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Zero Trust Readiness Assessment: Where Your Architecture Actually Stands

This free zero trust readiness assessment scores your organization's access control maturity across identity verification, device posture, network segmentation, and monitoring in eight questions, taking about four minutes to complete. It is built for CIOs, IT directors, and security leads at aerospace, defense, and manufacturing organizations who need to know where they stand against CMMC 2.0 and DoD zero trust strategy expectations before a customer flow-down clause or an assessor asks. The output is a scored maturity band with a specific, prioritized remediation list, not a generic maturity model.

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1. How is user identity verified before granting access to applications?

Consider your baseline for a typical office or remote employee, not just privileged admin accounts.

2. How do you verify device health before granting access to corporate resources?

3. How is your network segmented?

4. How are access privileges assigned and reviewed?

5. How do users and services access internal applications like your ERP or file shares?

6. How is access activity logged and monitored?

7. How do contractors and third parties access your systems?

8. Where are access policies actually enforced?

Why zero trust matters more for defense-adjacent manufacturers

Every DoD contractor and subcontractor is moving toward zero trust requirements as part of CMMC 2.0 rollout and the DoD's own zero trust strategy target-level goals. Flow-down clauses increasingly require demonstrable continuous verification, not just a perimeter firewall and a VPN, and assessors are trained to probe for exactly the gaps this assessment measures: standing privileged access, unverified device posture, and flat internal networks.

CMMC Level 2 assessments increasingly probe for continuous verification, not just documented policy.
Prime contractors are pushing zero trust requirements down through flow-down clauses to subcontractors.
A flat internal network is one of the most common findings in defense supply chain security assessments.

The gap between 'we have MFA' and true zero trust

Most organizations that describe themselves as having strong security have MFA and some segmentation, but that is necessary, not sufficient, for zero trust. True zero trust evaluates identity, device health, and contextual signals continuously, per request, not once at login. The most common gap this assessment surfaces is standing access: privileged accounts, VPN sessions, or vendor credentials that remain valid for weeks or months without re-verification.

MFA at login is a starting point, not the finish line, for zero trust maturity.
Standing privileged access is the single most common finding this assessment exposes.
Device posture checks are frequently missing for remote and contractor-issued devices specifically.

Where to start if you score low

Do not attempt a full zero trust architecture rebuild in one project. Start with the highest-leverage, lowest-disruption steps: enforce MFA everywhere, inventory and close standing access, and add device posture checks to your most sensitive applications first. A phased 12 to 18 month roadmap that starts with identity and access, then adds device and network segmentation, produces measurable maturity gains without the disruption of a big-bang rearchitecture.

How Netray helps close the gap

Netray helps aerospace, defense, and electronics manufacturers translate a zero trust readiness score into a phased, budgeted roadmap aligned to CMMC and DoD zero trust target-level requirements, including on-prem and air-gapped deployments where cloud-based zero trust brokers are not an option.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is zero trust architecture in simple terms?

Zero trust is a security model that assumes no user, device, or network location is automatically trusted, even inside the corporate network. Instead of trusting anything behind the firewall, every access request is verified based on identity, device health, and context, every time, not just once at login. It replaces implicit trust based on network location with continuous, explicit verification.

Does CMMC 2.0 require zero trust architecture?

CMMC 2.0 itself is built on NIST SP 800-171 and does not use the term zero trust directly, but many of its required controls (access control, identification and authentication, system and communications protection) align closely with zero trust principles, and the DoD's separate zero trust strategy sets target-level expectations that increasingly show up in flow-down requirements from prime contractors. Organizations building toward CMMC compliance should design controls with zero trust principles in mind.

How long does it take to implement zero trust architecture?

A phased implementation typically takes 12 to 24 months for a mid-size manufacturer, starting with identity and MFA (2 to 4 months), then device posture and access policy consolidation (4 to 8 months), then network microsegmentation for critical systems (6 to 12 months). Attempting a full rearchitecture in a single project is the most common cause of stalled zero trust initiatives.

What is the difference between VPN access and ZTNA?

A VPN grants broad network-level access once a user authenticates, effectively placing them inside the corporate network. Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) grants access to a specific application only, after evaluating identity, device posture, and context for that specific request, and re-evaluates continuously rather than trusting the initial session indefinitely. ZTNA significantly reduces lateral movement risk if an account or device is compromised.

Can zero trust be implemented in an air-gapped environment?

Yes, though cloud-based ZTNA brokers are not usable in fully air-gapped networks. On-prem zero trust architecture relies on locally hosted policy engines, certificate-based device trust, and internal microsegmentation enforced by on-prem network infrastructure rather than a cloud broker. This is common in classified and ITAR-controlled environments where no policy decision can transit an external network.

Get a phased zero trust roadmap mapped to CMMC 2.0 and your customer flow-down requirements.

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