Beyond VPN: Why Enterprises Are Shifting to Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)

For years, VPNs were the gold standard for remote access. Simple, trusted, and baked into most enterprise roadmaps. But 2025 tells a different story: VPNs are being replaced — not just upgraded — as organizations shift toward Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA).

And it’s not just about “modernizing security.” It’s about how users, apps, and networks behave in a world that’s hybrid, mobile, and heavily distributed.

The Problem with VPNs? They Trust Too Much.

Traditional VPNs create a tunnel into the entire corporate network. Once authenticated, a user device can potentially access far more than it needs — or should. And if credentials get stolen or malware sneaks in, lateral movement becomes easy.

ZTNA flips that. It assumes no trust by default. Every request, every connection, every device — evaluated in real time based on identity, device posture, and policy.

No flat networks. No blind tunnels. Just application-level access — and nothing more.

Real-World Adoption: What’s Working (and What’s Not)

What works:

– Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) is popular among large enterprises for its maturity, seamless integration with identity providers (IdPs), and global backbone.
– Tailscale has become a hit with smaller teams and DevOps environments. Its WireGuard-based mesh and simple policy model make it fast to roll out.
– OpenZiti appeals to engineers who want fine-grained control. It’s open-source and fully embeddable — ideal for secure service-to-service communication without needing a VPN.

What goes wrong:

– Lift-and-shift thinking. Some orgs try to mirror VPN logic in ZTNA — assigning “virtual subnets” to users. That misses the point entirely.
– Too much complexity too fast. ZTNA success depends on clean IAM and device posture signals. If your identity infrastructure is a mess, ZTNA will amplify the chaos.
– Ignoring user experience. If logins take 30 seconds or apps break silently, users rebel. Rollouts stall.

What Infra Teams Are Learning

ZTNA isn’t just a security product. It’s a network architecture choice.

It requires:

– Solid identity and access governance
– Clean device management (MDM, EDR, posture checks)
– Clear definitions of which services should be reachable — and by whom
– A willingness to rethink perimeters entirely

Some teams are pairing ZTNA with microsegmentation (via tools like Illumio or Akamai) for internal traffic controls. Others are embedding it into their CI/CD and dev environments, controlling access to internal APIs and dashboards with code-based policies.

ZTNA isn’t just for end users anymore. It’s part of the pipeline.

Final Thought

VPNs got us through the remote work wave. But the perimeter they relied on no longer exists. As workloads spread across clouds, endpoints, and APIs, ZTNA is emerging as the more realistic long-term model.

It’s not just about better security. It’s about aligning access with intent — and finally having the tools to enforce that.