Zero Trust Security for the Way Your Business Actually Works
Your people work from everywhere. Your security model should account for that instead of pretending everyone is in the office.
The Perimeter Is Gone. Your Security Model Should Catch Up.
Traditional network security was built on a simple idea: everything inside the firewall is trusted, everything outside is not. That made sense when everyone worked in the office, applications ran on local servers, and the only way in was through the front door.
In 2026, your people work from home, from client sites, from coffee shops, and from airports. Your applications run in Azure, AWS, and SaaS platforms. Your data lives in SharePoint, OneDrive, and a dozen cloud services. The firewall still protects your office, but your office is no longer where most work happens.
Zero trust security replaces the outdated perimeter model with a simple principle: verify everything, trust nothing by default.
How Zero Trust Works in Practice
Zero trust is not a product you install. It is an approach to security that applies verification at every access point. When a user tries to open a SharePoint site, the system checks: who is this person? Is their device compliant? Is their authentication recent and strong? Are they accessing from a known location? Does this request match their normal behaviour?
If all checks pass, access is granted to that specific resource. Not to the entire network — just to what they need. If something is off — an unfamiliar device, a login from a new country, an expired compliance check — access is blocked or stepped up with additional verification.
For most of our clients, the foundation of zero trust is already in place. Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) provides identity management. Intune provides device management. Conditional access policies provide the decision engine. We configure and tighten these tools to enforce zero trust principles without deploying entirely new infrastructure.
ZTNA: The End of Legacy VPN
Zero Trust Network Access replaces your VPN with something fundamentally more secure. A traditional VPN connects a remote user to your network and then trusts them to only access what they should. In reality, a compromised VPN account gives an attacker the same network access as the legitimate user — which is usually everything.
ZTNA works differently. It publishes specific applications through a secure broker. Users authenticate, their device compliance is verified, and they are connected only to the application they requested. They never touch the underlying network. If their account is compromised, the blast radius is contained to a single application rather than the entire network.
SASE for Distributed Teams
For organisations with multiple offices and a large remote workforce, SASE brings networking and security together in the cloud. Instead of backhauling traffic through a central firewall, SASE applies security policies at the edge — wherever your users are. Web filtering, CASB, DLP, and ZTNA all delivered from a global cloud platform.
A Phased Approach for Real Businesses
We do not propose ripping out your entire security stack on day one. Our zero trust implementations follow a phased roadmap: quick wins in the first month (MFA everywhere, conditional access, legacy protocol blocking), medium-term improvements over 3-6 months (ZTNA, device compliance, application segmentation), and advanced capabilities over 6-12 months (continuous posture assessment, micro-segmentation, data classification).
Each phase delivers measurable security improvement, and each phase is budgeted separately so you can plan with confidence.
Why choose Nerdster
Security That Follows Your People
Zero trust does not care whether someone is in the office, at home, or in a hotel lobby. Every access request is verified based on identity, device health, and context. Location becomes irrelevant.
Replace Your VPN
Legacy VPNs grant broad network access once connected. ZTNA provides access only to the specific applications a user needs, reducing your attack surface dramatically.
Practical, Not Theoretical
We implement zero trust in phases aligned with your budget and risk profile. You do not need to rip and replace everything on day one. We start with the changes that deliver the biggest security improvement first.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is zero trust security in plain terms?
Zero trust means never assuming a user or device is safe just because they are inside your network or connected to a VPN. Every request to access an application or data is verified based on who the user is, whether their device is healthy, and whether the request makes sense in context.
Do we need to replace all our existing security tools?
No. Zero trust is an architecture, not a product. We often build on your existing Microsoft 365 and Azure AD investment, adding conditional access policies, Intune compliance checks, and ZTNA to replace VPN. It is evolutionary, not revolutionary.
How long does a zero trust implementation take?
A typical phased deployment takes 3-9 months depending on your environment size and complexity. We start with quick wins like conditional access and MFA enforcement, then progress to ZTNA, micro-segmentation, and continuous device posture assessment.
Is SASE the same as zero trust?
SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) is a delivery model that combines networking and security services in the cloud. It often includes ZTNA as a component. Think of zero trust as the philosophy and SASE as one way to deliver it, especially for distributed workforces.
What about our on-premise applications?
ZTNA can provide secure access to on-premise applications without exposing them to the internet or requiring a VPN. Users connect to the application through a broker that verifies identity and device compliance before granting access.
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