New Pulse Zero Trust Access (PZTA) service enhances productivity, simplifies management and mitigates cyber risks as enterprises embrace increased workforce mobility and utility computing

Pulse Secure, the leading provider of software-defined Secure Access solutions, today announced the launch of Pulse Zero Trust Access (PZTA), a cloud-based, multi-tenant secure access service that enables organizations to provide users easy, anywhere access to multi-cloud and data center applications with Zero Trust assurance.

PZTA simplifies access management with single-pane-of-glass visibility, end-to-end analytics, granular policies, automated provisioning, and advanced threat mitigation that empowers organizations to further optimize their increasingly mobile workforce and hybrid IT resources.

As enterprises advance workforce mobility and business digitization, users require access to on-premises and cloud applications from any device, from any location, and at any time. Meanwhile, cyberattacks, data breaches and compliance obligations have grown significantly, making trust and adaptive control critical. PZTA offers users streamlined application access while allowing organizations to govern every request by automatically verifying identity, device and security posture before granting a direct, encrypted connection between that user’s device and applications residing in public clouds, private clouds or data centers.

“IT leaders are driving business transformation in the hybrid digital era while also defending assets during the ‘age of hyper-converged access’ – for any user, from any device, anywhere to any application, at any time. Pulse Zero Trust Access is designed for the elastic digital workplace, providing a unified, cloud-based service that enables greater accessibility, efficiency and risk reduction,” said Rohini Kasturi, chief product officer at Pulse Secure. “From inception, Pulse Secure has focused on providing secure access solutions that enhance productivity, visibility and compliance as companies migrate to the cloud and take advantage of utility computing. PZTA exemplifies our on-going commitment to innovate while maximizing deployment flexibility, scale, interoperability and investment protection for companies of all sizes.”

PZTA is based on Pulse Secure’s new cloud-native, microservices-based, multi-tenant platform deployed globally in Microsoft Azure Cloud. The PZTA service consists of the Pulse ZTA Controller, which is hosted and managed by Pulse Secure, the virtual Pulse ZTA Gateway that customers deploy on-premises or in the cloud, and the unified Pulse ZTA Client which runs natively on each user’s Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS and iOS, and Google Android device.

Architecture, Performance, Data Privacy and Adaptive Control Advantages

According to the Gartner Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) market guide:* “ZTNA improves the flexibility, agility and scalability of application access, enabling digital businesses to thrive without exposing internal applications directly to the internet, reducing risk of attack.” Further, “ZTNA augments traditional VPN technologies for application access, and removes the excessive trust once required to allow employees and partners to connect and collaborate. Security and risk management leaders should pilot ZTNA projects as part of a SASE [Secure Access Service Edge] strategy or to rapidly expand remote access.”

Pulse Zero Trust Access aligns with the Software Defined Perimeter (SDP) architecture of the Cloud Security Alliance, incorporating extensive identity and device authentication, separate control and data planes, centralized granular policy management, and micro-segmentation to thwart unauthorized access and attack propagation.

While every user device access requires explicit authentication and authorization by the Pulse Zero Trust Access service, the Pulse ZTA Gateways are deployed in the customer’s on-premise and cloud environment closest to the application or resource. This proximity optimizes user experience, reduces latency, and enables hybrid IT deployment at scale. Since encrypted application traffic only flows between the ZTA Clients and ZTA Gateways, customers gain full data privacy and data sovereignty.

PZTA governs each access request and session via a centrally deployed and managed policy. Building upon Gartner’s Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust Assessment (CARTA) framework, PZTA augments contextual and identity-centric policies with built-in User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) whereby attributes for every session are monitored and assessed, applying proprietary risk scoring algorithms to identify non-compliant, malicious and anomalous activity, and take expedited threat mitigation actions.

“Our customers trust us to identify and deliver advanced solutions that enable their digital business and protect their valuable resources. Pulse Secure has been our key partner for many years as they offer one of the most versatile, integrated and scalable secure access solutions in the market. We jumped at the opportunity to test out their new Zero Trust Access cloud-based service and our teams have been impressed with its simplicity, manageability and overall feature-set, said Herve Rousseau, the chief executive officer at Openminded. “Pulse Zero Trust Access service does indeed offer users an easier means to access network and cloud applications while providing organizations greater hybrid IT access agility, oversight and management.”

Comprehensive Cloud-native, Secure Access Solution for Existing and New Customers

PZTA allows enterprises of any size to gain comprehensive Secure Access with a simple, scalable, cloud-native service that can be implemented in a matter of hours. The solution provides deployment flexibility and cohesive policy management for enterprises migrating applications from data center to cloud, while also offering comprehensive secure access capabilities to those organizations with pure multi-cloud environments. This allows broad support for legacy applications and popular cloud apps such as those from Amazon, Atlassian, Box, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP and Zoom.

PZTA can co-exist with Pulse Secure’s remote, mobile and network access solution portfolio including the Pulse Access Suite. Leveraging the unified, multi-tunnel Pulse ZTA Client, users can enjoy transparent, uninterrupted, and simultaneous access to applications and resources from their device of choice regardless of access method – SDP, VPN or NAC. Organizations gain implementation and operational efficiencies, investment protection and tool consolidation to realize lower overall cost of ownership.

Additional features of PZTA include:

• Extensive identity, endpoint and security posture authentication prior and during each access transaction to negate unauthorized user and vulnerable device access
• Broad application support, including HTTP, TCP/UDP based applications, multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO) and protected connectivity options
• User and device resource shielding prior to PZTA Controller authorization, establishing a Dark Cloud defense to eliminate target visibility for attackers and malware propagation
• End-to-end analytics to expedite alerting, reporting, auditing, issue triage, and investigation processes

“Zero Trust and Software Defined Network are gaining the interest of our partners and customers by the day. This new cloud-based service released by Pulse Secure will enable enterprises fully adopt zero-trust networking with visibility, compliance, and user experience enhancements. With demand of remote working and work-life balance increasing, we are focused on offering Pulse Secure’s ZTA solution to help customers shift to zero-trust to take advantage of it functionality and simplicity”, said Jun Ikeda, chief executive officer at Macnica Networks Corporation.

PZTA Service Is Available Today

According to a 2020 Zero Trust Progress Report, more than half of cybersecurity decision makers (53%) plan to adopt Zero Trust access capabilities with a hybrid IT deployment. PZTA service is available today at an annual subscription MSRP starting at $180 per user for up to 500 users with volume and multi-year discounts being offered. Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) can take advantage of flexible deployment options with plans to allow MSPs to host the ZTA Controller in their or their customers’ infrastructure, and the ZTA Gateways across any hybrid environment.

For more information on PZTA visit www.pulsesecure.net/pzta. Enterprises, service providers and resellers can request an evaluation at: www.pulsesecure.net/requestpzta/.

*Gartner, “Market Guide for Zero Trust Network Access”, Analysts Steve Riley, et al, 8 June 2020

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s Research & Advisory organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

In the time of pandemic, vendors need to show their human side and empathise with customers

By: Andrew Brinded, Vice President and Sales Chief Operating Officer, Nutanix

For decades now, IT giants have got away with playing hardball with customers. They have had customers locked into their wares because it has been the devil’s job to untether business processes from suppliers’ closed systems. Some of the biggest names have survived (and yes, prospered) by pursuing tough, even combative relationships, safe in the knowledge that it’s hard for those companies to move away from the core platforms that underpin corporate operations. Today, as companies dust themselves off and prepare to blink into the light of the Brave New World of our post- COVID-19 future, we need far better buyer/seller relationships in order to survive and prosper.

Nobody is immune to change. For the past several months at Nutanix we have had to alter how we talk to customers, becoming even more of a listening company as CIOs and CFOs tell us about sudden declines in revenues, urgent support needs and a kaleidoscope of other factors that are miles away from Business As Usual. We’re no longer hopping on flights but on Zoom calls and we’re hearing alarming stories from valued customers telling us they are struggling.

The pandemic has created a business environment that makes the banking crisis of 2007-2008 look like a cakewalk. In Italy, world-famous car marques such as Ferrari and Fiat paused production. In Spain, Inditex, owner of ubiquitous apparel brands such as Zara and Massimo Dutti, shut stores and switched some production to medical supplies such as masks and scrubs. Super-brands such as Premier League football shuddered to a halt leaving us starved of action. Many of us couldn’t even have a relaxing drink or meal as restaurants put up closed signs.

Behind each of these stories lies a huge amount of headache and heartache. With revenues screeching to a halt, companies need to familiarise themselves with an utterly novel set of circumstances and work out what to do with their people, operating models and channels to market.

For a fortunate few companies that are cloud-centric, there has been an uptick: Amazon and other online retailers; meal delivery services such as Deliveroo, Uber Eats; Zoom and other videoconferencing services, of course. What these companies have in common is a heavy investment in cloud infrastructure, but the need to scale their systems suddenly to cope with spikes in demand has many significant challenges in its own right. But for many others, the result of COVID-19 will be closed businesses and a battle for survival. For most, the return to normality will be measured in years rather than months.

Any supplier needs to understand the individual challenges facing its customers and today they face the toughest over. IT suppliers have been spoiled over the years and companies that have had best-in-class products have been able to call the shots, often leading to dysfunctional buyer/seller relationships. Now, we need to band together with customers and build stronger links.

Communications

More than ever we need to listen as well as talk. A frequent complaint is that IT firms only want to sell and not to understand the specific needs of customers, their operations, their sector or their local culture. This is the time to invest in getting closer to customers.

Pricing

The crashing revenues that many companies are seeing mean that the industry needs to move to more creative pricing plans. The old enterprise software model of money upfront followed by an annual tax is no longer fit for purpose. Subscription-style tariffs mean customers only pay for what they use and means they can try new services and approaches at very low cost. Discounted and free services should also be applied where appropriate.

Support

Service level agreements are a necessary model to provide value, but they are often too rigorous. Companies need to be able to flex their terms in times such as these and go the extra mile to ensure customers have what they need, whether that’s by extending support hours or extending terms.

Cloud

The industry needs to press home the message that cloud platforms can be highly effective near-term and long-term responses to standing up services. The companies least able to manoeuvre today are those that have lots of on-premises legacy equipment. Today, we’re finding out the real advantages of having capacity on demand, in not being locked into suppliers or platforms, in being able to dial resources down as well as up, of trying new things fast — and even seeing them fail without high penalties.

All of the above are ways to start thinking about how we can help but our theme must be flexibility. That word is part of the lexicon of the industry: you hear it everywhere, together with ‘agility’ and ‘elasticity’. Attend any technology conference and you will be calling ‘house!’ on your buzzword bingo scorecard before the end of the opening keynote. But if IT vendors can lose their bad habits and show that willingness to change and flex in favour of customers, they will be in the best position to succeed when our economies bounce back. By being authentic, empathetic, human and gentle, we all win.

Enhances Fortinet’s Existing SASE Offering to Deliver the Most Complete SASE Platform on the Market

News Summary

Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, today announced it has acquired OPAQ Networks, a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) cloud provider based in Herndon, Virginia. OPAQ’s Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) cloud solution protects organizations’ distributed networks – from data centers, to branch offices, to remote users, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Ken Xie, Founder, Chairman of the Board, and CEO said, “The recent SASE market momentum further validates our Security-driven Networking approach and underscores what we’ve been saying for years. In this era of hyperconnectivity and expanding networks; with the network edge stretching across the entire digital infrastructure, networking and security must converge. In fact the acquisition of OPAQ actually further enhances our existing SASE offering enabling Fortinet to deliver the most complete SASE platform on the market. The Fortinet SASE platform delivers the broadest security and industry-leading SD-WAN and networking offerings that can all be delivered to customers and partners through a flexible, cost efficient and patented zero-trust cloud architecture.”

Fortinet’s Security Fabric combined with OPAQ’s patented ZTNA solution enhances Fortinet’s existing SASE offering to form the best-in-class SASE cloud security platform with the industry’s only true Zero Trust access and security by providing industry-leading next-generation firewall and SD-WAN capabilities, web security, sandboxing, advanced endpoint, identity / multi factor authentication, multi-cloud workload protection, cloud application security broker (CASB), browser isolation, and web application firewalling capabilities.

Moreover, OPAQ’s platform is purpose built to be partner friendly, empowering MSSPs, carriers and high value-add partners to easily integrate the SASE multi-tenant platform into their own offering and add value to business and government organization customers with their Network Operations Center and Security Operations Center expertise and advanced professional services.

Given remote workforce trends, with exponentially more users, devices, applications, services, and data outside of a traditional enterprise edge than inside, the integration of Fortinet’s broad Security Fabric with OPAQ’s cloud platform will offer customers and partners even more choices in how they can consume best-of-breed security and is yet another unique and differentiated way Fortinet is empowering customers with the best, integrated security and networking innovation in real-time.

With the OPAQ acquisition, unlike other cloud security providers, Fortinet will deliver:

• The best of scalability, performance, and security compared to any cloud security vendor.
• A broad integrated suite of cloud security solutions providing true Zero Trust security, unlike other ZTNA providers who leave many unprotected gaps in the attack surface.
• One-of-a-kind ZTNA solution with continuous security innovation at scale, leveraging Fortinet’s top-notch R&D talent to deliver security substance “under the hood”.
• Security and networking fully integrated, including Fortinet’s industry-leading SD-WAN, furthering the company’s Security-driven Networking approach.
• The most partner-friendly ZTNA offering in the market that remains true to Fortinet’s ongoing commitment to its valued partners.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.