As cyber threats continue to escalate, organizations face critical challenges in securing access across increasingly distributed networks. Traditional VPNs fall short in addressing evolving threats, particularly as applications and users become more dispersed.
“We now live in a world in which apps are everywhere and these apps are being accessed by users who are also highly distributed. Relying on VPNs to connect users essentially means bringing all the traffic from largely different locations via a few VPN concentrators and creating a choke point,” explains Harsha Nagaraju, Vice President of Product, Solution and Tech Alliances Marketing at Zscaler.
Zscaler is at the forefront of the Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) revolution, recognized as the market leader in the Garner Magic Quadrant for Security Service Edge three consecutive years running.
In this Q&A, Nagaraju covers how Zscaler’s cloud-native platform sets itself apart in the ZTNA space, offers practical advice for CISOs exploring remote access solutions, and forecasts key trends that will shape secure access priorities in 2025.
Q. What are the biggest challenges facing organizations in the ZTNA space today and how are threats evolving?
There is a gap in the level of understanding of security risk and business agility with traditional VPNs. We now live in a world in which apps are everywhere and these apps are being accessed by users who are also highly distributed. Relying on VPNs to connect users essentially means bringing all the traffic from largely different locations via a few VPN concentrators and creating a choke point.
Combine this with the fact that VPNs – by design – connect users directly to the enterprise network and you now have a dramatically expanded enterprise network with a massive attack surface and unlimited opportunities for bad actors to exploit your enterprise network once they enter the network.
Given these huge security risks and the regular exploitation of these risks as evidenced by many high-profile incidents in 2024 (such as the Ivanti Pulse Secure Vulnerability that led CISA to issue an emergency directive and Palo Alto Network’s PAN-OS vulnerability), it’s difficult to understand why adoption of ZTNA is not high as it should be. Several organizations somehow think that VPN is good enough, which is mind-boggling.
Others who are considering ZTNA also have the perception that ZTNA is more expensive than a VPN. When you take into account the total cost of ownership, ZTNA can have up to 300% greater ROI.
There has been an acceleration in the number of threats as well as the sophistication of attacks, too. One of the more difficult threats to manage are those of insider attacks or identity-based attacks in which bad actors pose as legitimate users and gain free reign. Here again, the legacy architectures fail us.
Q. How does the Zscaler Private Access platform help teams address these challenges, and how do you continue to differentiate the platform in this competitive space?
Zscaler was the first ZTNA solution (launched in 2016) in the market and is the most widely deployed ZTNA solution today, and there are strong reasons for it.
Zscaler Private Access is a cloud native solution that is easy to deploy and solves for all secure access use cases. Zscaler will continue innovating to ensure we meet customers in their ZT journey and offer a solution that is resilient, secure, and simple to use. Below are a few reasons why Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) is the best ZTNA solution in the market today.
- Most Secure: A cloud native, full proxy solution that hides the apps from the internet; only ZTNA that uses AI-powered recommendations to map users to permitted apps.
- Complete: Most comprehensive ZTNA solution offering secure access for any user (employee/ third party) from any device (corp/ BYOD) to any app (cloud/on-premises/ extranet, network connected). No Apps left behind!
- Scale & Maturity: Industry’s most deployed ZTNA solution serving the world’s largest customers (>40% of Fortune 500).
- Resilient: Only ZTNA with built-in Business Continuity solution. No compromise to security or user productivity even during an outage.
- Simple Operations: Deploys quickly and manage easily. Get 289%+ ROI on investment, according to the latest Forrester TEI report from Nov 2024.
Q. What are your top recommendations for CISOs looking for an enterprise ZTNA solution?
Your most critical assets (crown jewels) for any enterprise are accessed via a remote access solution. You cannot lean on legacy solutions (VPNs) to provide secure access to them.
Time to act is now. This is the most important step in your Zero Trust journey, and with the right solution, they can improve your overall security, while achieving significant operational cost savings.
Lean into modern cloud-native ZTNA solutions. Choose a solution that is comprehensive and solves for most (if not all) of your use cases. Work with a vendor with proven reliability and scalability so they can innovate with you.
Q. What trends do you expect to see in the ZTNA space in 2025?
- Exploding threats: Ransomware continues to be a huge issue, and VPNs are an easy target.
- Growing ZTNA Market: As ZTNA gains momentum, there are going to be significant, large deals involving replacement of VPNs. Stand-alone ZTNA as a product goes away. ZTNA will likely be purchased as part of an overall SSE or SASE investment.
- Expanded use cases: Customers who understand ZTNA accurately will likely see its obvious benefits and start adopting it universally, beyond just securing access to remote users. It’s equally effective for in-office users, contractors, vendors, partners, and business-to-business communications.
- Embracing of application segmentation: The shift away from historically expensive and ineffective network segmentation to more practical and effective application/policy-based segmentation is likely going to grow significantly.
Q. In your view, what should organizations’ top ZTNA planning priorities for 2025 be?
- Spend time understanding the real risks to your business, what ZTNA is, and how it can mitigate risk to business.
- Get stakeholders onboard (IT, Security, App Owners). This leads to smoother adoption and better success.
- Expand to apply ZTNA universally beyond just remote users (other use cases – hybrid, 3rd-party access, VDI alternative, M&A, Partner access, B2B access).
- Adaptive Access: Use dynamic user and risk scores to constantly evolve your access policies.
Further reading
- Learn more about Zscaler Private Access
- Read our guide to The Top ZTNA Solutions
