{"id":5339,"date":"2024-04-03T06:59:49","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T13:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=5339"},"modified":"2024-04-03T07:34:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T14:34:39","slug":"using-a-zero-trust-strategy-to-secure-microsofts-network-during-remote-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/using-a-zero-trust-strategy-to-secure-microsofts-network-during-remote-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Using a Zero Trust strategy to secure Microsoft\u2019s network during remote work"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Microsoft[Editor\u2019s note: This content was written to highlight a particular event or moment in time. Although that moment has passed, we\u2019re republishing it here so you can see what our thinking and experience was like at the time.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Microsoft\u2019s cloud-first strategy enables most Microsoft employees to directly access applications and services via the internet, but remote workers still use the company\u2019s virtual private network (VPN) to access some corporate resources and applications when they\u2019re outside of the office.<\/p>\n

This became increasingly apparent when Microsoft prepared for its employees to work remotely in response to the global pandemic. VPN usage increased by 70 percent, which coincides with the significant spike in users working from home daily.<\/p>\n

So then, how is Microsoft ensuring that its employees can securely access the applications they need?<\/p>\n

With split tunneling and a Zero Trust security strategy.<\/p>\n

As part of the company\u2019s Zero Trust security strategy, employees in Microsoft Digital Employee Experience (MDEE) redesigned the VPN infrastructure by adopting a split-tunneled configuration that further enables the company\u2019s workloads moving to the cloud.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdopting split tunneling has ensured that Microsoft employees can access core applications over the internet using Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Office 365,\u201d says Steve Means, a principal cloud network engineering manager in MDEE. \u201cThis takes pressure off the VPN and gives employees more bandwidth to do their job securely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eighty percent of remote working traffic flows to cloud endpoints where split tunneling is enabled, but the rest of the work that employees do remotely\u2014which needs to be locked down on the corporate network\u2014still goes through the company\u2019s VPN.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure our VPN infrastructure has the same level of corporate network security as applications in the cloud,\u201d says Carmichael Patton, a principal security architect on Microsoft\u2019s Digital Security and Resilience team. \u201cWe\u2019re applying the same Zero Trust principles to our VPN traffic, by applying conditional access to each connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

[<\/em>Learn how Microsoft rebuilt its VPN infrastructure.<\/em><\/a> Learn how Microsoft transitioned to modern access architecture with Zero Trust.<\/em><\/a> Read how Microsoft is approaching Zero Trust Networking.<\/em><\/a>]<\/em>
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