Jane Edwards
The Defense Innovation Unit issued success memos to Zscaler, Google and McAfee for their secure cloud access platform prototypes and Rick Simon, program manager for the Secure Cloud Management project at DIU, said the agency will likely choose one of the prototypes to transition into the production phase in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022, Federal News Network reported Friday.
“All three of them, as it turns out, really offered some similar capabilities. They all offer what are known as SASE services, secure access edge services, and they are all offered a broad range of zero trust capabilities,” Simon said of the prototypes from the three companies.
Simon said DIU personnel were divided into three groups to test each prototype and DIU teamed up with the Defense Information Systems Agency to assess the prototypes against 77 metrics to compare to cloud access point equivalency. He noted that the agency also worked with the companies and third-party assessment organizations to conduct the tests.
“None of the vendors passed all 77 metrics. In the assessment, there were a handful of tests, for example, that required red teaming and we did not have the wherewithal either ourselves or through our security service provider to do red teaming. So we didn’t do those tests,” he said.
“There were a couple of tests that had to do with IPv6. But they all passed over 90% of their tests, and that was very encouraging to us,” Simon added.
Although one vendor will be selected by DIU to move into production, the success memos allow the other two vendors to offer their platforms to other Department of Defense agencies to help ensure the security of cloud access points.
