A new report from cloud security provider Zscaler titled The State of Zero Trust Transformation 2023 report finds that more than 90 percent of IT leaders surveyed are implementing zero trust architecture I connection with their cloud migration strategy over the next 12 months.
Nathan Howe, vice president of emerging technology and 5G at Zscaler, explained how the push toward zero trust architectures and cloud services can go hand in hand.
“More than 90% of those IT leaders that have started their migration to the cloud have implemented, or are in the process of implementing, a zero trust security strategy in the next year,” Howe said.
“That’s according to the findings of our latest global survey, which sought insights from over 1,900 CIOs, CISOs, CDO, CTOs and Heads of Infrastructure, from organizations that have already begun migrating applications and services to the cloud,” said Howe.
The report also finds that most of those surveyed agree that secure cloud transformation cannot be achieved with legacy security.
“More than two-thirds (68%) of IT leaders either agree that secure cloud transformation is impossible with legacy network security infrastructure or that zero trust network access (ZTNA) has clear advantages over traditional firewalls and VPNs when it comes to securing remote access to applications,” Zscaler said.
The report also sheds light on IT leaders’ confidence in their own zero trust strategies.
“With only 22% fully confident their organization is leveraging the complete potential of their cloud infrastructure, the results indicate a need to think beyond just security going forward,” the report says. “When approached from a holistic IT perspective, zero trust has the potential to unlock a wealth of opportunities in an overall digitization process.”
The report concludes with three recommendations to focus on when building a zero trust strategy:
- Organizations need to reconsider their understanding of zero trust looking at it as an enabler of secure digital transformation and a driver of business outcomes;
- There’s a need for further education to dispel fear, uncertainty and doubt about what zero trust means and its full impact on business; and
- Emerging tech needs to be looked at as a competitive business advantage, and zero trust-enabled infrastructure helps lay the foundation for those advantages.
