Outperform Traditional VPNs with a ZTNA Approach

Outperform Traditional VPNs with a ZTNA Approach

Introduction

The Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) sector is experiencing a swift expansion, with an anticipated growth to $38.6 billion by 2026, marking a CAGR of 18.4% from 2022 to 2024. This expansion is driven by the increasing need for secure access solutions for remote and hybrid workers, particularly within the mid-market and SMB segments . Conventional solutions, often designed for large enterprises, are typically high-priced and may not be the optimal fit for smaller businesses.

On the other hand, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), once the norm for remote access, are now seen as less secure and outdated . VPNs expose the entire network to the remote user, increasing the risk of lateral movement in the event of a breach. They also lack granular access controls and face scalability and performance issues.
ZTNA solutions, however, offer a more secure approach to remote access. They provide granular, identity-based access to network resources, reducing the attack surface. They also offer enhanced visibility and control over network access, thus improving security posture.

Thinfinity Remote Workspace: An Advanced ZTNA Solution

Thinfinity Remote Workspace is an agentless ZTNA solution designed to address the challenges of secure remote access. It is an economical solution that provides secure, granular, and context-aware access to network resources for remote and hybrid workers.

As an agentless solution, Thinfinity minimizes the attack surface and simplifies endpoint management. Users simply log in to a portal to access all their applications, eliminating the need for software installation on the user's device.

Thinfinity's ZTNA solution is priced at $120 per user per year, making it an affordable choice for businesses of all sizes . It is a fully-featured solution that includes web-based remote desktop access, file transfer capabilities, and support for various authentication methods, among other features.

Comparative Analysis: Thinfinity Remote Workspace vs. Conventional VPNs

The table below provides a comparison of Thinfinity Remote Workspace with conventional VPN solutions:

  Solution  Pricing per User per Year  Agentless  Full-Featured  Zero Trust
Thinfinity Remote Workspace $120 Yes Yes Yes
Cisco AnyConnect $150 No Yes Yes
Pulse Secure $200 No Yes No
NordLayer $108 - $132 No Yes No
Perimeter 81 $120 - $240 No Yes Yes


As the table illustrates, Thinfinity Remote Workspace not only offers competitive pricing but also an agentless approach, a comprehensive feature set, and a Zero Trust model. While other solutions may offer a range of features, they often require software installation on the user's device, increasing the attack surface and complicating endpoint management.

Risks of Using VPNs and How Thinfinity Mitigates Them

Risks associated with VPNs include:

  1. Implicit Trust: VPNs provide broad access to the resources on the network, presenting unnecessary and enormous security risks.
  2. Potential Threat Vector: VPNs lack awareness of the state of the device used to connect to the corporate network, creating a potential conduit for threats to enter the network from devices that may have been compromised.
  3. Inefficient Backhauling: VPNs provide a single point-of-presence on the network, which potentially necessitates backhauling of traffic from multiple locations, datacenters, or applications through the remote access VPN tunnel.
  4. Lack of Visibility: VPNs are unaware of the traffic and usage patterns it is facilitating, making visibility into user activity and application usage more challenging.
  5. Poor User Experience: VPN clients are notorious for offering a poor user experience, adding latency or negatively impacting performance, suffering from connectivity issues, and generally being a burden on the helpdesk.
  6. Difficult Administration:  Deployment and Enrollment: VPN clients are difficult to setup, deploy, enroll new users, decommission departing users, and administer on the firewall or gateway side, especially with multiple nodes, firewall access rules, IP management and traffic flows and routing.

Thinfinity mitigates these risks by:

  1. Implementing Zero Trust: Thinfinity follows the principle of zero trust or “trust nothing, verify everything.” It provides significantly better security and micro-segmentation by effectively treating each user and device like their own perimeter and constantly assessing and verifying identity and health to obtain access to corporate applications and data.
  2. Secure Architecture: Thinfinity's design exclusively utilizes outbound connections, eliminating the need to open any ports on the target network. Users are mapped directly to their applications based on role-based permissions, effectively preventing lateral movement and potential threats. This architecture ensures secure access to corporate applications and data without compromising the integrity of the corporate network
  3. Functioning Anywhere: Thinfinity is network agnostic, able to function equally well and securely from any network be it home, hotel, café, or office.
  4. Providing Better Visibility:  Thinfinity bolsters security by providing in-depth visibility into both application and user activity. With comprehensive analytics and enterprise-level audit logs, it enables real-time tracking of application status and user behavior. This level of monitoring is crucial for promptly identifying and responding to potential security threats, ensuring optimal application performance, and effectively managing user access and licenses.
  5. Easier Administration:  As a clientless solution, Thinfinity Workspace is lean and straightforward, making it easier to deploy and manage. Its agility in quickly adapting to changing environments, with users frequently joining or leaving, streamlines the day-to-day administration. The absence of client software installation reduces the complexity of endpoint management, making the administrative tasks less time-consuming and more efficient, rather than a full-time job

Conclusion

In the evolving landscape of remote work, ZTNA solutions are becoming increasingly important for securing remote access. Thinfinity Remote Workspace stands out as a cost-effective, fully-featured ZTNA solution that is well-suited for businesses of all sizes. Its agentless approach reduces the attack surface and simplifies endpoint management, providing a secure and user-friendly solution for remote access. Whether for internal use or to offer services to customers, considering Thinfinity Remote Workspace is a strategic move to stay ahead of conventional technologies and secure your remote access needs

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