Dell Seeks to Own Zero Trust in 2023
Zero-trust networks has gained popularity over the past few years though its credibility is still under a cloud. And Dell hopes to change this fast
In case you are one of those who live with a persistent doubt over the efficacy or even implementability of zero trust, here’s something that could cause a rethink. For, none other than Dell Technologies appears to have taken a thought leadership role in not just demonstrating that such a level of security is possible, but also easy to adopt and implement.
And the US-based tech giant aims to become a preferred partner to customers seeking zero trust networks in 2023, according to its global CTO John Roese. Towards this end, Dell plans to start a Zero Trust Center of Excellence at DreamPort, which happens to be the US Cyber Command’s cybersecurity innovation facility.
Of course, one may argue that Dell has got the optics right, but what next? CTO John Roese says the Dell Center has been designed to provide a secure data center for organizations to test configurations and validate zero-trust use cases. That it shares space with USCYBERCOM adds legitimacy because companies can test configurations based on the US Defense Department’s Zero Trust Reference Architecture before deploying them at workplaces.
Zero-trust is real and definitely achievable
In an interview published on SDxCentral, Roese articulates the fact that most people do not believe zero trust is real and many others accept the theory but haven’t seen one function. Still others think it can never happen, and Dell begs to disagree. “We think it can be built and we are demonstrating it,” he says in the interview.
Readers may recall that Dell had rolled out a suite of services last October called the Identity and Endpoint Protection with Microsoft Zero Trust to integrate their security expertise with the security tools of the software maker. The Zero Trust Center is another effort to prove that public-private partnerships could create reference architectures for the security ecosystem.
According to Roese, the Zero Trust Center contains “racks of gear sitting at DreamPort that are a real zero-trust infrastructure with 151 controls implemented that meets the DoD specifications, that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world.” And Dell would work through the year on some incubation programs to prove that zero trust is indeed the way of the future, he says.
Collaboration, not competition is the need of the hour
The official reiterated the need for collaboration between companies on getting zero trust into the real world and said Dell will work with 20 to 30 companies to build such an ecosystem with more such partnerships likely in 2023. “We are Switzerland. People come to us and we work together and we can organize the ecosystem,” he claimed, a tad pompously if one may say so.
Over the next twelve months, Dell also plans to get upfront in helping customers identify and chalk out their zero-trust path. This could be achieved by bridging the knowledge gap in terms of ideation and implementation plans as there is no quick fix solution to creating zero-trust behavior in an environment that’s been following the beaten track for two decades now.
(Check out what exactly is Zero-trust Networks)
The company had set its own journey last year by introducing the cybersecurity advisory services that aims to simplify adoption through multiple efforts starting from advanced services building on basic security practices to creating a vulnerability management service that provides customers robust support on their zero-trust journey.
Roese feels that the only way enterprises can deal with zero-trust is to have an authoritative identity management system, in addition to policy management and threat management frameworks. With multi-cloud being the environment of the future, the control panel needs to reside above all the clouds, he says.
