Zero Trust Alone Isn’t Enough: Opengear’s Mitch Densley on Building Resilience into Security Strategies, Podcast

Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News

“Segmentation is powerful, but complexity is the enemy of reliability. That’s why resilience has to be part of the zero-trust conversation.” — Mitch Densley, Principal Solutions Architect, Opengear Mitch Densley, Principal Solutions Architect at Opengear, joined Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, to explore why Zero Trust cannot stand alone—and how organizations can achieve true resilience with Smart Out-of-Band™ management. With deep expertise in cybersecurity and network architecture, Densley is known for turning complex security concepts into practical strategies. He frequently speaks on securing AI and GenAI environments, highlighting the unique demands of today’s computing landscape. Defining Zero Trust Densley framed Zero Trust as the “evolution of defense in depth”—breaking flat networks into smaller, segmented zones to limit the blast radius of breaches or misconfigurations. “It’s like shrinking a room full of tinder into smaller compartments with fireproof doors,” he explained. But he emphasized that segmentation alone increases complexity, which can compromise reliability and availability. Why Zero Trust is Only Half the Solution “When critical segments fail, access to shared services like authentication may be lost, effectively bringing everything down,” Densley said. Zero Trust reduces exposure, but without resilience, organizations remain vulnerable to outages caused by malware, insider threats, or human error. Opengear’s Smart Out-of-Band Approach Opengear closes this gap with Smart Out-of-Band™ (Smart OOB), a secure management plane independent of the production network. Combined with cellular failover, Smart OOB ensures: Continuous access during outages or breaches Remote investigation, forensics, and remediation without waiting for on-site staff Logging and visibility even when the production network is unavailable “Instead of putting people in cars or planes, you remote in through Opengear and put hands on the keyboard instantly,” Densley said. Real-World Impact Densley recounted a global cybersecurity incident where Opengear customers were able to isolate compromised systems, collect forensic data, and redeploy devices remotely. For those without out-of-band access, outages stretched into days or weeks. “Getting breached happens. Rarely will you be blamed for that alone,” he noted. “It’s how quickly and effectively you respond that separates the prepared from the unprepared.” Enabling SD-WAN Rollouts Opengear also simplifies SD-WAN deployments. Without out-of-band visibility, teams are left “crossing their fingers” during cutovers. With Smart OOB, engineers can make small configuration changes remotely, turning multi-day rollout challenges into minutes-long adjustments. The Bottom Line Zero Trust remains a vital pillar of security, but on its own it does not guarantee resilience. By pairing segmentation with Smart Out-of-Band management, organizations can contain threats while ensuring they can respond quickly and effectively to any outage or breach. Learn more about Opengear’s approach at opengear.com.