Corporate networks used to have a single perimeter, and everything inside the perimeter was trusted. This perimeter was relied on by security professionals to block cyberattacks and malware from entering the corporate network. Network architects designed flat corporate networks where the devices in the network connected with each other directly or through a router or a switch.
Before COVID-19, most corporate employees worked in offices, using computers connected to the internal network. Once users were on these internal networks, they typically had access to all the data and applications without many restrictions. Security and user-access policies were created only to separate the internal network from the external network. Most saw little need for granular policies and rules to limit user access to only parts of the internal network and to specific applications.
Due to the rapid evolution of the way we work, corporations now must contend with:
• Multiple network perimeters at headquarters, remote offices and in the cloud
- Applications and data scattered across different cloud platforms and data centers
- Users who expect the same level of access to internal networks while…
