Zero Trust and SASE

Cloudflare's Zero Trust platform replaces traditional VPNs and perimeter firewalls with identity-based security. Instead of trusting everything inside your network, every request is verified — regardless of where it comes from.

What's Free

The free plan includes up to 50 users for Access and Gateway, unlimited WARP Client usage, and unlimited Cloudflare Tunnels. This is enough for small teams and personal use.

The Zero Trust Model

flowchart LR
    subgraph Traditional["Traditional (VPN)"]
        T_USER["Remote User"] -->|VPN Tunnel| T_NET["Corporate Network"]
        T_NET --> T_APP1["App 1"]
        T_NET --> T_APP2["App 2"]
        T_NET --> T_DB["Database"]
        T_NET --> T_ALL["Everything Else"]
    end

    subgraph ZeroTrust["Zero Trust (Cloudflare)"]
        Z_USER["Remote User"] -->|WARP / Browser| CF["Cloudflare Edge"]
        CF -->|"Verify identity\n+ device posture"| Z_APP1["App 1 ✅"]
        CF -->|"Verify identity"| Z_APP2["App 2 ✅"]
        CF -->|"Not authorized"| Z_DB["Database ❌"]
    end

    style T_NET fill:#dc2626,color:#fff,stroke:#b91c1c
    style CF fill:#f6821f,color:#fff,stroke:#e5711e

	Traditional VPN	Cloudflare Zero Trust
Trust model	Trust everything inside the network	Trust nothing — verify every request
Access	Full network access once connected	Per-application access
Speed	Backhauled through a central VPN server	Routed through nearest Cloudflare PoP
User experience	Slow, clunky VPN clients	Fast, transparent access via WARP

What You Will Learn

Lesson	What It Covers
WARP Client	Cloudflare's free VPN-like client for secure internet access
Cloudflare Tunnel	Secure tunnels to expose internal services without opening ports
Access	Zero Trust access control for internal applications (free for 50 users)
Gateway	Secure Web Gateway for DNS filtering and internet security (free for 50 users)

Prerequisites

• A Cloudflare account
• Basic understanding of networking (DNS, HTTP, VPN concepts)