Security is an ongoing challenge for organizations, and with today’s dynamic workforce, the challenge is ever-increasing. Forrester first coined the term Zero Trust, referring to a security model that does not automatically trust entities within the security perimeter.
VMware is dedicated to the Zero Trust vision, and for us, Zero Trust means building a dynamic, modern security architecture that builds trust on a much broader and deeper basis than traditional security measures.
Watch the following video for a technical overview of the VMware Zero Trust architecture, or continue reading for a brief summary.
The Five Pillars of Zero Trust Architecture
The Zero Trust architecture consists of five pillars—device trust, user trust, transport/session trust, application trust, and data trust. You must establish trust in each pillar to make decisions to grant or deny access. By establishing trust across the five pillars, we gain visibility and gather analytics across the board. Visibility and analytics are a critical part of the Zero Trust architecture, and they help establish a deeper and broader footprint in each pillar.
VMware is uniquely positioned to help you on your Zero Trust journey, with the broadest portfolio of solutions covering all five pillars of trust.
Expand the drop-down menu items to see examples of the parameters that might categorize each pillar and find out which VMware solutions can help to establish trust.
Device Trust
By interrogating device trust, we can get details on the following parameters:
User Trust
As part of Zero Trust, we must use more secure user authentication methods. This pillar requires a strong conditional access engine that can help make decisions using dynamic and contextual data.
Transport/Session Trust
By using the principle of least-privilege access to resources, we limit access rights to users and grant the minimum permissions required to perform their work.
Data Trust
Finally, we must make sure that the data stays secure.
Analytics and Automation
By establishing trust across the five pillars, you can gain visibility and analytics. You need a system that gives you visibility by logging all traffic. This information can then be used to learn and monitor network patterns. The resulting analytics help you make effective dynamic policy and trust decisions.
With visibility and analytics, you can build automation and orchestration. Workspace ONE and Horizon platform services allow you to collect contextual information from across the entire environment. This contextual awareness feeds intelligence, allowing you to make just-in-time decisions and use automation for threat remediation.
Expand the drop-down menu items to learn more about the elements required for analytics and automation and to find out which VMware solutions can help.
Visibility and Analytics
Achieving visibility and developing analytics depends on the following parameters:
Automation and Orchestration
As part of Zero Trust, we must use more secure user authentication methods. This pillar requires a strong conditional access engine that can help make decisions using dynamic and contextual data.
For details about VMware Horizon and Workspace ONE features that give you visibility and help you analyze behavior, and for descriptions of the automation features for Workspace ONE UEM and Workspace ONE Intelligence, see the new guide Zero Trust Secure Access to Traditional Applications with VMware.
Summary
You have seen that VMware can cover all pillars of trust in the Zero Trust architecture. VMware also offers visibility and analytics and, on top of that, allows you to build automation and orchestration.
To learn more, follow the Zero Trust Activity Path which contains a curated list of assets to help you master the VMware Zero Trust architecture. This activity path and more resources are available on Digital Workspace Tech Zone.
