Dell’s Zero Trust Center of Excellence looks to secure multicloud environments

How do you know if you’re getting zero trust, right? While many organizations have invested in purpose-built “zero-trust” security products, controlling user access isn’t just about deploying a software solution, but actively managing user access to data wherever it lives in the environment.

This involves building new controls and procedures from scratch. It is a challenge that Dell Technologies has recognized, and aims to address with a new solution. 

Today, Dell announced the Zero Trust Center of Excellence in partnership with CyberPoint international and the Maryland Innovation Security Institute. The center will open in Spring 2023 at DreamPort in at the U.S. Cyber Commands innovation center. 

The center will provide enterprises with a secure data center to validate zero-trust use cases and assess the maturity of their zero-trust strategies. 

Helping sluggish zero-trust adoption 

Dell’s announcement comes as more organizations are running into roadblocks with their zero-trust strategies. 

While Okta finds that the number of companies with a zero-trust initiative already underway more than doubled from 24% in 2021 to 55% in 2022, other research indicates only 21% of organizations have adopted zero trust as a foundational model across the enterprise. 

Dell’s new service will provide organizations with a space to test the implementation of zero trust as a foundational model, so they can build a true zero-trust strategy from scratch, that’s designed to support a multicloud environment. 

“In a multicloud world, an organization’s cybersecurity strategy must transcend its infrastructure and extend to its applications and data,” said John Roese, Global CTO of Dell Technologies. “We believe a zero-trust strategy is the best path forward. Dell has the proven IT and security foundation, technology integration experience, and extensive global partner ecosystem to help simplify customers’ cybersecurity transformations.”

More broadly, the new center has the capacity to help accelerate the development of new zero-trust solutions that enterprises can leverage to protect their environments against identity-based threats. 

It’s worth noting that the center will also complement Dell Cybersecurity Advisory Services’ zero-trust service, which provides organizations with a roadmap to zero trust based on their existing security assets. 

The zero-trust market 

As identity-based threats continue to rise, the zero-trust market continues to pick up steam, with researchers expecting the market to grow from a value of $27.4 billion in 2022 to $60.7 billion by 2027. 

Two of the biggest providers in the space are CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks are leading in defining the space, offering solutions for zero-trust network access (ZTNA) for continuously verifying user access in real-time.

CrowdStrike reportedly raised $1.45 billion in revenue for the full fiscal year 2022, while Palo Alto Networks announced raising total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2022 to $1.6 billion. 

At this stage, Dell is playing more of a backseat role in the zero-trust market, opting to provide organizations with guidance and support from the Zero Trust Center of Excellence, and Dell Cybersecurity Advisory Services, on how they can improve their own zero-trust strategies rather than offering a particular software solution.