ZTNA and SASE: acronyms that impact your cloud security

The cloud computing world is no stranger to acronyms, from DaaS to HPC to VPN and everything in between. But two acronyms, in particular, are rising in popularity and importance in the cloud environment: ZTNA and SASE — and both have an impact on the security of your cloud network.

First, ZTNA, or Zero Trust Network Access, is a cloud security solution that ensures remote access to applications, data and services are as secure as possible.

"Everything is connected to the Internet. Forget just your laptop and your phone — now even your dishwasher, your laundry machine and your Ring doorbell camera are all connected. The problem is, in the business environment, those devices are generally the least secure," said Duane Barnes, vice president and general manager of RapidScale, a managed cloud services provider. "As a company, you have to think about not just your employees and their laptops, but all the other things in your network that have access to the internet. Those trends and digital transformations are driving the importance of things like ZTNA."

As people are working remotely more often, they'll be accessing company data and materials from different locations, like coffee shops, co-working spaces and their homes. ZTNA services grant access to users after they've gone through an authentication process, preventing any bad actors from easily accessing networks.

Similarly, as people are working remotely, SASE, or Secure Access Service Edge, improves access and security.

"Especially post-COVID, not everybody's going back to the office ever, right? Every study we see says that somewhere between 20% and 40% of employees will stay remote, and you really have to have ways to communicate within your company at the touch of a button," said Barnes. "Take Microsoft Teams for example. Today I went out to a lunch meeting, and I had a couple of Teams messages pop up. Just from my phone, I was able to answer a few quick questions and approve someone's time off as if I was still connected seamlessly to my computer, without physically being in front of it or even in an office."

"My belief is that these tools are going to have to get adopted by many companies, or they're going to get left behind by their competitors."

Not only does something like SASE improve connectivity, but it also boosts productivity and efficiency.

"I have OneDrive on my phone, so I can go in there, click on a document and forward the link to my coworker. I don't have to scan it or get on the phone with them AND walk them through where it might be," said Barnes. "You're just so much more productive if you adopt these types of tools. I think the days where you have to walk down the hall in order to ask somebody a question are long gone at this point."

Using SASE and ZTNA in combination can lead to a safer, more flexible workplace, which is especially important as more offices are adopting remote or hybrid schedules — which also causes more cyber security threats than before.

"If you think about the way IT departments were generally structured pre-pandemic, security was based on the assumption you were going to be sitting in an office behind a firewall. Now the concept is that firewalls are in the cloud now and can control the access between all the locations. Even if they're in the office, because the firewall is now moved to the cloud, we're treating anywhere they work as a zero-trust network," said Barnes. "When you add SASE and ZTNA together, you're basically saying, ‘Hey, I'm providing you with secure access wherever you might be, and you get the benefits of the security and the cloud."

"We're assuming that not only are you not on a secure network, but you're also not on a secure device. Now, we proactively solve for that with technologies like SASE and ZTNA."