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Survey: Hybrid Visibility Gaps and Operational Constraints Slow Zero Trust Adoption

Oct 20, 2026 · Original Report (PDF) ↗

Original report publisher: not verified. Report discovered via Awesome Annual Security Reports.

Summary

A survey of 505 U.S. and U.K. security and IT leaders finds visibility gaps, uneven Zero Trust deployments, and integration and skills constraints impeding SASE operations; 78% favor co-managed or fully managed delivery.

Key points

Open Systems and Cybersecurity Insiders surveyed 505 senior security and IT leaders: 263 in the U.S. and 242 in the U.K.; the report gives an aggregate margin of error of about ±4.4 percentage points at 95% confidence.
About two-thirds of respondents cite a lack of end-to-end visibility as a top operational challenge, with confidence in monitoring falling at remote, multi-cloud, and third-party access boundaries.
Only 9% report a fully integrated Zero Trust architecture; 13% still rely on traditional VPN-only access, while most report partial deployment.
The report identifies integration with existing systems (53%) and internal expertise shortages (51%) as leading SASE challenges; 48% cite parallel VPN and ZTNA operations as a burden.
On preferred SASE delivery, 51% choose co-managed service, 27% fully managed service, and 22% in-house management.
Recommendations include improving visibility across access environments, planning for VPN and ZTNA coexistence, and matching the operating model to internal capacity.

Article Details

Publisher: Cybersecurity Insiders and Open Systems
Report Period: January 2026
Scope: Survey of senior security and IT leaders in the United States and United Kingdom about SASE and Zero Trust execution in hybrid environments.
Sample Size: 505 respondents: 263 from the United States and 242 from the United Kingdom.
Key Statistics: 68% of respondents cited lack of end-to-end visibility as a top operational challenge.
9% described their environment as a fully integrated Zero Trust architecture.
48% identified parallel operation of legacy VPN and ZTNA as a major operational burden.
51% preferred a co-managed SASE model; 27% preferred fully managed and 22% fully in-house.
73% of organizations secure third-party access.
Recommendations: Unify visibility across users, applications, and data flows before expanding Zero Trust coverage.
Assess overlapping VPN and ZTNA policies, define migration triggers and timelines, and remove legacy VPN rules that persist only by default.
Evaluate SASE delivery models against ongoing operational capacity, including co-managed options.
Require clear SLAs for detection, escalation, and resolution when selecting a SASE partner.
Request relevant compliance certifications and clarity on data-hosting jurisdiction from prospective partners.

Vendors

Countries

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