SecurityBrief Australia - Technology news for CISOs & cybersecurity decision-makers
Story image
Dell Technologies Project Fort Zero to transform security
Sat, 27th May 2023

Dell Technologies introduces Project Fort Zero to provide an end-to-end Zero Trust security solution for global organizations to protect against cyberattacks. The U.S. Department of Defence will validate the solution and is part of a Dell Security portfolio expansion.

Project Fort Zero builds on the momentum of Dell’s Zero Trust Center of Excellence and partner ecosystem to accelerate Zero Trust adoption. Leading an ecosystem of more than 30 leading technology companies, Dell will deliver a validated, advanced maturity Zero Trust solution within the next 12 months.

“Zero Trust is designed for decentralized environments, but integrating it across hundreds of point products from dozens of vendors is complex – making it out of reach for most organizations,” says Herb Kelsey, industry chief technology officer, government, Dell Technologies. “We’re helping global organizations solve today’s security challenges by easing integration and accelerating adoption of Zero Trust.”

The fully configured Project Fort Zero solution will lower Zero Trust adoption barriers. Dell will take on the technology integration and orchestration that typically falls to individual organizations across several vendors. In doing so, the estimated time for advanced Zero Trust adoption is reduced through a private cloud.

To achieve validation, a government assessment team will evaluate the Project Fort Zero solution for advanced maturity accreditation and certify compliance against the U.S. Department of Defense Zero Trust reference architecture, which is recognized worldwide. This end-to-end solution will help global public- and private-sector organizations adapt and respond to cybersecurity risks while offering the highest level of protection.

Project Fort Zero can serve a variety of use cases, including: in on-premises data centres for organizations where data security and compliance are paramount; in remote or regional locations like retail stores where secure, real-time analysis of customer data can deliver a competitive advantage; in the field where a temporary implementation is needed in places with intermittent connectivity, like aeroplanes or vehicles, for operational continuity.

“Organizations are turning to Zero Trust to modernize their cybersecurity programs and keep pace with an evolving attack landscape. But determining where to start, the capabilities to prioritize and the actions needed to progress towards maturity can be complicated,” says John Grady, principal analyst of Enterprise Strategy Group. "Security and IT leaders need help planning their strategy and implementing the tools to support it. Project Fort Zero can help accelerate this process by delivering a repeatable blueprint for an end-to-end solution that is based on a validated reference architecture recognized around the world."

Along with Project Fort Zero, Dell is expanding its security portfolio with a product success accelerator (PSX) for backup, a new service to help organizations protect and recover data during disruption.

PSX for backup simplifies implementing and maintaining backup environments to enable data recovery. It follows the recent release of PSX for Cyber Recovery, which implements and helps operationalize an isolated cyber recovery vault.
Organizations can choose from three backup or cyber recovery levels based on their needs.

Ready includes planning workshops, configuring a validated backup or vault environment, a success plan, a run book and outcome-based skills training.

Optimize adds quarterly assessments, improvement recommendations and assisted restore test simulations.

Operate adds ongoing operational assistance to meet the solution's performance objectives. Highly skilled experts monitor and investigate alerts, initiate corrective actions and help restore tasks at the customer's direction.

Project Fort Zero's advanced maturity Zero Trust solution will be available to public- and private-sector organizations within 12 months. Dell product success accelerator for backup is now available in locations across North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific. Dell product success accelerator for cyber recovery expanded availability to Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and North America.