Why Companies Are Adopting Centralized Security for Remote Teams

Up until a few years ago, remote work wasn’t even on the back of the company’s minds because most of them weren’t sure whether their employees are going to be as productive and responsible if they worked from home or any other place that wasn’t a conventional work environment.

However, over time, this concept proved them wrong and showcased that you do not need to work from the office in order to deliver great results. Not to mention the fact that remote work is far more flexible and cost-effective.

But it also means that security must be changed from a castle-and-moat model (which means that no one from the outside can be trusted) to something that’s more effective and centralized to help the workforce in different ways.

That’s precisely why so many businesses nowadays resort to centralized security for their remote workers. That’s a single place where they can enforce policy and supervise risk. There are several benefits to this approach, and this guide is going to accentuate some.

Why Choosing Centralized Security Is A Smart Move?

To put it simply (for those who aren’t too sure that this is a good idea), perceive centralized security as a control tower that’s focused on anything that’s related to security, such as device posture checks, identity rules, threat detection, network access, etc.

Instead of using a bunch of different tools to tackle these things, like VPN, a cloud firewall, and many others, a centralized approach is here to unify controls effectively so policies are consistent. That’s going to make things a lot less complicated for firms.

• Consistency – Employees will be provided with the same level of security regardless of their location.
• Visibility – You cannot safeguard the things you cannot see. Centralized solutions store telemetry and logs in one place.
• User experience – These advanced central systems decrease friction and are a much better alternative than legacy VPNs, which are often very slow.

Different Trends That Are Encouraging Centralization 

There are several models that are utilized today by organizations that are pushing centralization, and below are some of them that are going to be discussed. The first one is known as SASE.

So, what can be said about it? It’s short for Secure Access Service Edge, and it employs Software-Defined Wide Area Networking to provide businesses with reliable network security. A lot of companies nowadays enhance digital operations using SASE security, and whenever they want to boost network performance. Methods that were leveraged before were mostly revolving around VPNs, virus detection, SSL/TLS encryption, and firewalls.

In contrast, SASE uses all these features and brings them together. Companies that decide to put their trust in this approach will have secure and effective access to all their important network assets.

Next on the list is the Zero Trust model. So, what makes it so different than conventional models? Namely, traditional security models think that internal traffic is safe, which isn’t always true; hence, it’s of huge importance to be cautious when it comes to this.

And that’s exactly what the Zero Trust model is. It perceives everything as a potential threat until proven otherwise. That’s why it thoroughly assesses every access, which undergoes risk and trust evaluation, and only when it’s proven trustworthy can it be granted access.

With this approach, the members of your security team are going to be a lot more efficient and wiser because they’ll be provided with brand-new insights that are going to help them maintain a safer environment.

And last, but not least, is centralized IAM, which comes with a variety of different benefits, like enhanced operational efficacy, improved security, etc. Besides that, it streamlines provisioning, deprovisioning, and role-based access, which is essential when new people join or leave.

What Firms Mostly Implement?

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy that can be employed by all organizations. Every single one of them uses something they perceive as the best fit, depending on their maturity and size. For instance:

• Smaller teams oftentimes rely on cloud IAM, anti-phishing posture, and endpoint protection, which is surely a good option because all of these tools simplify onboarding.
• On the other hand, mid-sized businesses usually utilize Zero Trust architecture instead of VPNs, and they normally begin funneling logs into a cloud-native monitoring solution.
• Enterprises typically resort to SASE, along with the Zero Trust method, and they invest money in automation, as well.

Firms that have decided to use SASE and Zero Trust solutions, instead of legacy VPNs, have concluded that they’ve managed to skimp on costs that are associated with their global teams, and they no longer face issues with connectivity.

User Experience Is Important, Too!

Security shouldn’t be perceived as something that’s purely technical, because it is also social. If you notice that your workforce isn’t capable of doing their job properly, due to poor security, then you need to do whatever is in your power to change things for the better. That’s exactly why modern centralized platforms focus on:

1. Smooth SSO and MFA experience to ensure login is safe, yet fast, as well.
2. Just-in-time access for contractors and engineers – temporary access restricts the blast radius if, by any chance, credentials leak.
3. Contextual access (which includes device, location, and time) so users can resolve extra checks when risk is too high.

The Necessary Checklist

If you decide that it’s time for some high-quality security, and you’d like to bring up this topic, then this is the checklist that you should employ for these purposes:

• Inventory – Which devices, apps, identities, and logos do you currently have at your disposal? 
• Replace brittle tech – Have you noticed any problems with the legacy VPNs? If the answer is yes, then you should replace them with ZTNA pilots.
• Is it a good time to enforce SSO + MFA?
• Consolidate logs – Can you centralize telemetry into a single pane for detection?
• BYOD policy – Should you enforce device posture checks for personal devices?

It’s easy to see that there are numerous benefits to centralized security, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that it has increased in popularity in the past several years. When everything is executed the right way, it can be a real game-changer for your employees.