Deloitte launched a new managed service for zero-trust access (ZTA), which company executives argue is a superset of zero-trust network access (ZTNA) and will help organizations adopt zero-trust strategies more quickly and efficiently. 

The managed service is part of Deloitte’s zero-trust portfolio, and grounded upon technologies from its TransientX acquisition. The firm bought the ZTNA provider last summer.

“The turnkey service combines zero-trust access technology, automation and connectivity tools, and cyber professional support designed to address the ubiquitous nature of the modern enterprise and accelerate our clients’ adoption of zero trust,” Andrew Rafla, Deloitte's zero-trust offering leader and principal, told SDxCentral via email.

The cloud-native ZTA service supports integrations with existing tools including identity, logging, alerting, and security information and event management (SIEMs) services, Rafla explained. It also can be delivered standalone, embedded with other Deloitte services, or as a complement to a broader ecosystem, he added.

The service offers a single dashboard for the ZTA services including those third-party integrations, entitlement mapping, data protection policy settings, reports, and alerts. 

“As part of the managed service, Deloitte cyber professionals will implement and manage ZTA integrations and policy settings for our clients in order to alleviate the operational burden on IT and security teams – while also offering those clients full visibility and control,” Rafla wrote.

ZTA features connectivity built upon secure peer-to-peer communication, conditional access and continuous authorization, and data protection, according to Deloitte. 

“Traditional ZTNA primarily focuses on protecting private enterprise infrastructure, whether hosted in a private data center or public cloud environment," Rafla explained. "Deloitte's ZTA removes the concept of ‘network’ access and explicitly focuses on what matters most: securely connecting users, on any device, to applications, wherever they may reside.”

“ZTA completes the zero-trust value proposition by embedding robust data protection capabilities and enhancing telemetry and analytics of user activity for private, thick-client, locally hosted, web-based, and public software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications,” he added. It “also protects sensitive data and reduces man-in-the-middle risks by eliminating the need to route client traffic through cloud-based gateways and points of presence (PoPs).”

Deloitte claims the managed service can replace remote access services such as VPN, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and desktop-as-a-service (DaaS).