NextLabs + Accenture
Securing Enterprise Data with Zero Trust and Dynamic Authorization
NextLabs and Accenture help organizations protect sensitive data, secure enterprise applications, and implement Zero Trust security controls across complex hybrid and multi-cloud environments.Â
As organizations modernize applications, consolidate ERP environments, integrate acquisitions, and expand collaboration across organizational boundaries, traditional perimeter and role-based security controls are often insufficient. Organizations need fine-grained, policy-based controls that dynamically determine who can access data and applications, what they can access, and whether access should be permitted at the point of request.Â
Accenture is a global leader in the professional services sector, providing a broad range of services in the strategy & consulting, interactive, technology and operations sectors, with digital capabilities in each. NextLabs and Accenture bring zero trust data security solutions and consulting expertise to enterprises operating in complex, regulated environments. The combination of NextLabs software solutions and Accenture application and security services help enterprises address complex information risk challenges rapidly.Â
Addressing Complex Data Security Challenges
Enterprises face a growing need to share information while simultaneously protecting sensitive intellectual property, regulated data, and business-critical applications.Â
NextLabs and Accenture work together to address security and compliance challenges including:
- Regulatory compliance – Implement and automate controls for requirements such as ITAR, CMMC, GDPR, SOX, FCPA, NERC CIP, HIPAA, and EHS requirements.
- ERP consolidation – Protect sensitive information while consolidating multiple ERP environments into a global system.
- Mergers and acquisitions – Secure sensitive data while integrating new businesses, systems, users, and organizational structures.
- Cybersecurity – Reduce cybersecurity risk through fine-grained, data-centric access controls and centralized policy management.
- Trade-secret protection – Ensure that users have access only to the information required for their business responsibilities.
- Business automation – Automate security controls, business processes, compliance reporting, and internal controls.
- Application modernization – Centralize authorization policies and extend consistent security controls across legacy and modern applications.
“Today’s rapidly evolving IT landscape requires enterprises to implement adaptive, data-centric security solutions that can evolve to meet new requirements as they emerge. NextLabs is empowering businesses to accelerate their adoption of Zero Trust Architecture while strengthening data governance and cybersecurity controls, ensuring they’re prepared to meet both today’s and tomorrow’s business demands.”
Britta Simms
Managing Director
The NextLabs & Accenture Advantage
The combination of Accenture and NextLabs brings together complementary capabilities:Â
Accenture
- Cybersecurity consulting and transformation expertiseÂ
- Enterprise application and technology implementationÂ
- Industry and regulatory expertiseÂ
- Business process transformationÂ
- Global delivery capabilitiesÂ
NextLabs
Together, these capabilities help organizations move from broad, static access controls toward dynamic, context-aware, data-centric security.Â
Balancing the Need to Share with the Need to Protect
Modern enterprises need to collaborate across a globally distributed workforce, external partners, suppliers, and business ecosystems while protecting critical intellectual property, sensitive business information, and regulated data.Â
The NextLabs and Accenture approach helps organizations balance these needs by applying security policies directly to applications and data.Â
The solution provides:Â
- A centralized policy platform that works with existing infrastructure and applicationsÂ
- Native integrations with key enterprise applications and platformsÂ
- Dynamic authorization for structured and unstructured dataÂ
- Automated and centralized audit and compliance reportingÂ
- Protection for data both on premises and in the cloudÂ
- Security controls across the information lifecycleÂ
NextLabs provides a Zero Trust, data-centric security platform designed to protect information regardless of where it resides or how it is accessed.Â
Rather than relying solely on network location or static roles, NextLabs policies can evaluate user, device, location, application, data, and other contextual attributes to make dynamic access decisions. Â
This approach supports the Zero Trust principle of “never trust, always verify” while extending that principle to the data and applications themselves.Â
A Comprehensive Data-Centric Security Platform
The NextLabs platform combines dynamic authorization, centralized policy management, data access controls, and digital rights management to protect structured and unstructured data.Â
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Centralized Policy Management with CloudAz
Centralized Policy Management with CloudAz
Provides a unified policy management platform supporting policy authoring, lifecycle management, testing, approval workflows, policy evaluation, deployment, monitoring, auditing, and reporting.
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Dynamic Authorization and Externalized Authorization
Dynamic Authorization and Externalized Authorization
Enables organizations to externalize authorization from individual applications and dynamically evaluate and enforce policies at runtime across applications, APIs, microservices, databases, and other resources.
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Data Access Security with NextLabs Data Access Enforcer
Data Access Security with NextLabs Data Access Enforcer
Provides policy enforcement independent of the application, user interface, API, microservice, batch job, or application function through which data is accessed.
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Enterprise Digital Rights Management with NextLabs SkyDRM
Enterprise Digital Rights Management with NextLabs SkyDRM
Provides persistent protection for files and documents as they are shared across the extended enterprise. Policies remain associated with protected information, helping organizations maintain control as files move between users, applications, devices, and organizational boundaries.
Supporting Enterprise Applications and Data
NextLabs and Accenture bring security and implementation capabilities across a broad range of enterprise environments, enabling organizations to apply consistent security policies across their technology landscape.Â
Supported ecosystems highlighted in the NextLabs and Accenture collaboration include:Â
Enterprise Applications
- SAPÂ
- MicrosoftÂ
- SaaS applications including ServiceNow, Salesforce, Dynamics 365, and Microsoft 365Â
- PLM applicationsÂ
Data Platforms
- Databases
- Big data environments
- Cloud data platforms
Application and Integration Technologies
- API gateways
- Microservices
- Desktop and VDI environments
- Custom and third-party applications
NextLabs also provides protection for both structured and unstructured data, enabling organizations to manage security policies across applications, databases, files, and documents from a common policy-driven approach.
Key Use Cases
NextLabs and Accenture have experience addressing complex ERP security requirements. Use cases include ERP consolidations and modernization, protecting sensitive data while consolidating ERPs into a single global instance by restricting data downloads, protecting direct database updates, securing reporting, and controlling access to bills of materials.
Organizations can automate fine-grained security controls to support regulatory and internal compliance requirements and enforcing segregation of duties, including ITAR, HIPAA, and GDPR. Policies can be based on attributes such as user role, clearance, training, location, time, device, data classification, application, and requested action.
Data-centric policies can help organizations maintain appropriate data separation and access controls while integrating businesses, managing joint ventures, divestitures, and other organizational changes.
Optimizing Global Business Operations
Organizations can apply consistent policies to determine who can access sensitive data across geographies, business units, projects, and organizational boundaries. Â This enables nearshoring and offshoring by organizations while cutting costs by automating security, compliance, and internal controls.
Proven Collaboration Across Industries
NextLabs and Accenture have collaborated on data security and access control initiatives across aerospace and defense, chemicals, manufacturing, and government, applying their complementary technology, consulting, and implementation capabilities to complex enterprise environments.Â
The collaboration has included organizations such as LyondellBasell, Boeing Defense, the U.S. Army, Airbus, Dow Chemical, United Technologies, GE Aviation, Lockheed Martin, and DuPont.Â
For Boeing Defense, Space & Security, the collaboration addressed highly sensitive information including ITAR, personally identifiable information, and financially sensitive data. The solution combined role-based and attribute-based access controls and used multiple attribute sources to apply restrictions in real time.Â
The resulting approach was designed to ensure that sensitive data could be accessed only by authorized users, including requirements such as preventing users outside the United States from viewing U.S. data while allowing appropriately authorized users with export licenses to access sensitive information.
Accenture Federal Services worked with the U.S. Army to develop and deliver a public-sector solution providing attribute-based access control for SAP ECC transactions based on funds centers.Â
The solution enabled data segregation within transactions, fine-grained view and navigation controls, and attribute-based access decisions while working alongside SAP’s standard role-based access controls.Â
Build a Zero Trust Data Security Strategy
As enterprise environments become increasingly distributed, organizations need security controls that can follow the data rather than relying solely on network boundaries.Â
NextLabs and Accenture help organizations implement Zero Trust security at the application and data layers, enabling secure information sharing while maintaining control over sensitive data.
