Zero Trust Network Access

Ensure all access is
safe and secure

The way we work has been transformed seemingly overnight with remote working now being the norm. But with this comes new challenges in keeping your business safe and secure. For example, your existing infrastructure may not have the flexibility to allow employees to securely connect from anywhere using any device. Which in turn puts your data at risk.  The massive shift from working in an office to working at home has highlighted many security and connectivity challenges.
Gartner predicts that by 2023, 60% of enterprises will phase out traditional VPNs and use a ZTNA model.
In addition, today’s networks are highly distributed with resources spread across data centres and multiple clouds. It’s critical for organisations to enable secure access from anywhere to any application while applying consistent security policies. That’s why today’s enterprises need to evolve remote access from traditional Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to a Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solution.

What is Zero Trust Network Access?

Gartner defines Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) as… 

“a product or service that creates an identity- and context-based, logical access boundary around an application or set of applications. The applications are hidden from discovery, and access is restricted via a trust broker to a set of named entities. The broker verifies the identity, context and policy adherence of the specified participants before allowing access and prohibits lateral movement elsewhere in the network. This removes application assets from public visibility and significantly reduces the surface area for attack.”

Fortinet ZTNA

Building a zero-trust network access solution requires a variety of components—a client, a proxy, authentication, and security. But in most organisations, these solutions are provided by different vendors. The components often run on different operating systems and use different consoles for management and configuration, so establishing a zero-trust model across vendors is nearly impossible.

With Fortinet, not only can you easily establish zero-trust access through one vendor but also with one operating system. FortiOS 7.0 updates turn an organisation’s existing Fortinet infrastructure into the newest part of a zero-trust architecture. FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) and FortiClient endpoint protection employ ZTNA capabilities with simplified management. The same adaptive, application access policy is used whether users are on or off the network. And, by building ZTNA into FortiOS, it’s tightly integrated into the Fortinet Security Fabric, enabling easy management and superior visibility. 

Fortinet can apply ZTNA to remote users, home offices, and other locations, such as retail stores, by offering controlled remote access to applications. It’s easier and faster to initiate than a traditional VPN. This gives users a better experience while providing a more granular set of security protections. It doesn’t matter if applications are in the data centre, private cloud, or public cloud. Users and applications can be geographically independent and still create secure and reliable connections. 

Example Architecture for ZTNA

Features and Benefits

Flexible Deployment

Enables ZTNA policies to be enforced for both remote workers and on-campus workers.

Granular Access Control

Grants access to a specific application only for that session.

Ongoing Verification

Verifies the user identity, the device identity, device posture, and the user’s right to access an application before granting access to an application.

Client-initiated Model

Provides more visibility and control of the endpoint for the IT team while providing the user a faster, easier experience.

No Extra Cost

Requires no additional licenses. Fortinet’s ZTNA is a free feature in FortiOS and FortiClient, enabling customers to shift from VPN to ZTNA at their own pace.

Automatic Encrypted Tunnels

Creates TLS-encrypted tunnels automatically, from the endpoint to the access proxy, ensuring traffic is hidden from prying eyes.

Fortinet ZTNA Components

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How we make all access secure

Just some of the clients we've helped with
Zero Trust Network Access

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