Access Management Leads the Way to Zero Trust

Zero Trust is gaining momentum. Founded on the principle Never trust, always verify, the Zero Trust security model protects your network by maintaining strict access controls, even for users already inside the perimeter. But the complexities of the modern cloud present new challenges for network security. 

Remote work is on the rise, cloud usage is booming, and Shadow IT is becoming widespread. Organizations are turning to Zero Trust to guard against these new challenges, and effective access management plays a leading role in that effort. Here’s how.

Better security for modern workflows

Zero Trust should do more than secure your network. It must also enable businesses to operate effectively, providing granular access for everyone without disrupting workflows. 

This can be a challenge as remote work gains popularity and users connect to sensitive systems from a variety of devices and physical locations ”not necessarily sanctioned by IT. Add that to highly complex, ephemeral, and distributed infrastructure in multi-cloud and hybrid environments, and admins must rush to keep pace with the necessary changes. 

Zero Trust requires all devices and users, both inside and outside of an organization‘s network, to be authenticated, authorized, and validated each time they require access ”all while complying with internal and regulatory standards.

Getting your network to conform with Zero Trust protocols often requires multiple custom configurations and time-intensive projects, each tailored to specific cloud providers, operating systems, and devices. Such a burden may drive organizations to take shortcuts that are not scalable or secure.

This is where access management comes into play.

Access management is the key to Zero Trust

Traditionally, organizations relied on virtual private networks (VPNs) to manage access, but VPNs, which offer perimeter-based security, often struggle to keep up with the complexity of modern cloud networks. And although Zero Trust and VPN are not mutually exclusive, many businesses are looking for greater flexibility, improved resource utilization, and less administrative overhead. 

Where VPNs provide network-wide access ”the keys to the kingdom ”Zero Trust permits access to specific resources only after verification and authentication. This granularity strengthens security around internal and external networks. 

The challenge is making sure Zero Trust access management doesn’t create bottlenecks that impact workflows and performance. When employees are unable to connect to the resources they require, admins may feel pressured to sidestep access controls, resulting in privilege creep and an increased attack surface. 

Disparate systems and manual processes can mean creating one-off roles for every user in your network. This is not only time-consuming and costly, it can also leave your network vulnerable. 

You can achieve frictionless Zero Trust

Tools can help. An effective access management tool will balance ease of access with the need for robust security. These tools can manage and audit access to databases, servers, clusters, and other infrastructure, making it much easier to transition to a Zero Trust security model.

An effective access management tool must be ready to implement Zero Trust from day one. It should be compatible with systems across your production environment ”from legacy databases to cloud-native microservices ”and nimble enough to scale with your organization. 

Access management tools support Zero Trust by providing:

• Centralization. As a single source of truth for all of your infrastructure, a good access management tool will secure access to any database, server, or other firewalled resource, no matter where it’s hosted. Centralization allows admins to view all connected resources, all active users, and all user permissions from a single control plane, even in multi-cloud environments.
• Segmentation. Rather than using a range of microsegmentation products to authenticate users, look for an access management tool that proxies client traffic through a centralized gateway. This allows you to monitor and manage access to your resources without the need for complex reconfiguration.
• Access Control. Models such as Role-based access control (RBAC) and Attribute-based access control (ABAC) allow admins to manage access at a higher level of abstraction. This is essential for implementing the verify portion of Zero Trust without creating unnecessary friction for users. An effective Zero Trust access tool will make it easier for admins to assign permissions across different subsets of users and automatically deploy configuration changes across your network.
• Visibility. You can also monitor access with a tool that generates fine-grained logs from user activity in your network to help ensure that you are meeting Zero Trust requirements.

In conclusions

Implementing a fully-realized Zero Trust architecture in today’s complex environments can seem daunting and cost-prohibitive, but it doesn’t have to be. The right access management tools will help you strike a balance between productivity and security even in the most complex environments, so you can keep your workforce happy and your infrastructure safe.