Intelligent CISO Issue 57 | Page 55

Zscaler study finds 90 % of global enterprises are adopting Zero Trust , yet have not unlocked the full business potential

This further validates the findings that 68 % agree that secure cloud transformation is impossible with a legacy network security infrastructure or that ZTNA has clear advantages over traditional firewalls and VPNs for secure remote access to critical applications .
The cloud context – a lack of confidence
scaler , a leader in cloud

Z security , found that more than

90 % of IT leaders who have started their migration to the cloud have implemented , are implementing , or are planning to implement a Zero Trust security architecture .
Supporting the mass migration to Zero Trust to secure users and the cloud , more than two-thirds ( 68 %) believe that secure cloud transformation is impossible with legacy network security infrastructures or that ZTNA has clear advantages over traditional firewalls and VPNs for remote access to applications .
This is according to The State of Zero Trust Transformation 2023 report , which drew on a global study of over 1,900 senior IT decision-makers at organisations globally , which have already started migrating applications and services to the cloud .
Zscaler ’ s research shows that against a backdrop of rapid Digital Transformation , IT leaders believe Zero Trust – built on
the principle that no user , device or application should be inherently trusted – is the ideal framework for securing enterprise users , workloads and IoT / OT environments in a highly distributed cloud and mobile-centric world .
Approached from a holistic IT perspective , Zero Trust has the potential to unlock business opportunities across the overall digitisation process , from driving increased innovation to supporting better employee engagement , or delivering tangible cost efficiencies .
The leading cloud concerns
IT leaders identified security , access and complexity as top cloud concerns , creating a clear case for Zero Trust to overcome these hurdles . When asked about legacy network and security infrastructures , 54 % indicated they believed VPNs or perimeterbased firewalls are both ineffective at protecting against cyberattacks or providing poor visibility into application traffic and attacks .
While progress on Zero Trust is strong , Zscaler found that globally only 22 % of organisations are fully confident they are leveraging the full potential of their cloud infrastructure , so while organisations have made solid initial steps on their cloud journey , there is a massive opportunity to capitalise on the benefits of the cloud .
Regionally , the results vary with 42 % of organisations in the Americas feeling fully confident in the use of their cloud infrastructure , compared with 14 % of organisations across EMEA and 24 % in APAC . While India ( 55 %) and Brazil ( 51 %) are leading on a country level followed by the US ( 41 %) and Mexico ( 36 %), European and Asian countries are less confident : in Europe , Sweden ( 21 %) and the UK ( 19 %) are leading followed by Australia ( 17 %), Japan ( 17 %) and Singapore ( 16 %).
The remaining European countries are lagging behind : The Netherlands with 14 %, Italy ( 12 %), both France and Spain at 11 % and Germany with 9 %. This chasm between the most progressive country being more than six-times the most lagging country shows varying confidence levels of the cloud by region and further presents an opportunity for education and closing the skills gap . u
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