Traditional valuable assets are most likely maintained in DMZ’s. Initially implemented in in-house data centers, the DMZ has nowadays often moved to the cloud or is maintained in a hybrid environment to be more agile, easier accessible for customers, partners, service vendors and remote workers. Although valid for IT networks, for OT environments these arguments and transitions remain invalid or simply impossible as the OT networks are required to operate completely isolated from the internet for obvious security reasons. However, evolving technologies exploiting the benefits of IIoT, AI and other sophisticated technologies require more and more outside support of specialized service providers for daily operation and maintenance. Remote offline OT networks still need to be monitored and maintained by the trusted company operators but may require some form of highly secured remote access.
Overall, with traditional perimeter network requirements changing and dependency on internet-based facilities and services increasing, this evolution is creating an ever more complicated cyber security paradigm.
In 2019, Gartner publicized an interesting report called ‘The Future of Network Security Is in the Cloud’. This report highlights the evolving trends in cyber security to provide a path to the future, importantly also explains how secure remote access can be delivered via cloud delivered Security Access Service Edge (SASE) implementation coupled with Zero-Trust security, redefining network and perimeter defenses when a traditional perimeter no longer exists.
This remote access solution already delivered on this paradigm even before the trending report was publicized. However, it is not only providing a future proof solution, but more importantly, it allows any organization to implement an easy to operate and maintain highly cyber secure fast and simple remote access solution today with zero downtime!