Zero Trust – 5 Things You Need to Know

The term zero trust is a popular buzzword these days – and rightly so considering that users, devices and clouds are moving outside the traditional network, shifting the perimeter and creating gaps in visibility.

If you are a partner in the cybersecurity space you have probably had at least a handful – if not all ­– of your customers talk to you about zero trust or at least ask a question about it.  So what does it really mean, and how can you help your customers achieve their security goals?

ZERO TRUST DEFINED

In the simplest of definitions, zero trust ultimately referrers to establishing and continually verifying a baseline of trust for the users, apps and devices connecting to your network and accessing data.  As an organization, customers want to grant just enough trust to be productive without opening themselves up to unnecessary security risks.

“It’s not about getting rid of the perimeter – but rather tightening security on the inside. The new perimeter is less about the edge of the network, and now more about any place you make an access control decision.”

-Wendy Nather, Head of Advisory CISOs, Cisco Duo, Summarized from Zero Trust: Going Beyond the Perimeter

CISCO’S ZERO-TRUST SOLUTION

At Cisco, we have made significant investments to deliver a comprehensive zero trust approach that allows customers to protect across their workforce, workloads and workplace. Our solution consists of three key offers: Duo for securing your workforce, Tetration for securing workloads, and Software-Defined Access (SD-Access) for securing the workplace. With Cisco, customers can prevent unauthorized access, contain breaches, and reduce the risk of an attacker’s lateral movement throughout their network.  And what is unique about Cisco is that this solution integrates seamlessly with the rest of your customers’ Cisco security investments, improving their security posture, and saving your customers precious time and money.

“Cisco’s framework is built to integrate seamlessly with your existing infrastructure and investments using an open API model, standards-based platform and strong technology partnerships to ensure that everything across your environment is protected – securing your enterprise as you scale.”

-Thu Pham, Cisco Duo, Welcome to the New Zero Trust

INDUSTRY RECOGNITION

But don’t just take our word for it: at the end of October Cisco was named a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Zero Trust eXtended Ecosystem Platform Providers, Q4 2019 report. We believe this acknowledgment is validation of our zero-trust strategy.

WHAT TO POSITION FIRST

When talking to your customers about starting their journey to zero-trust, we recommend starting with Duo’s multi-factor authentication (MFA) first. Duo MFA is easy way to start the conversation since it is simple to roll-out and it is very end user friendly, lifting a lot of burden off of your customer’s IT staff.  Duo MFA protects against phishing, compromised user credentials and other identity-based attacks. You can get your customers set up with a free trial of Duo’s MFA today!

SELLER RESOURCES

Also, I am happy to share that it will now be even easier for you to sell Duo, since Duo is now live (as of December 2) on Cisco’s Global Price List (GPL).  You can learn more about Duo and access seller resources on our Selling Duo Partner Communities page here.

With Cisco Zero Trust, your customers achieve secure, trusted access wherever it happens. Learn more about our approach to zero trust today by experiencing it for yourself: try a free Duo trial, see a demo of Tetration and learn more about SD-Access.