Introducing ZTEdge™: Empowering MSEs to Defend What Matters

As a cybersecurity solution provider with a longstanding heritage in addressing the small business and midsize enterprise (MSE) segment, we’ve partnered with thousands of MSE customers. Our vast experience working with this sector has earned us deep insight into their secure access needs. But even more than that, we’ve learned to appreciate and admire the ability and dedication that many MSE IT and security teams bring to their work, despite often severely limited headcount and resources.

Of course, we work with some of the largest enterprises on the planet as well. In the past year, we have also partnered with some of the largest and most respected cloud cybersecurity providers in the world. These companies, including Netskope and Palo Alto Networks, have integrated our Zero Trust remote browser isolation (RBI) solution into their cutting-edge cloud security platforms to protect their large enterprise customers from email phishing and website-based ransomware and other zero-day malware that infect endpoints and networks via user device browsers.

Here’s where this dual perspective gets interesting: as a result of the mass pandemic-driven move to remote work from anywhere, businesses and organizations of all sizes had little choice but to lower their cybersecurity guard. The top priority was to rapidly get those homebound users online and productive, whatever it took. Alas, in too many cases, remote connectivity was accomplished through legacy VPNs from unmanaged devices and access to private cloud and SaaS apps, disrupting the traditional, network perimeter-based security controls.

For the new, distributed normal of “work from anywhere, using any resource,” a new security strategy is required. This new paradigm, which replaces the dated, complex, and by-now ineffective castle-and-moat detection-based model, is the secure access service edge or SASE. The convergence of cybersecurity access and networking, SASE solutions route all interactions via the cloud in order to enforce least-privilege policies at the “edge” where devices, applications, networks, and data interact with each other and with the public internet. It leverages strong identity and access management (IAM) and policy-based identity microsegmentation along with other technologies, automated through artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), to actualize Zero Trust security principles.

So, how is this relevant to our midsize enterprise/large enterprise experience? Well, everything, as it happens. In our discussions with CIOs and CISOs of small businesses and midsize enterprises, the vast majority have expressed their interest (bordering on burning desire) to adopt a Zero Trust security approach. Unfortunately, upon investigating the available solutions, they found that none was a good fit with their needs/resources: current solutions are too complex, too costly, and require more IT labor to manage than these MSEs can afford.

The surge of interest and unmet demand is why we embarked on the innovative development of ZTEdge™ – to bring strong cybersecurity capabilities aligned with ZT principles to MSEs in a simplified platform that works within their budgetary constraints. It is why we are proud to launch ZTEdge today: not only because it is a remarkable product (which it is) and because our launch partners love it (they do – more about that below), but because it is a solution that meets the pragmatic cybersecurity, operational and budgetary needs and limitations of a company segment for whom we have solved access needs for decades.

And it is why we are excited to introduce it to the world today, after flying under the radar in stealth mode for well over a year.

A key driver to simplify Zero Trust adoption for MSEs is our decision to work with Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) to deliver ZTEdge to their small businesses and midsize enterprise customers.

After developing a SASE platform that is right-sized for MSEs, we appreciate more than ever the outstanding Global 2000-class SASE platforms developed by our strategic partners. We are delighted to partner with those providers to enhance their platforms with RBI, while separately working with MSSPs to deliver ZTEdge platform to their small business and midsize enterprise customers to enable them, too, to defend what matters.

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About David Canellos

A seasoned cybersecurity leader with over two decades of experience heading early-stage, venture-backed startups, mid-sized and large organizations, David was previously Symantec SVP of Global Service Providers business. Earlier, he was President and CEO of Perspecsys Inc., overseeing its acquisition by Blue Coat Systems, which was then acquired by Symantec. David was SVP Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Irdeto division of Naspers, which acquired Cloakware, where he was President and COO.