Cloudflare wins Microsoft Security Excellence Award for Zero Trust innovation
Microsoft has named Cloudflare the winner of the Security Software Innovator award in the 2022 Microsoft Security Excellence Awards. The award, announced June 6, 2022, was part of Microsoft's third annual celebration of partners across security, compliance, and identity, with finalists in 10 categories selected by a panel of industry veterans.
The recognition highlights Cloudflare's approach to Zero Trust security and its deep integrations with Microsoft products. According to Cloudflare, the two companies have supported thousands of customers — including many large Fortune 500 organizations — on their Zero Trust deployments, with joint solutions spanning Microsoft 365 and Azure for web application security, identity, and device protection.
"Partners are critical to solving customers' constantly evolving security challenges and threat landscape. The close collaboration and deep integrations between Cloudflare and Microsoft ensure our joint customers are equipped with innovative technologies that are seamlessly integrated to address their security challenges. We are pleased to recognize Cloudflare with the Security Software Innovator Award at this year's Microsoft Security Excellence Awards."– Ann Johnson, Corporate Vice President of Security, Compliance, Identity, and Management, Business Development at Microsoft.
Why the perimeter model is breaking
The shift to remote work and the proliferation of SaaS applications have made traditional network security approaches increasingly unsustainable. Historically, organizations protected sensitive resources using a "castle-and-moat" strategy, layering separate point products for each defensive function — DNS and HTTPS filtering, endpoint protection, remote browser isolation, data-loss prevention, CASB, and private network connections.
That model is difficult to manage and doesn't scale in an environment where users and applications are distributed across the Internet. Zero Trust has become a necessity because:
- Applications can live anywhere — on-premises, in the cloud, or as SaaS
- Employees can access resources from any location
- Attack sophistication continues to rise
- The Internet itself is the new office, replacing the castle-and-moat model
Cloudflare One architecture
Cloudflare One applies the company's full security product suite across its global network, which spans more than 270 cities:
- Access protects self-hosted and SaaS applications
- Gateway inspects and protects Internet access
- Browser Isolation isolates sensitive applications and high-risk browsing
- CASB and DLP provide data-loss protection
Devices, offices, and networks connect to Cloudflare One via the WARP roaming agent, tunnels, or direct connectivity to the nearest point of presence.
Microsoft integration details
Cloudflare's integrations with Microsoft aim to make Zero Trust implementations operationally efficient while maintaining a seamless user experience. The company notes that its collaboration with Microsoft is central to simplifying the complex process of Zero Trust adoption, which Cloudflare delivers through its Cloudflare One product portfolio via a single pane of glass.
A new award category
This is the first year Microsoft has offered a Security Software Innovator award category. Cloudflare says it will continue expanding its integrations across Microsoft's product suite as it develops next-generation Zero Trust solutions.
