9 VPN alternatives to secure remote network access

AWS Certified Access

In May 2023, AWS announced the release of AWS Verified Access, which allows customers to provide VPN-less, secure access to their corporate applications. Built using AWS Zero Trust principles, Assured Access aims to help customers reduce the risk associated with remote connections. It allows IT managers and developers to define granular access to each application using real-time context signals, including device identity and location, and gives customers the ability to manage policies for each application in one place, AWS said.

Authenticated Access supports integration with the AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) to protect web applications from application-layer threats and to pass signed identity context to application endpoints, according to AWS. AWS said use cases include:

  • Protecting distributed users by checking each request in real time against predefined security requirements to facilitate secure access to applications.
  • Managing access to applications through access policies uses security signal inputs such as user identity and device security status.
  • Assessing access requests and logging application data, speeding up the analysis and response to security and communication incidents.

Netskope ZTNA Next and Endpoint SD-WAN

In April 2023, Netskope committed to 100% legacy VPN retirement with the release of ZTNA Next — a fully integrated service that aims to provide a clear way to complete the transition of remote access VPNs for all application access use cases. The vendor said it reduces the digital attack surface, improves security posture through trust principles, and increases remote worker productivity through a seamless and optimized application access experience.

Netskope also released Netskope Endpoint SD-WAN, claiming to be the “first” industry-leading SASE offering SD-WAN transformation capabilities and Security Service Edge (SSE). It says organizations can use Netskope Endpoint SD-WAN to reduce the cost and complexity of hybrid operations, simplify communications, eliminate the spread of multiple clients and point products, and maintain high network performance.

Key benefits of Endpoint SD-WAN include unified architecture and consistent context-aware policy, providing every remote user, device, and site with easy, secure, and high-performance access in hybrid and multi-cloud environments, according to Netskope. It also features AI-driven functionality, high-quality communications for key voice, video, and data applications, and a comprehensive user experience.

Inside-Out Defense

At the same time, cybersecurity vendor Inside-Out Defense emerged from captivity with the launch of a new privilege access abuse detection and remediation platform. The SaaS, agentless platform supports all environments and applications, complementing existing identity and IAM, PAM, and custom identity solutions, the company said.

Inside-Out Defense said key features of the platform include:

  • Correcting privilege abuse by detecting access abuse behavior in real time and providing online correction of malicious privilege access with kill switch.
  • A 360-degree profile of malicious access requests, their context, and intent, providing a real-time view of an organization’s access posture.
  • Installation in all areas of the organization including infrastructure (cloud and on premise), applications (SaaS, managed, unmanaged), APIs, and human/non-human users.

Palo Alto Networks Prisma

In March 2023, cybersecurity vendor Palo Alto Networks announced new SD-WAN features in its Prisma SASE solution for IoT device security and to help customers meet industry-specific security compliance requirements. Prisma SD-WAN with integrated IoT security enables accurate discovery and identification of IoT branch devices, Palo Alto Networks said. It allows customers to enable security controls from within Prisma SASE standard cloud management without the need for additional hardware and sensors to be deployed on the network to gain visibility into IoT devices and prevent threats.

Prisma SD-WAN provides increased visibility into intra-branch traffic, allowing Prisma Access to deliver rich and intuitive IoT while ensuring that IoT devices are routing application traffic from the branch through the encrypted SD-WAN fabric to Prisma Access when audited there to confirm. zero-trust, says Palo Alto Networks.

[Editor’s note: This article, originally published on 11 October 2021, has been updated with other VPN-less options in May 2023 and November 2024.]


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