The zero-trust security model has moved from an emerging concept to a mainstream strategy. Reports indicate that more than 80 percent of organizations have partially or fully implemented a zero-trust model.
The trend is accelerating, with 81 percent of organizations planning to actively transition to a zero-trust framework within the next year. Gartner predicts that 60 percent of organizations globally will adopt it as a foundational security element by the end of 2025.
However, zero trust is notoriously difficult to implement. As we discussed in a previous post, implementing zero trust is a complex process that requires integrating multiple technologies. Zero trust also requires a fundamental change in thinking, which can create organizational resistance.
One of the biggest challenges is getting zero trust to work in today’s complex, distributed environments. By shifting the focus to applications rather than infrastructure, organizations can streamline implementation, simplify management, and maximize the security of mission-critical workloads and data.
What Is Application-Centric Zero Trust?
That’s why application-centric zero trust is emerging as a key enabler of zero trust success. In the application-centric model, access policies and controls are defined based on the needs of the applications being used, rather than focusing on network location alone.
Application-centric zero trust is based on the core zero-trust principle of “never trust, always verify.” Every access request is verified by authenticating the user’s identity and inspecting the security posture of the user’s device. Multifactor authentication (MFA) is required. If all requirements are met, the user is granted access based on least-privilege access principles. User identity and device posture are continuously verified after initial access is granted.
Application-centric zero trust is sometimes called zero-trust application access (ZTAA) to contrast with zero-trust network access (ZTNA). As the name suggests, ZTNA is focused on securing access to the network itself. ZTAA is a more granular approach that better aligns with remote and mobile work styles and the way users access applications today.
What Are the Benefits of Application-Centric Zero Trust?
Application-centric zero trust helps organizations implement a more secure posture within the zero-trust framework. It eliminates reliance on a trusted network interior, reducing the attack surface and the risk that a breach will spread throughout the environment. At the same time, it’s highly scalable, enabling IT teams to secure access to applications no matter where they reside.
Security settings can be tailored to the application’s specific context, such as its role, the data it handles and user access patterns. By grouping configurations at the application level, application-centric zero trust reduces the complexity of managing disparate settings across multiple applications. It also makes it easier to enforce policies consistently across on-premises, cloud and hybrid platforms.
When security settings align with the applications they’re meant to protect, IT teams gain a more holistic view of the organization’s security posture. Application-centric network observability maps network traffic not just to IP addresses, but to the specific application, its provider and location, providing better visibility into performance and security.
How Do Organizations Implement Application-Centric Zero Trust?
Implementing application-centric zero trust starts with defining the applications, services and data that require the strongest security. This allows IT teams to focus defenses on applications that are critical to operations and map security controls to business value. A strategic approach also enables organizations to prioritize resource allocation.
Additionally, this process helps IT teams visualize the environment as segments. Network segmentation is a core principle of zero trust, but it becomes difficult to manage in a hybrid/multi-cloud environment. With an application-centric approach, IT teams can focus on controlling traffic between workloads.
Automation is essential. Manually configuring and reviewing firewall settings is simply too slow in today’s dynamic environments. Automated tools can validate and safely deploy changes for greater speed and agility and minimal risk of human error. Policies and configurations can be reviewed and analyzed in real time.
How Technologent Can Help
Technologent’s security team can help you develop an application-centric zero trust strategy and implement the tools needed for authentication, device validation, automation and more. Let us help you overcome the challenges of zero trust and gain more robust protection for your most critical IT assets.
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