With business leaders still struggling to find secure and scalable solutions to manage entire workforce remotely as they cope with the operational challenges of COVID-19, Help AG, the cybersecurity arm of Etisalat Digital, today launched the Help AG Secure Private Access Service (HPA) – a Zero Trust Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution to secure remote workers and ensure control of IT budgets.

The overnight shift of millions of workers from on-site to remote work has drastically increased the cyber attack surface making critical assets more vulnerable to unauthorized access and existing security infrastructure incapable of handling threats of the “new normal”. To address these challenges, Help AG’s Secure Private Access Service (HPA) service provides a cloud delivered service, managed 24*7 from Help AG SOC in an affordable per user per month subscription model, designed to suit the needs of both large enterprises and small businesses.

HPA adopts a Zero Trust SASE solution – “trust no user, no device” – for both, remote staff users and third parties to securely access applications from anywhere across the globe. More importantly, for firms in the Middle East, HPA holds the advantage of an in-country cloud platform to reduce latency and comply with data residency. The service enables zero trust network access for users to connect with applications in their private data centres and applications in any public cloud.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has driven breakneck transformation in IT environments as companies have been forced to shift employees out of controlled network environments and ask them to connect virtually instead,” said Stephan Berner, Chief Executive Officer at Help AG.

“However, many businesses across our region, where working from offices has been the norm for decades, have been caught unprepared during this time and found that their systems are neither scalable nor ready for the security challenges of a large remote workforce. We understand that scaling up VPN licenses have been a real cost challenge as the crisis continues to pressure budgets and limit resources, which is why we are launching Help AG’s Secure Private Access Service (HPA).”

A pre-pandemic study by research and advisory firm Gartner estimated that 60% of enterprises will phase out their legacy VPNs with Zero Trust SASE solutions by 2023, with the number quickly rising after the outbreak.

SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) solutions are important because they enable IT teams to converge disparate point solutions into a cost effective and scalable cloud delivered solution. Help AG’s unique proposition is powered from anin-country infrastructure and delivered as a service, to its end customers. Help AG private access is the first service in the SASE service portfolio with many more to come that will help our customers in their digital transformation.

Help AG is the cybersecurity arm of Etisalat Digital and provides leading enterprise businesses across the Middle East with strategic consultancy combined with tailored information security solutions and services that address their diverse requirements, enabling them to evolve securely with a competitive edge. Present in the Middle East since 2004, Help AG was strategically acquired by Etisalat in 2019, hence creating a cybersecurity and digital transformation powerhouse in the region.