they grapple with providing a new
class of hybrid workplace or production environment and reliant on
a range of emerging technologies, such as IoT and OT, 5G and even
the metaverse. A zero trust platform has the power to redesign
business and organizational infrastructure requirements: to become
a true business driver that doesn’t just enable the hybrid working
model employees are demanding, but enables organizations to become
fully digitized, benefiting from agility, efficiency and
future-proofed infrastructure.”
Zscaler makes four key recommendations for organizations to
capitalize on zero trust:
- Not all zero trust offerings are created
equal: It’s important to implement a true zero trust
architecture built on the principle that no user or application is
inherently trusted. It starts with validating user identity
combined with business policy enforcement based on contextual data
to provide users, devices and workloads direct access to
applications and resources – never the corporate network. This
eliminates the attack surface so threats can’t gain access to the
corporate network and move laterally thus improving the security
posture.
- Zero trust as enabler of transformation and business
outcomes: With its increased levels of security,
visibility and control, leverage holistic a zero trust-based
architecture to remove the complexity from IT operations to allow
organizations to focus on gaining improved business outcomes as
part of their digital transformation initiatives and remain
competitive.
- Zero trust for the boardroom: To align with
business strategies, CIOs and CISOs should leverage the findings to
help dispel fear, uncertainty and doubt around what zero trust
means and to promote its full business impact with key decision
makers.
- Zero trust-enabled infrastructures as foundation for
the future: Emerging technologies need to be looked at as
a competitive business advantage and zero trust will support the
secure and performant connectivity requirements of emerging
trends.
Additional Resources
To access the full The State of Zero Trust Transformation 2023
report, visit The State of Zero Trust Transformation 2023
report.
Methodology
ATOMIK Research surveyed 1,908 senior decision makers (CIOs /
CISOs / CDOs / Head of Network Architecture) in EMEA (UK, Germany,
France, The Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Spain), AMS (USA, Mexico,
Brazil) and APAC (Japan, India, Australia, Singapore). The research
was conducted between 31 May and 28 June 2022. The sample comprised
43% of organizations of up to 4,999 employees, 32% of 5,000 up to
9,999 employees and 25% of 10,000 or more employees.
About ZscalerZscaler (NASDAQ: ZS) accelerates
digital transformation so customers can be more agile, efficient,
resilient, and secure. The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange protects
thousands of customers from cyberattacks and data loss by securely
connecting users, devices, and applications in any location.
Distributed across more than 150 data centers globally, the
SSE-based Zero Trust Exchange is the world’s largest in-line cloud
security platform.
Zscaler™ and the other trademarks listed
at https://www.zscaler.com/legal/trademarks are either (i)
registered trademarks or service marks or (ii) trademarks or
service marks of Zscaler, Inc. in the United States and/or other
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respective owners.
Media Contact:Natalia WodeckiGlobal
PR Directorpress@zscaler.com
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