Page 105 - Cyber Defense eMagazine July 2024

The End of the Tunnel Vision: Why Companies Are Ditching

VPNs for Zero Trust

By Jaye Tillson, Field CTO, Distinguished Technologist, HPE Aruba Networking

Virtual private networks (VPNs) have been the workhorse of secure remote access for decades. They
offer a seemingly simple solution: they create a secure tunnel between a user's device and the corporate
network, granting them access to internal resources.

However, as our workforces become increasingly mobile and cloud-based, companies are recognizing
VPNs' limitations in this new hybrid world and seeking a more secure, user-friendly, and scalable solution.

Enter Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), a security model rapidly gaining traction.

According to the 2024 VPN Risk report by Cybersecurity Insiders, 98% of businesses currently use a
VPN service, and 92% of users use a VPN at least once a week. However, 56% of companies are
considering alternatives to traditional VPNs. Security concerns are a significant driver of this shift, along
with poor user experience, with 81% of users being dissatisfied with their VPN and complex management
due to 65% of organizations having three or more VPN gateways to support.

The report highlights a growing number of organizations (92%) are concerned that VPNs will jeopardize
their ability to secure their environments, reflecting a clear industry-wide trend toward a more robust
security posture.

Let's delve deeper into the factors driving this shift away from VPNs and towards ZTNA:

Cyber Defense eMagazine – July 2024 Edition 105
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