What is Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)?

As hybrid work settles in for good, cyber attackers target remote access pathways, and third-party risks leave organizations vulnerable. Security teams must evolve beyond the implicit access model of legacy VPNs.  

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is a modern approach to secure remote access, and as organizations increasingly prioritize Zero Trust security initiatives, ZTNA adoption is rising fast. We’ll break down what ZTNA means, how it works, where it fits in modern network security strategies, and how to find the right ZTNA solution for your organization.  

What Is Zero Trust Network Access?  

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) provides secure remote access based on granular policies in alignment with the Zero Trust security model, where network trust is not automatically granted.  

Without opening any ports to the internet, ZTNA enforces fine-grained access policies based on user identity, device health, and context to prevent unauthorized access and reduce the attack surface. 

How Does Zero Trust Network Access Work?  

ZTNA replaces implicit trust with least privilege access controls, ensuring remote connections don’t create gaps in an organization’s Zero Trust strategy. Rather than granting sweeping network-level access, ZTNA only provides authorized users with access to specific apps and services based on identity, device posture, and contextual factors like location or time of day. 

Once a user attempts to connect, the ZTNA solution first verifies their identity, then evaluates device health, security posture, and context. If approved, access is granted only to the necessary resource, not the broader network. This drastically reduces the attack surface and limits lateral movement. 

Notably, many traditional ZTNA solutions rely on cloud-based brokers that route all traffic through proxies. While this can add latency and degrade performance, modern alternatives can overcome these challenges.

Does ZTNA Have Multi Factor Authentication?  

Multi factor authentication (MFA) is core to any Zero Trust strategy, so it’s commonly supported by modern ZTNA solutions.  

By requiring users to verify their identity using two or more factors, MFA significantly reduces the risk of credential-based attacks. When combined with other ZTNA capabilities like contextual access controls, MFA helps enforce comprehensive least privilege and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive resources. 

Organizations evaluating ZTNA vendors should confirm that the solution provides single sign-on (SSO) and MFA that integrates with their existing identity provider (IdP) to fortify defenses while streamlining the user experience.

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) vs VPN  

While VPN and ZTNA solutions both aim to secure remote access, these approaches function very differently. In an era of more sophisticated threats and hybrid workforces, VPN vulnerabilities are impossible to ignore. 

VPN Overview: Background and Sample Architecture  

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) were created in the late 1990s to allow remote access to internal networks. Typically, the VPN client establishes an authenticated connection, creating a tunnel for traffic to flow over. This tunnel allows the endpoint to access resources as if it were connected to the organization's network.  

The problem with this architecture is mainly that VPN ports must be open to the internet, and everyone can try to hack it with known vulnerabilities that aren’t yet patched or unknown vulnerabilities that can’t be patched. Plus, traditional VPNs lack device and user awareness, meaning the access granted is absolute – a free pass to the entire network.  

In practical terms, this lack of VPN awareness also creates inconsistent security standards for remote and on-prem connections. Aaron Steinke, Head of Infrastructure at La Trobe Financial said, “Historically, we found that you often end up in a scenario where people have more network access when they’re on the VPN because you can’t categorize them and classify them well enough.”  

Comparing Zero Trust Network Access and VPN: Key Differences  

In simple terms, ZTNA can be considered an evolution beyond traditional VPNs, addressing the remote access vulnerabilities that are most relevant in today’s threat landscape. To bring this evolution into focus, here’s how VPN and ZTNA compare across key features:  

	VPN	ZTNA
Access	Broad network access once connected	Application-level access based on least privilege
Port Exposure	Requires open ports on the internet, increasing attack surfaces	No open ports – resources are invisible to unauthorized users
Granular Access Control	Difficult to restrict access to specific applications or services	Fine-grained policies based on identity, device, location, and context
User Experience	Often faster but less secure	Potential for latency in legacy implementations
Visibility & Monitoring	Limited visibility into user actions after connection	Centralized logging and policy enforcement

ZTNA Security Benefits 

ZTNA undeniably enhances and streamlines remote connections’ security; this is primarily achieved by reducing the attack surface, unifying policy management, and enabling granular access control.  

Reduced Attack Surface 

ZTNA hides internal applications and infrastructure from public view by default. With no open ports to scan or exploit, attackers can't see or target your network, dramatically reducing exposure.  

Centralized Security Policies  

Rather than configuring scattered rules, IT teams can define and enforce access policies in one place with ZTNA. Centralization not only simplifies day-to-day management but also improves policy consistency across users, locations, and devices, making it easier to enforce Zero Trust principles at scale. What’s more, ZTNA supports cyber compliance efforts by creating a single source of truth for access governance and auditability. 

Granular Access Control with Context Awareness 

ZTNA uses a context-aware approach to ensure that access decisions are precise and dynamic, reducing over-permissioning, limiting insider threat exposure, and preventing lateral movement. As networks and risks evolve, access can be dynamically adjusted with modern ZTNA solutions, keeping sensitive systems better protected. 

Top ZTNA Use Cases: Replacing VPN, Protecting Sensitive Data 

As nine out of ten security leaders prioritize Zero Trust to boost security postures, organizations may turn to ZTNA for a broad range of use cases, including:  

Replace VPN Solutions  

ZTNA is a more secure alternative to VPNs for protecting remote connections. Organizations looking to standardize security policies across environments, mature Zero Trust initiatives, or generally modernize their approach to secure remote connectivity may opt to replace VPN solutions with ZTNA.  

Reduce Third-Party Vulnerabilities  

With security incidents linked to third parties rising, traditional third-party access approaches introduce an unacceptable level of risk. With ZTNA, organizations can connect vendors, consultants, and other third parties to their networks using MFA and tailored access controls.  

Standardize Policy Enforcement for Remote Employees  

ZTNA enforces access policies consistently, whether employees are on-site or remote, eliminating the excessive permissions created by traditional VPNs. With ZTNA, organizations eliminate dangerous security gaps, ensuring least privilege is the standard policy for every connection.  

Strengthen Data Protection and Privacy Initiatives   

ZTNA’s default-deny posture and application-level access controls help organizations meet privacy mandates and data protection standards by preventing unauthorized access and enforcing least privilege access. 

With ZTNA, it’s possible to create policies based on identity information including the context in which the user is accessing resources, allowing organizations to control who can access what, where, and when. For example, a policy could be created to ensure only specific users can access data in a specific location or using a certain device type. This granular control can greatly reduce the risk of data leakage and ensure that only authorized individuals are allowed access to sensitive data. Other controls, such as time-based access restrictions, can be implemented to further protect data from unauthorized access. 

Legacy ZTNA Challenges: Higher Latency and Lower Bandwidth  

While ZTNA marks a major improvement over VPNs in terms of security posture and access control, not all ZTNA solutions are created equal. Many legacy ZTNA implementations introduce their own set of performance and operational tradeoffs.  

The most common challenges associated with legacy ZTNA include:  

• Cloud proxy bottlenecks: Traditional ZTNA solutions route all network traffic through a cloud-based access broker or proxy. This “middleman” approach introduces latency and reduces bandwidth.  
• NAT obfuscation: Most legacy ZTNA vendors use Network Address Translation (NAT) to funnel all user traffic through a single IP. While this helps anonymize connections, it also creates security blind spots. This obfuscation may even break some detection tools.  
• Increased costs: Routing traffic through cloud proxies doesn’t just slow things down, it also gets expensive – particularly compared to traditional VPNs.  
• User experience degradation: High latency and slow connections frustrate users and reduce productivity. In remote and hybrid work environments, performance challenges can lead to shadow IT workarounds that increase risk and undermine the intent of ZTNA.  

How to Choose a Modern ZTNA Solution  

While legacy implementations can bring tradeoffs so heavy they outweigh the benefits, modern ZTNA solutions deliver the security organizations need without the operational downsides.  

When evaluating ZTNA vendors, organizations should ask questions like:  

• Does the vendor offer a “least privileged” model capable of granular access control for applications and resources? 
  This allows administrators to define specific permissions based on user identity, device health, location, and other contextual factors. 
• Does the vendor provide single sign-on (SSO) and multifactor authentication (MFA) that integrate with your existing identity provider (IdP)? 
  MFA is critical to prevent misuse of common user credentials, and integration with existing IdP simplifies and streamlines user authentication.  
• Can the vendor guarantee no negative impact on user experience caused by network performance and latency? 
  Routing traffic through cloud proxies frequently leads to increased latency, resulting in a negative impact on user experience. 
• Can the vendor keep the IP addresses of all users visible while connecting inside the organization? 
  NAT architecture often obfuscates users’ IP addresses, making it appear as if all users are connected from a single IP, creating security blind spots and breaking various detection solutions. 
• Can the vendor combine ZTNA with microsegmentation on the same platform to offer a holistic approach to zero trust both internally and externally? 
  Microsegmentation and ZTNA enforce the strictest access controls at both user and application levels, dramatically reducing the attack surface both internally and externally. 

Revolutionizing Remote Access: Zero Networks’ Approach to ZTNA  

Zero Networks reimagines ZTNA by combining the security of Zero Trust Network Access with the speed and simplicity of VPN.  

Using just-in-time MFA, Zero Networks temporarily opens ports only for authenticated users and keeps the rest of your network invisible. As a result, organizations get secure remote access that lives up to Zero Trust standards – without compromising on performance.  

With integrated microsegmentation and network-layer MFA, Zero enforces least privilege access across every connection and identity. Find out how you can make Zero Trust a reality in record time – take a self-guided product tour.  

Zero Trust Network Access Explained: More ZTNA FAQs  

For a deeper dive on Zero Trust Network Access, explore answers to some of the most common questions related to ZTNA.   

Can ZTNA be used in the Cloud? 

Yes, ZTNA can be used in the cloud. In fact, many organizations are leveraging it for their cloud deployments. By using ZTNA, organizations will be able to set granular access policies tailored to the individual user or device. This allows them to control who has access to which resources in the cloud and prevent unauthorized users from gaining access. Additionally, ZTNA can provide additional security measures such as user authentication and device health checks, which can help to further reduce the risk of a breach. 

What is lateral movement related to ZTNA? 

Lateral movement occurs when an attacker pivots from one system or device to another within a network without being detected. This allows the attacker to gain access to valuable data, networks, and systems. ZTNA can help prevent lateral movement by controlling access privileges based on user identity, device health checks, and other contextual information. This helps mitigate the risk of lateral movement and minimize the attack surface.  

What is a Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA)?  

Zero Trust is an approach to cybersecurity that assumes that all internal and external actors are untrustworthy, and no network or system is safe from attack. Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) refers to the implementation of that philosophy within an organization’s infrastructure, workflows, controls, and policies.  

Can ZTNA help control access to applications? 

Yes, ZTNA can help control access to applications. By leveraging the various contexts that can be taken into consideration with ZTNA policies, such as device state, identity state, location, application used, etc., organizations are able to have granular control over who is accessing which applications.  

Does ZTNA help protect remote users? 

ZTNA helps protect remote users by providing granular access controls tailored to the individual user or device. This allows organizations to limit access to certain resources based on user identity, device health checks, and other contextual information. This prevents unauthorized users from gaining access and reduces the attack surface. Additionally, ZTNA can provide additional security measures such as user authentication and device health checks, which further reduce the risk of a breach. 

Can ZTNA control the visibility of an asset? 

Yes, ZTNA can help control the visibility of an asset. By leveraging granular access policies, organizations can limit user access to certain resources based on identity, device health checks, and other contextual information. This allows organizations to control who can view, access, modify, or delete a specific asset. This helps reduce the risk of data leakage and unauthorized access. 

What is the best use of VPN vs ZTNA in a corporate network? 

The best use of VPN vs ZTNA in a corporate network depends on the specific security needs and goals of the organization. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a secure connection between two or more devices that allows users to access internal corporate networks from outside of the organization. It provides secure remote access, but it does not provide granular access controls. On the other hand, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) provides granular access policies that can be tailored to the individual user or device. This helps organizations to set more stringent access policies and reduce the attack surface of their networks. In general, ZTNA is a better option for organizations that require higher levels of security and control. 

How is Zero Trust Network Access different from a Software-Defined Perimeter? 

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is different from a Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP) in that it provides granular access policies tailored to the individual user or device. ZTNA allows organizations to set stringent access policies for users based on identity, device health checks, and other contextual information. This helps prevent unauthorized users from accessing sensitive resources and reduces the attack surface. SDP, on the other hand, provides a more secure perimeter-based model by creating a virtual tunnel for users to connect to an internal network. It is designed to provide an extra layer of security and control beyond what is available with a traditional VPN. 

How does ZTNA help with Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)? 

ZTNA helps with SASE by providing granular access control tailored to the individual user or device, allowing organizations to control who can view or access certain resources based on user identity, device health checks, and other contextual information. This helps prevent unauthorized users from accessing sensitive resources while also reducing the attack surface.  

Can I use ZTNA to control access to the public internet with a remote workforce? 

Yes, ZTNA can be used to control access to the public internet with a remote workforce in both large and small businesses. By leveraging granular access policies, organizations can limit user access to certain public resources based on identity, device health checks, and other contextual information. This helps reduce the risk of data leakage, unauthorized access, and external threats. Additionally, organizations can use ZTNA to set more stringent access policies to help prevent malicious actors from accessing sensitive information.