Zero Trust

Today, we published our newest round of evaluations for the Zero Trust eXtended (ZTX) ecosystem, “The Forrester Wave™: Zero Trust eXtended Ecosystem Platform Providers, Q3 2020.” When we embarked on this journey, Research Associate Alexis Bouffard and I started with roughly 130 potential vendors. We narrowed that down to 38 vendors for the “Now Tech: […]

The National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) and the National Insider Threat Task force (NITTF) partnered with US government agencies to kick off the second National Insider Threat Awareness Month this September. National Insider Threat Awareness Month was started in September 2019 with the goal to educate federal and industry employees about the risks posed […]

What exactly is Zero Trust? For those of you who’ve been hiding away in a cave for the past decade, Zero Trust (ZT) is a concept founded by Forrester alum John Kindervag in 2009 that centers on the belief that trust is a vulnerability, and security must be designed with the strategy, “Never trust, always […]

On March 31, Palo Alto Networks announced the intent to acquire CloudGenix, a software-defined WAN appliance vendor. This was another announcement in a long list from the security and networking industries about merging together SDWAN and security. Such combinations are inevitable because: SDWAN adoption hasn’t matched the hype. Here is a dirty little secret: SDWAN […]

The move to remote work combined with economic uncertainty makes it critical for organizations to proactively protect data and systems.

It is humbling to work with a team of talented individuals like the ones I work with on Forrester’s security and risk team. This week, I’m highlighting five reports that some of these fine folks published in Q1 that I got a lot of value out of, and I think you will, too.   “Optimize […]

It’s that time of year: when folks make up their minds that things are going to change. The gym is full of new members who are eager to get into their journey toward some other semblance of better health, or a beach body, or some change that they desire. Others are in that annual state […]

Having just been through an onslaught of work related to the Forrester Wave™ evaluation on Zero Trust eXtended ecosystem platform providers, I think that it’s worthwhile to put some guidance out there that might help folks as they interact with analysts (well, me, mainly, but maybe it will help with others, as well). And a […]

This week is Black Hat — the annual Hacker Summer Camp, as many folks call it. And this year is the first year in 14 years I haven’t been there. This year, I intentionally took an opportunity to punt on Hacker Summer Camp. Why? I had an invite to speak to a group of small-business […]

It’s the summertime, and my daughters are home from school. During the day, this means it’s a constant struggle between them arguing about who is doing what or listening to them laugh at YouTube videos at the top of their lungs while I try to answer work calls as the dogs bark and fight inches […]

Since RSA this year, the drumbeat of Zero Trust across the market has continued to grow louder. Almost daily, the inquiries and conversations around Zero Trust and ZTX are coming in at an ever-increasing rate. That’s a good thing. In truth, most of the inquiries are from end user clients now, vice the vendor side […]

We just wrapped up five months of in-depth research focused on providing some clarity into what technologies from which vendors actually enable Zero Trust (not just talk about it). It didn’t take long to discern those among the vendor community that really embraced the strategic benefits of Zero Trust — and those that seemed to just […]

During my presentation at RSA Conference 2018 this year, I discussed what I refer to as the “Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle of Asset Management,” which states that it’s impossible to maintain an asset inventory list in a constantly evolving environment. Think of it this way: Your IT infrastructure is probably a lot like a giant jelly […]

A few years ago, the concepts of microsegmentation and microperimeters for Zero Trust were championed by former Forrester analyst John Kindervag. He showed us how those concepts and their technologies could enable a more secure enterprise. Once those concepts and their associated best practices hit the street, organizations from VMware to Cisco Systems to Palo […]

I have a good friend who has a small business (roughly 100 employees and two office locations; everything lives in the cloud, no real “network” to speak of) that is doing well. A few weeks ago, over barbecue and range time (some folks play golf, we shoot guns . . . it’s a Texas thing), […]

I am a huge fan of Zero Trust—the simplicity of the concept resonates with clients that read the research authored previously by John Kindervag and more recently myself. The framework’s intrinsic value to security and business processes is readily evident to those who explore how it benefits their security needs.  If we’re honest about Zero […]