In today's companies, digital transformation significantly shapes the business landscape, paving the way for a new era of enhanced productivity and connectivity. But lurking in this transformation initiative is an uncomfortable truth. Most workers don't see it, but it's on the minds of CISOs, CIOs, and security experts.

It's the challenge of securing unmanaged devices in a world where remote work, contractors, and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) are common.

The Rising Tide of Unmanaged Devices

The shift toward remote work, fueled by necessity and innovation, has become a staple in our professional landscape. This new era of work is not just about where we work; it's also about who is doing the work.

Third-party contractor use has surged, and they have become an essential part of the remote workforce. Alongside this, BYOD policies have gained traction, which is part of a broader desire for flexibility and a familiar user experience.

While these trends offer substantial benefits for workers and organizations—promoting agility, talent diversity, and operational efficiency—they also introduce serious security challenges.

Unmanaged devices—those not directly controlled by an organization's IT infrastructure—pose a significant risk when accessing corporate SaaS and sensitive business-critical applications. The prevalence of unmanaged devices and their security risks has given rise to a variety of solutions, but they often fall short.

Historically, organizations have turned to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) or Desktop as a Service (DaaS) technologies to better secure unmanaged devices, or they decide to ship managed laptops.

However, these solutions are fraught with their own challenges: They are costly and complex to manage, don’t scale efficiently, and often result in poor user experiences. They fail to address the underlying issue—workers' growing reliance on unmanaged devices to access sensitive corporate data and business-critical applications, creating a security gap that traditional measures cannot bridge.

The Unseen Gaps and the New Approach

Adopting a fresh approach to protecting businesses from cyberthreats is crucial. A solution that offers visibility, control, and compliance over unmanaged devices without the drawbacks of previous methods.

Enter the enterprise browser, a novel approach designed to address these challenges head-on by effectively and unobtrusively securing the modern, dispersed workforce.

Enterprise browsers represent a seismic shift in how organizations can secure their digital environments. By creating a secure, controlled browsing experience, enterprise browsers offer a robust solution for accessing corporate resources.

Prisma Access Browser is the Palo Alto Networks solution to this dark secret. It extends the secure access service edge (SASE) protective reach to any device in minutes, ensuring comprehensive protection for business applications and data against a spectrum of threats.

With features such as data loss prevention (DLP), Zero Trust network access, threat protection, and SaaS visibility, Prisma Access Browser mitigates the risks associated with unmanaged devices, seamlessly integrating with an organization's existing security architecture.

Key Benefits Realized

Adopting an enterprise browser like Prisma Access Browser offers significant advantages. One key benefit is the substantial cost savings it brings compared to the expense of shipping laptops to employees or business partners. It also results in considerable reductions in overall ownership costs compared to VDI.

Prisma Access Browser protects corporate data by enhancing security measures on managed and unmanaged devices, standardizing security policies across the IT environment. This comprehensive security strategy ensures protection for all users and endpoints, regardless of their location or device type.

Ready to get the jump on the future of security? Read the Gartner® report that analyzes emerging security tech and enterprise browsers.