Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 is a set of security guidelines developed by U.S. government cybersecurity organizations to ensure secure connectivity between government networks and the internet. TIC 3.0 is designed to support cloud adoption and provide secure, flexible internet connections for federal agencies, moving beyond the perimeter-based security of previous TIC versions. Learn more about TIC 3.0.
Alkira provides a Cloud Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform specifically designed to meet TIC 3.0 guidelines. The platform enables secure, scalable connectivity to multiple clouds, allowing federal agencies to onboard on-premises infrastructure via AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, Remote VPN/ZTNA clients, and IPsec/SD-WAN connections. Alkira eliminates the need to backhaul internet traffic to on-premises for firewall inspection, providing optimal and secure paths for internet ingress and egress across multi-cloud environments. Read more.
Alkira addresses key TIC 3.0 requirements including Zero Trust policies for inbound and outbound traffic, device authentication, user activity management with audit logs, departmental isolation and micro-segmentation, real-time visibility into traffic flows and security rules, end-to-end encryption, and immediate threat detection with alerts and notifications.
Native cloud constructs often lack essential features for TIC 3.0 compliance, such as effective segmentation across clouds, comprehensive encryption for all traffic, and real-time visibility into network flows. Alkira overcomes these limitations by providing unified segmentation, end-to-end encryption, and advanced visibility tools across multi-cloud and hybrid environments.
Alkira's platform offers:
Alkira uses segments as isolated route domains (VRFs), allowing complete isolation of workloads or resources between business units or departments. Segments can be extended across multiple regions and inspected for traffic, supporting unique routing and policy spaces for each segment. Read more about segmentation.
Alkira integrates with a wide range of technology providers, including:
Yes, Alkira supports automation through Terraform, allowing customers to provision and manage large-scale network infrastructure efficiently. This is especially valuable for organizations with complex, multi-cloud environments.
Alkira offers single-pane-of-glass visibility for monitoring, managing, and optimizing cloud networks. The platform includes real-time traffic flow analysis, security configuration discovery, threat detection, and cost optimization insights via Alkira Cloud Insights. Learn more about Cloud Insights.
Alkira's infrastructure is cloud-native, leveraging redundancy across multiple availability zones and regions. This design ensures high availability, resiliency, and the ability to meet critical SLA requirements for enterprise and government customers.
Alkira is SOC 2 and PCI-DSS compliant, demonstrating a commitment to securing customer data and maintaining robust operational controls. The platform also integrates advanced security features such as ZTNA and next-generation firewalls. See Alkira's compliance details.
Alkira is designed for mid-to-large enterprises and government agencies across industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, telecommunications, financial services, biotechnology, software technology, retail, media & entertainment, and aviation. Key roles include Network Architects, Cloud Architects, Security Architects, IT Managers/Directors, CloudOps, CIOs, CTOs, and CISOs.
Customers can expect:
Notable customer success stories include:
Alkira addresses:
Customers can implement a proof of concept in as little as 4 hours and achieve full production deployment in approximately 8 weeks. Alkira's drag-and-drop interface, dedicated training platform, and 24×7 support make onboarding straightforward, even for non-technical users. Explore Alkira's training resources.
Alkira offers flexible pricing options:
Alkira differentiates itself by providing:
Alkira is a cloud-native platform that does not require on-premises hardware. Customers can connect via AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, Remote VPN/ZTNA clients, or IPsec/SD-WAN from data centers or offices. Cloud workloads (VPCs, VNETs, VCNs) connect to Alkira Cloud Exchange Points for unified management and security.
Yes, Alkira offers APIs, including billing APIs that provide real-time cloud network cost data for integration with cost management tools and dashboards. Learn more about Alkira APIs.
Alkira provides whitepapers, solution briefs, and a dedicated wiki for in-depth technical information. Key resources include:
Alkira provides:
Alkira provides proactive notifications for planned or emergency maintenance, a live Diagnostics Dashboard for troubleshooting, 24×7 monitoring, and dedicated support to minimize downtime and operational disruptions.
Alkira is SOC 2 and PCI-DSS compliant, integrates advanced security features (ZTNA, next-generation firewalls), and encourages customers to follow best practices for user access and information security. See Alkira's compliance page.
Alkira was founded by the creators of Viptela (acquired by Cisco in 2017) and is recognized for innovation in cloud networking. The company has been named a Gartner Cool Vendor, received the 2024 Excellence Award from Cloud Computing Magazine, and is listed on CRN’s 2023 Stellar Startups List. Learn more about Alkira.
Alkira's vision is to transform enterprise connectivity by simplifying cloud networking for the AI era. Its mission is to eliminate traditional hardware-dependent networking complexity by providing a cloud-native solution that seamlessly connects hybrid and multi-cloud environments through a unified control plane.
Establishing the Control Plane for Cloud Connectivity
Read the AnnouncementIn today’s world, the internet has become the backbone of almost every business operation. From communication to data sharing, the internet has transformed how we work, but it has also brought significant cybersecurity challenges. As organizations continue moving their business-critical applications and data to the cloud, the need for secure and reliable connectivity has never been more critical.
To address these challenges, leading government cybersecurity organizations have come together to introduce the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) initiative, which defines a set of security guidelines to ensure secure connectivity between government networks and the internet. The TIC program has evolved over the years. The latest version, TIC 3.0, is designed to support cloud adoption and provide a more secure and flexible internet connection to federal agencies.
In previous TIC versions, the agency traffic needed to flow through a physical TIC access point, which has proven to be an obstacle to adopting cloud-based infrastructure. For example, TIC 2.0 focused exclusively on perimeter security by channeling all incoming and outgoing agency data through a TIC access point.
Alkira, a leading provider of the multi-cloud network as a service (NaaS) solutions, has taken a proactive approach to address the security challenges of cloud connectivity. Alkira’s Cloud NaaS platform is built to meet TIC 3.0 guidelines and provides a secure and scalable way to connect to multiple clouds.
This blog will explore how Alkira’s Cloud NaaS platform can help federal agencies meet TIC 3.0 requirements and provide secure cloud connectivity.
Federal customers who are deploying workloads in the cloud need to make sure that requirements around TIC 3.0 are taken into consideration
Figure 1: Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 Native Approach
Native constructs of major CSPs fail to fulfill the above requirements. Here are some challenges using native constructs in CSPs:
Alkira Cloud NaaS is the first global unified multi-cloud network delivered as-a-service. Alkira seamlessly solves the requirements for TIC 3.0 and the challenges mentioned above. Alkira allows customers to quickly onboard their on-premise infrastructure by leveraging various methods, including AWS Direct Connect, Azure Express Routes, Remote VPN/ZTNA clients, and IPsec/SD-WAN Connections from their DCs, or government offices into the Alkira Cloud Exchange Points. At the same time, customers connect their cloud workloads (VPCs, VNETs, VCNs etc.) to the Alkira Cloud Exchange Points. Alkira’s solution also allows customers to inspect the traffic between on-premise to cloud or multi-cloud environments to use a policy-driven framework to steer traffic to their desired security solutions as per the requirements. In addition, visibility into all traffic flows is available for any endpoints connected to the Alkira CXP.
Figure 2: Alkira Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 ApproachFederal agencies can leverage any major CSPs from Azure, GCP, AWS, and OCI. The above architecture provides an optimal and secure path for Internet Ingress-Egress traffic across a multi-cloud environment; there is no need to backhaul internet traffic to on-prem for firewall inspection.
Alkira’s infrastructure is built in the cloud, for the cloud. The Alkira Platform is highly resilient to leverage the full scale and flexibility of the major CSP’s. All aspects of our architecture are redundant and spread across discrete availability zones (AZ’s) and available across multiple regions to allow our customers to achieve their critical SLA requirements.
Alkira segments are completely isolated route domains or VRFs. Hence for third-party clients complete isolation of workloads can be achieved using these segments. Traffic across segments can be inspected as well. Since a segment represents a unique routing and policy space, maintaining isolation becomes seamless for customers. Based on customer requirements these segments can also be extended across multiple regions if workloads are deployed in those regions.
Refer to this blog for more details about cloud network segmentation.
Alkira’s platform is highly integrated and tightly automated with vendors like Check Point, Cisco, Fortinet, Palo Alto, and ZScalar for traffic inspection for any type of traffic flow. Federal organizations get a significant advantage as they don’t have to bring up firewalls depending on traffic flow. Also, functionality like autoscaling comes as part of the solution, which helps to scale up or down depending on the requirements.
For more details, please refer to this multi-cloud inline traffic inspection blog.
Alkira Cloud Insights helps discover all cloud resources along with their networking & security configurations, Detect threats and security vulnerabilities, Optimize and reduce your cloud spending by deleting unused resources, repurposing idle infrastructure, and maximizing efficiency across Multi-Cloud deployments. Last but not least, Alkira Cloud Insights can help Federal organizations improve the speed and responsiveness of cloud applications by fixing complex network misconfigurations.
Alkira Cloud Network-as-a-Service platform ensures end-to-end encryption for the traffic flows within the infrastructure and gives customers control to onboard their workloads using IPSec.
Customers can connect to the Alkira Platform in the nearest region, wherever their users and workloads exist, and from their local Cloud Exchange Point (CXP), leverage the Alkira Backbone to have low latency while connecting to these applications. This can help with applications that are latency-sensitive and assist with efficient connectivity.
Large-scale network infrastructure deployments require automation, and Alkira helps solve this, wherein the customer can use Terraform to provision the network infrastructure for Alkira.
The TIC 3.0 guidelines provide a framework for federal agencies to ensure secure internet connectivity. Alkira Multi-Cloud Network-as-a-Service Solution is built to meet these guidelines and provides a secure and scalable way to connect to multiple clouds. The Alkira Cloud NaaS solution provides a cloud-native architecture built on global network infrastructure, providing a comprehensive set of network services such as security, routing, load balancing, and optimization.
Alkira’s comprehensive security features, such as end-to-end segmentation, encryption, and threat detection, help protect against cyber threats and ensure the network infrastructure is secure. This solution also provides a flexible and scalable network infrastructure that can adapt to changing business needs.
Overall, Alkira is a reliable and secure platform that meets TIC 3.0 guidelines and provides a seamless way for federal agencies to connect to multiple clouds. A secure and reliable network infrastructure is crucial as organizations continue to move their critical workloads to the cloud. Alkira’s Cloud NaaS solution provides a modern approach to the network infrastructure that helps organizations manage their network infrastructure easily and securely.
Schedule a demo today to see how Alkira can help accelerate your TIC 3.0 initiatives.
About the Authors : Ahmed Abeer & Deepesh Kumar
