Why a Zero Trust Architecture is Important for Enterprises: Lessons from C1 and Palo Alto Networks
In a Perimeterless World, Trust Is the Weakest Link
In today’s hyperconnected work from anywhere, and threat-saturated digital environment, enterprise security teams face an urgent challenge: how to protect data, users, and applications across distributed networks, hybrid cloud ecosystems, and decentralized workforces. The traditional perimeter-based security model has become obsolete, as more breaches originate from within trusted environments—such as corporate VPNs, authenticated user sessions, or previously approved internal applications. That’s why Zero Trust is no longer a buzzword, it’s a business imperative.
Why Enterprises Are Rethinking Trust
Enterprise environments have grown exponentially more complex, driven by hybrid cloud adoption, “work from anywhere” models, and the expanding footprint of third-party integrations. As a result, the traditional perimeter is all but obsolete, and the attack surface has never been wider.
According to the Palo Alto Networks 2025 State of Cloud Native Security Report, nearly 8 in 10 organizations (78%) experienced a cloud-related security incident in the past year. Many of these incidents stemmed from over-permissioned accounts, misconfigured access, or compromised credentials—issues that the Zero Trust model is specifically designed to mitigate.
AI-powered threats have only escalated the risk. Today’s attackers operate at machine speed, using automation to scan, exploit, and move laterally through environments with unprecedented efficiency. In fact, Palo Alto Networks reports that attacks are now 250 times faster than they were just four years ago.
To defend against this velocity, Zero Trust is essential. It enforces least-privilege access, real-time segmentation, and continuous identity verification, ensuring that trust is never assumed and that every interaction is verified before access is granted.
What is a Zero Trust Approach?
Zero Trust is a strategic security framework that assumes no user or system should be implicitly trusted—whether inside or outside the network. Every access request must be continuously verified based on identity, device, location, behavior, and context. According to Forrester, organizations that adopt a Zero Trust model are 50% less likely to experience a significant breach.
Gartner predicts that by 2026, 60% of enterprises will phase out VPNs in favor of Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) for secure remote access. This reflects a growing recognition that perimeter-based defenses are no longer sufficient.
Meanwhile, according to IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the global average cost of a data breach is now $4.45 million, a 15% increase over the past three years. The report also found that organizations with a mature Zero Trust strategy reduced breach costs by an average of $1.76 million compared to those without Zero Trust in place.
This underscores the tangible financial impact of adopting Zero Trust—beyond security improvements, it’s a strategic investment in resilience and cost containment.
Why Enterprises Are Rethinking Trust
Enterprise environments have become more complex with the rise of hybrid cloud, remote workforces, and third-party integrations—all contributing to a broader attack surface. According to Palo Alto Networks’ 2025 Unit 42 Global Incident Response Report, 70% of incidents targeted three or more attack vectors, underscoring the need for multilayered defense.
Compounding this risk is the widespread issue of over-permissioned cloud identities—with 99% of IAM policies granting excessive access, creating easy targets for attackers.
AI-powered threats make the challenge even more urgent. Attacks are now 250 times faster than they were just four years ago, and in nearly 20% of cases, exfiltration begins within the first hour—while average detection still takes days.
Zero Trust architecture is designed to counter this shift by applying least-privilege access, real-time segmentation, and continuous identity validation, ensuring no implicit trust across users, devices, or environments.AI-powered threats add another layer of urgency. Attackers now use automation to probe environments
Palo Alto Networks: Enabling Zero Trust with Precision AI™
Palo Alto Networks is a recognized leader in Zero Trust architecture and innovation. Their portfolio—including ZTNA 2.0, Next-Gen Firewalls, Prisma Access, and Cortex XSIAM—is powered by Precision AI™, a system of machine learning, behavioral analytics, and generative AI.
ZTNA 2.0 goes well beyond VPN replacement. It enforces application-specific access, evaluates user posture continuously, and delivers inline threat inspection—critical in detecting advanced persistent threats (APTs). According to ESG Research, organizations using ZTNA with AI analytics saw a 61% reduction in unauthorized access attempts in year one.
C1 Services Powering Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) with Palo Alto Networks
Achieving Zero Trust maturity takes more than technology—it requires a trusted partner to design, implement, and manage the strategy end-to-end. C1 strengthens ZTNA programs by wrapping expert services around Palo Alto Networks’ Precision AI-powered ZTNA technologies, helping enterprises deploy with confidence and operate securely at scale.
C1’s service portfolio is built around three core pillars:
Advisory Services
C1 conducts Zero Trust readiness assessments, facilitates executive workshops, and identifies gaps across people, process, and technology. The outcome: a prioritized, risk-aligned roadmap for secure access architecture tailored to your environment. These workshops also contextualize what "risk alignment" means for your specific compliance obligations, cloud infrastructure, and user workflows.
Professional Services
Our team designs secure ZTNA architectures using Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma Access and Secure Access Browser, configures least-privilege and segmentation policies, and integrates identity providers like Okta and Azure AD. C1 ensures your ZTNA strategy is implemented to support policy configuration, app segmentation, and secure user access—not just deployment.
Managed Services
C1 continuously monitors access behavior, enforces dynamic policy updates, and tunes configurations in real time. We provide proactive threat detection, alerting, and AI-based anomaly analysis through Palo Alto's native analytics and dashboards—managed and interpreted by C1’s security experts. Our service includes governance reporting, compliance-aligned access reviews, and optimization support without adding internal workload.
With vertical expertise in healthcare, finance, and government, C1 accelerates time to value and minimizes complexity for organizations adopting Zero Trust. The result is a well-integrated, forward-looking ZTNA program built for visibility, scalability, and long-term security resilience.
C1’s Expertise: Operationalizing Zero Trust at Scale
Technology alone can’t drive Zero Trust maturity. Enterprises need expert guidance, cross-functional alignment, and disciplined execution. That’s where C1’s end-to-end security services come in.
C1 helps enterprises succeed across three service pillars:
- Advisory Services – Zero Trust readiness assessments, executive workshops, and risk alignment
- Professional Services – Architecture design, Palo Alto ZTNA/Prisma deployment, and policy enforcement
- Managed Services – 24/7 monitoring, AI-based anomaly detection, and real-time access controls
With vertical specialization C1 tailors its services to accelerate ROI and reduce threat exposure across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
Proven Results from Zero Trust Network Architectures
Organizations adopting Zero Trust Network Architectures—especially those built on Palo Alto Networks’ technologies and supported by expert partners like C1—are seeing measurable improvements in security outcomes and operational resilience:
- 50% reduction in breach probability (Forrester)
- 63% faster lateral movement detection (Palo Alto Networks, 2025 Unit 42 Report)
- $1.76M average savings in breach costs for mature Zero Trust programs (IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023)
- 88% visibility across users, devices, and applications (ESG Research)
These metrics reflect the potential impact Zero Trust programs can deliver—reducing risk, accelerating threat response, and optimizing security investments. C1’s services are purpose-built to help enterprises achieve these kinds of outcomes by designing, deploying, and managing Zero Trust architectures aligned to business and compliance priorities.
Conclusion: Don’t Trust—Verify Everything
The perimeter has dissolved. Workloads move across clouds. Employees connect from everywhere. Threat actors move laterally in seconds. In this reality, Zero Trust is the only viable architecture to protect enterprise assets from identity-based and AI-driven attacks.
By combining Palo Alto Networks’ AI-enhanced security platforms with C1’s Advisory, Professional, and Managed Services, enterprises can confidently adopt Zero Trust at scale—while achieving greater visibility, operational simplicity, and faster threat response.
