We’ve been writing a lot about ZTNA recently. Indeed, we’ve recently created a white paper on the subject. This is because Zero Trust is a technology paradigm that is being talked about more and more, and one that has synergies with our Accelerator product.
Gartner said in a recent press release:
Gartner Predicts 10% of Large Enterprises Will Have a Mature and Measurable Zero-Trust Program in Place by 2026
Gartner
Are we in a Zero Trust “hype cycle”? When a new technology opportunity emerges, people in Silicon Valley often get excited about it before the rest of the world has even heard about it, kicking off the hype cycle. Cue new product announcements, press releases, webinar and the biggest players pivoting and maneuvering to set themselves up as the go-to vendor. Looking at Google Trends, we can see the interest in ZTNA growing globally:
We’re now passing the hype cycle stage and seeing some maturation in the product offerings. Similarly organizations are begin to understand what they need and where to look.
It is unsurprising to see that the countries that show most interest today have well developed internet infrastructures. Large enterprises in well established metropolitan areas are often good early adopters, with large budgets and IT capability to execute successfully.
However, IDC reported:
Over 54% of large enterprises in India are planning to implement SD-Branch and ZTNA as a part of a drive towards SASE adoption.
IDC
India can be a challenging place in terms of internet infrastructure. While there are dense metropolitan areas with world class network infrastructure and connectivity, the same can’t be said for the vast number of more remote and rural areas across the country. They’ll face more challenges with the widespread adoption of Zero Trust than would be the case in somewhere like Singapore.
The realization will soon hit that there is a cost associated with the extra protection that ZTNA provides. Yes, your organization will be more secure. However if it takes longer for employees to access the information they need, this may affect productivity.
Is the Performance-Security Trade-off Acceptable?
We’re currently in the phase of vendors telling us “The performance impact is worth it for the benefits that ZTNA brings.” This might be acceptable when you have a fiber broadband connection in somewhere like San Francisco or Singapore. However it might not be pass muster if you are using a 10Mbit ADSL connection from a rural town in India.
For ZTNA to work in these environments, something needs to change. For example, infrastructure upgrades and building more POPs is one common solution. In many cases, this is too expensive, or just does not keep pace with expectations.
We believe the SASE and Zero Trust solutions should have integrated WAN optimization. Fortunately, Replify can offer it’s WAN optimization technology as an OEM solution. Get in touch today and complete your solution with Replify WAN Optimization.