Cloudflare Acquires BastionZero to Strengthen Zero Trust Security for Critical Infrastructure

Cloudflare recently announced the acquisition of BastionZero, a Zero Trust infrastructure access platform, on June 6, 2024. 

The acquisition will allow Cloudflare One customers to extend Zero Trust controls to servers, Kubernetes clusters, databases and other critical IT infrastructure.

By integrating BastionZero's technology, Cloudflare aims to provide secure remote access to an organisation's most sensitive systems, without the risks of traditional VPN setups that grant overly permissive long-term access. 

This will enable hybrid and remote IT teams to access critical assets while adhering to Zero Trust principles.

Key benefits of the acquisition for Cloudflare One customers include:

• Increased security by eliminating long-lived passwords and credentials.
• Improved compliance with just-in-time permissions and centralized policy controls.
• Granular control over access to systems and data.
• Reduced complexity by removing the need for legacy workarounds.

The BastionZero team will focus on integrating their infrastructure access controls directly into CloudflareOne, with new features planned for release in the second half of 2024.

Gartner, a research firm predicted that SASE market will grow at a 29% CAGR to over $25 billion by 2027. As a key part of Cloudflare's connectivity cloud, Cloudflare One is well-positioned to capitalize on this growth.

Earlier in March, Cloudflare has introduced two new AI-powered security features—Firewall for AI and Defensive AI—to protect organisations against emerging threats in the wake of generative AI. These solutions aim to fortify AI applications, particularly LLMs, against potential abuse, attacks, and tampering.