Conditional Access & ZTNA: Why Your Business Needs Them

With increasing numbers of users working remotely and across a range of geographical locations, ensuring that your organisation’s access to systems is secure is more crucial than ever before. Conditional Access and ZTNA are valuable tools that can provide peace of mind and protection for your business.

What is Conditional Access?

Conditional access is a method of controlling access to data or services for your organisation’s users and accounts. Conditional access policies are implemented to ensure checks are carried out before access is granted. For example, if a user attempts to access a specific resource, a conditional access policy could require that multi-factor authentication is applied. Conditional access is a crucial component of Microsoft’s ‘Zero Trust’ security model. In the Microsoft environment, conditional access works with the Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) suite of products, as well as with SaaS apps that are configured in Microsoft Entra ID.

What is ZTNA?

Similarly, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is an IT security solution that provides secure remote access to an organization’s applications, data, and services based on clearly defined access control policies. ZTNA differs from virtual private networks (VPNs) in that they grant access only to specific services or applications, where VPNs grant access to an entire network. As an increasing number of users access resources from home or elsewhere, ZTNA solutions can help eliminate gaps in other secure remote access technologies and methods.

Our security partners, Sophos, are market leaders in ZTNA and their product enables you to secure your application access and protect your endpoints and networks from ransomware and other advanced threats with the most powerful machine learning and next-gen endpoint technology available. It provides you cross-product holistic end-to-end protection, detection and response that is effective and easy to use.

As Microsoft Gold Partners, we are also ideally placed to advise you on the implementation of the Microsoft ‘Zero Trust’ Conditional Access security model, which relies on signals from various sources about users to inform the system about the state and trustworthiness of the device, or the user of the device, before allowing access to the data.

To ensure that your business systems have the optimum protection in place in terms of ZTNA and Conditional Access, give us a call now to discuss the best option for you on 01707 607100 or drop us a line here and we will get straight back in touch.