Akamai enhances cloud security & zero trust solutions

Akamai Technologies has announced enhancements to its cloud security solutions, expanding its segmentation solution for cloud-native resources on Amazon Web Services and improving application performance in its Zero Trust Network Access product.

The announcement addresses the increasing cybersecurity threat landscape highlighted by the Verizon 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report, which indicated that 32% of breaches involved ransomware or extortion. The report stressed the importance of a comprehensive Zero Trust framework for organisations.

Akamai's Guardicore Segmentation is now extended to support agentless enforcement for platform-as-a-service (PaaS) resources in both Azure and AWS. This extension is aimed at providing organisations with better visibility and enforcement across multicloud and on-premises environments.

"We're giving Akamai customers the visibility and security controls they need to protect their cloud environments — while ensuring a smooth single-pane-of-glass experience — by seamlessly delivering the applications and services users rely on," stated Ofer Wolf, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Security at Akamai. "Whether our customers are on-prem, in the cloud, or leveraging IaaS or PaaS capabilities, we're making sure they can focus on growing their business and serving their customers, not stress about their Zero Trust journey."

The benefits of Guardicore Segmentation include agentless cloud-native visibility and enforcement, a hybrid enforcement engine, integrated reputation analysis, and scalable security that keeps data within cloud environments.

Akamai also unveiled updates to its Enterprise Application Access product. Leveraging Akamai Connected Cloud's edge delivery and distributed cloud capabilities, this product is suited for organisations providing secure access to applications for their workforce globally. It can function as a stand-alone solution or be integrated with the Akamai Guardicore Platform.

"Proximity matters when it comes to delivering Zero Trust Network Access that touches every employee in an organization," added Wolf. "With Enterprise Application Access, we're utilising Akamai Connected Cloud to help organizations deliver a fast and seamless experience for users that gives them access to the applications and services they need to do their jobs. Users expect business applications to start quickly and respond efficiently. Slow applications cause frustration and lead to an increase in IT support calls. With Enterprise Application Access, we're helping to eliminate that frustration."

According to the Gartner Hype Cycle for Zero-Trust Networking 2024, cloud-based ZTNA offerings improve scalability and ease of adoption for secure remote access. Deploying infrastructure close to where applications and users are located can help organisations ensure fast, responsive application performance.

New features of Akamai Enterprise Application Access include edge transport for optimal end-user experiences, providing stable performance even in environments with poor internet connectivity, and local point of presence (PoP) that applies ZTNA policies locally for in-office users, enhancing application performance.