Zero trust security adoption rises 27% in just two years

Some 35% of WAN managers implemented one or more elements of zero trust security (ZTS) and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) on at least some of their company's networks in 2021, according to global telecommunications market research and consulting firm TeleGeography.

This is up from 8% in 2019, according to the company's latest WAN Manager Survey.

TeleGeography's latest survey, featuring analysis from more than185 companies, reveals that close to 100% of respondents who had adopted zero trust security had multi-factor authentication in place.

According to the survey, single sign-on, remote user and device access policies, and privileged access management, were also popular zero trust security policies. User behaviour analytics were less widely adopted.

"An increase in remote work is a big factor. It is definitely driving up demand for zero trust solutions," says Greg Bryan, senior manager at TeleGeography.

"With many companies making remote work a permanent structure, we expect zero trust adoption to continue to grow," he says.

"Cloud adoption and local internet breakouts have also been long-standing drivers of zero trust, in addition to SD-WAN."

The survey also reveals the top security vendors that WAN managers use to secure their networks. One in three respondents are staying agile by using a mix of security vendors for their network security sourcing strategy. Palo Alto, Cisco, and Fortinet led the charge as the most used security vendors for hardware-based internet security.

"It is worth noting that, as adoption grows, we are seeing the knowledge gap narrow," says Bryan.

"Just 8% of respondents were unfamiliar with zero trust in 2021, compared to one in five in 2019. We also see fewer respondents who either had not started or were just beginning their implementation journey when asked about their deployment pipeline," he says.

"Without a doubt, zero trust has not just progressed in awareness, but in adoption."

The companies represented in TeleGeographys WAN Manager Survey have a median revenue of $10 billion. The survey features responses from IT managers who design, source, and manage U.S. national, regional, and global corporate wide area networks. This latest report includes 60 new responses across various industries that were collected in 2021.

TeleGeography is a telecommunications market research and consulting firm that conducts in-depth research, compiles large data sets, and presents this information in easy-to-use online reports and databases. Their primary research areas include enterprise MPLS VPN, Ethernet, dedicated internet access, and international private line service providers and pricing.