Modern ZTNA Solutions Must Support Today’s Collaboration Ecosystem
In an era ruled by remote work and globally-distributed employees, asynchronous network-based collaboration tools are proliferating — and presenting new opportunities for threat actors to access sensitive data and systems. Despite the risks, these tools have become operational necessities for modern business, particularly small-medium businesses (SMBs) and mid-market organizations.
To strike a balance between security and business productivity, security solutions providers must step up their efforts to make zero trust network access (ZTNA) tools available that support today’s collaborative ecosystem and its leading solutions.
Google Workspace Leads in Collaboration Tool Market Share
Since its launch in 2010, Microsoft® Office 365® has grown to be seen as the leading suite of tools for business productivity. However, as the need for agility, interoperability, and overall ease of access grows, Google Workspace™ (which includes hallmark productivity tools such as Google Docs™, Google Slides™, and Google Sheets™) has been steadily gaining market share and is considered by many businesses to be the more modern and accessible solution.
Today, Google Workspace boasts over six million paying business customers and over three billion users globally. This widespread adoption gives rise to Google holding a 59.41% market share of office productivity suites, compared to Microsoft’s 40.39%.
SMBs and mid-market organizations are flocking to Google Workspace given its simplicity, superior ability to support asynchronous collaboration, and low barrier to adoption for SMBs and mid-market organizations.
Organizations Embracing Collaboration Tools Need Modern ZTNA Solutions
As employee-targeted social engineering and credential-stealing attacks continue to increase in frequency, organizations need modern ZTNA solutions to protect their most critical assets and information while promoting user experience and productivity.
For stakeholders undertaking security modernization, as with productivity modernization, ease of use is paramount. Users need a seamless experience with less friction, fewer logins, and easier authentication requests. This experience is the opposite of what most users expect when it comes to reinforcing organizational security. However, zero trust makes it possible to enhance security without impacting productivity. This ability to make businesses more resilient in the face of a more sophisticated and active threat landscape —without making users work harder to achieve it — is one of the driving forces behind the acceleration in ZTNA adoption.
This is also a major reason why Gartner projects ZTNA as the fastest-growing segment in network security, forecast to grow 36% in 2022 and 31% in 2023. The growth is driven by increased demand for zero trust protection for remote workers and organizations, while reducing dependence on VPNs for secure access. This approach entails having fewer systems and services exposed to the internet, reducing the risk of being breached.
CylanceGATEWAY Provides One-Click ZTNA for Google Workspace Users
As a security solutions provider that is attuned to the needs of organizations of all sizes, BlackBerry is proud to enable businesses that leverage leading productivity tools, like Google Workspace, with innovative ZTNA technology through CylanceGATEWAY™.
Specifically, CylanceGATEWAY enables one-click configuration of nearly 50 SaaS (software-as-a-service) applications. This managed network service now includes support for Google Workspace in accordance with Google’s service-specific requirements. Organizations that leverage Google Workspace as their productivity and collaborative cloud ecosystem are now able to reap the benefits of a leading AI-powered and cloud-enabled ZTNA solution.
Adding Google Workspace to the CylanceGATEWAY solution’s list of managed network services streamlines the ZTNA adoption process and end-user experience. BlackBerry absorbs the burden of mapping all Google Workspace domains and IP address ranges, to bolster the continuity of connection.
This broader support from BlackBerry also significantly reduces the time required to enable connectivity for Google Workspace. The overall ease of deployment, rollout, and management aligns with Google’s goal of helping teams of all sizes connect, create, and collaborate.
Empowered by CylanceGATEWAY, organizations can quickly enable zero trust to secure any app, for any user, on any device, and from any location. This enhanced security is a deterrent against ransomware, command-and-control (C2) beacons, privilege escalation, DNS tunneling, and data exfiltration. In addition to reducing the potential surface area for attacks, this cohesion prevents lateral movement, and provides greater visibility into network activity for both on-premises and cloud resources, improving the odds of IT/Security Operations identifying unwanted applications.
BlackBerry supports a cloud-native approach to ZTNA to provide modern enterprises with a fast, reliable, and elastic solution that empowers digital business transformation while keeping data, applications, and users secure.
Getting Started with CylanceGATEWAY
To learn more about harnessing the power of ZTNA, and this latest release of CylanceGATEWAY, to combat existing and emerging threats using the power of Cylance® Artificial Intelligence (AI), visit the CylanceGATEWAY product page.
