Print.IT Reseller - issue 82

01732 759725 CLOUD 20 Nutanix has announced the global public sector industry findings of its third annual Enterprise Cloud Index Report , measuring organisations’ plans for adopting private, hybrid and public clouds The 2021 Zscaler VPN Risk Report highlights growing security vulnerabilities around targeted social engineering, ransomware and malware attacks Harnessing hybrid cloud models Hidden security risks (82%) of global public sector respondents identifying hybrid cloud as the ideal IT operating model for their organisation. Other key findings of this year’s report include: n Modernisation is dependent on decommissioning legacy architectures: In 2019, 53% of global public sector organisations exclusively ran traditional, non-cloud-enabled datacentres. In 2020, that percentage dropped to 22%. Organisations are choosing to invest in private and public clouds instead, which will be integrated into a cohesively managed hybrid environment. Over the next five years, the public sector expects a 20-percentage- point drop in legacy datacentre installations and a substantial 43-point increase in hybrid cloud deployments. n Working from home remains top-of-mind: 43% of public sector respondents reported a direct increase in their public cloud investments as a direct result of the pandemic – eight points higher than the global average. These moves likely reflect an effort to quickly published in collaboration with the Cybersecurity Insiders, highlights the current VPN usage by enterprises and uncovers the list of top challenges faced by IT administrators who manage VPNs. It recommends security alternatives that exist for network and security leaders wanting to provide fast, seamless and secure access to business apps without compromising their existing zero trust security strategies, and includes data that provides a glimpse into the role that zero trust will play in the future of remote access. The survey findings show: n 93% of companies surveyed have deployed VPN services, despite 94% of those surveyed admitting that they are aware that cybercriminals are exploiting provide for home working employees, as past restrictions made them less capable of providing work-from-home solutions than other industries. Moreover, most entities in this sector are planning to maintain support for home working, with only 4% planning to go back to their pre- pandemic approach. n Security plays a large factor in deployment decisions: All respondents cited security as a significant concern affecting hybrid cloud management. This is especially true for US Federal Government respondents, who ranked security as the greatest challenge with maintaining a hybrid cloud environment (66%) – 15 points higher than the global average. Growing maturity of government community clouds and security programs like FedRAMP can help mitigate these concerns. Andrew Puddephatt, Director – UK Public Sector at Nutanix said: “The global pandemic certainly accelerated this push for modernisation as public sector organisations looked to maintain seamless operations and not fall foul of regulatory requirements by harnessing hybrid cloud models to enable and support the requirement for increasingly digital workplaces.” www.nutanix.com VPNs to access network resources. n Respondents indicated that social engineering (75%), ransomware (74%), and malware (60%) are the most concerning attack vectors and are often used to exploit users accessing VPNs. n With nearly three out of four businesses concerned with VPN security, 67% of organisations are considering remote access alternatives to the traditional VPN. n As a result of growing VPN security risks, 72% of companies are prioritising the adoption of a zero trust security model, while 59% have accelerated their efforts due to the focus on remote work. n Looking at the future need for zero trust services, the report states that 77% of respondents indicated that their workforce will be hybrid, with greater flexibility for users to work remotely or in the office. www.zscaler.com The findings point to a concentrated modernisation effort throughout the sector over the past few months, with 70% of respondents saying COVID-19 has caused IT to be viewed more strategically in their organisations. This COVID-19-spurred push is especially notable, given that the public sector has struggled with IT modernisation efforts. While public sector organisations have historically grappled with regulations that deter home working, the pandemic forced them to take necessary steps to securely support a remote workforce. Nearly half (48%) of global public sector respondents said their organisations had no employees working remotely one year ago. However, since the onset of the pandemic, the sector has scaled its number of remote workers, with only 15% and 11% of respondents reporting employing zero remote workers today. In order to effectively support this growing remote workforce, organisations have begun strategically evaluating their cloud models – with more than three-fourths For the last three decades, VPNs have been deployed to provide remote users with access to resources on corporate networks. However, the increased demand for remote work solutions, a shift to the cloud and advancements in digital transformation have uncovered increased incompatibility between VPNs and true zero trust security architectures. These incompatibilities, largely due to VPNs’ inherent need for access to the network, and need to be exposed to the Internet, have increased the enterprise attack surface allowing threat actors to exploit these legacy models based on their inherent trust of users. The 2021 Zscaler VPN Risk Report