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12 Ways to make ZTNA deployments effortless

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By Mor Ahuvia, Product Marketing Manager
Launching into a zero trust network access (ZTNA) implementation? Don’t be nervous. We’ve already anticipated—and handled—the most challenging parts of ZTNA deployment for you. In just minutes, you can protect any asset, such as cloud or premises-based data centers, applications, and resources with least privileged access, data protection and threat prevention. Here are 12 capabilities that pave the way to an effortless ZTNA deployment.

  1. Cloud-based deployment simplifies security

With a 100% cloud-based ZTNA deployment, integrated with next-generation branch Firewall as a Service (FWaaS), a cloud IPS and cloud DLP, security features are embedded for seamless protection of connections and assets. Cloud-based ZTNA services also offer numerous efficiencies by eliminating the need to manage any hardware or software and ensure operations and maintenance needs like backups, high availability and redundancy, and planning for business continuity and disaster recovery.

  1. Deploy zero trust where—and how—you need it

Look for a solution that lets you deploy network-level access, application-level access, or both. Secure employee access from managed devices using network-level access. At the same time, ensure zero trust access for employee-owned devices and third-party users via agentless application-level access. You determine the best approach for your specific environment, with the flexibility to deploy both side-by-side.

  1. Unified management saves time and increases visibility

A single, unified console is easy for your team to use. In one place, they have visibility across all SASE use cases—including:

Your team can quickly and consistently enforce policies and monitor user activity. There’s no extensive learning curve for administrators or users, immediately boosting productivity.

  1. Clientless access simplifies zero trust for third-party and BYOD users

For users, instant access to networks and applications should be as intuitive as connecting to a SaaS application. Any user device with a browser (including BYOD) should be able to access resources through a single sign-on (SSO) portal or via a link. For partners and contractors, look for a ZTNA solution that doesn’t require installing or managing agents on devices. Ensure zero trust, least privileged access for external users through easy implementation of clientless Layer 7 application access. Meanwhile, the security team can rest assured knowing that they have a full audit trail of user activity regardless of application, location or device.

  1. VPN-as-a-service secures employee access through managed devices

Instead of deploying expensive, bandwidth-limited hardware VPN solutions, choose a cloud-based VPN-as-a-Service ZTNA solution. A zero trust access policy secures access from managed devices while defending applications and protocols against the latest vulnerabilities with embedded cloud DLP and IPS protection.

  1. VPNaaS also secures branch access through routers or gateways

The same VPNaaS offers complete branch protection when office users access private apps in datacenters or IaaS. Just hook up your gateway or router to the same cloud ZTNA service.

  1. Versatile Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access

Provide secure access to remote desktops and servers using browser-based or native RDP Access, with no VPN client required. Allow users to share clipboards or files and define required log-in credentials.

  1. Integrate with existing identity management solutions in a snap

Look for a ZTNA solution that automatically handles zero trust integration with existing identity providers, e.g. Okta, Ping Identity, OneLogin, etc. The solution should support the System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM) and Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) for seamless integration.

  1. Gain in-depth, granular control

Effective ZTNA deployments rely on granular control. The ability to assign permissions and create policy for actions performed within applications—e.g. at the command and query levels—gives your team unmatched flexibility. They can provision and deprovision DevOps and third-party access to and within internal applications while limiting access scope. Full activity logs deliver at-a-glance visibility into user activity without complex workflows. Granular control should also cover user activity across terminals (SSH), databases (SQL), remote assets (RDP) and Web apps among others.

  1. PAM-as-a-service for multi-cloud and private resources

Built-in privileged access management (PAM) capabilities for multi-cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP, etc.) and private servers allow authorized users to access sensitive production environments and administrative resources. Look for a solution that enables SSO for engineer and DevOps access with key management, credential vaulting and session video recording.  Ideally, the solution should issue and manage one-time tokens or public-private key pairs that are rotated periodically and can be manually revoked at any time.

  1. Full audit trails and forensics

The ability to report on groups, users, and application usage with access to video session recordings provides deep visibility and allows teams to quickly adapt policies or take other appropriate action.

  1. Simple all-inclusive pricing reduces cost of ownership

One of the best ways to simplify a ZTNA deployment is making a solution easy to acquire. An all-inclusive subscription ensures that you receive all of the rich ZTNA features you need without complicated pricing or hidden, add-on costs.

Discover ZTNA from Harmony Connect SASE

Harmony Connect Remote Access takes only minutes to deploy and secures access to any internal corporate application residing in the data center, IaaS, public, or private clouds. The service comes in two flavors that can be deployed side by side. These include client-based zero trust access at layer 3 for employee access from managed devices and branch offices (VPNaaS), and clientless ZTNA at layer 7 for zero trust access to web applications, databases, remote desktops and SSH servers using reverse proxies in the cloud.

To learn more, check out these resources:

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