Traditional VPNs grant broad network access once a user connects, which means a single compromised laptop can reach everything. Cloudflare Zero Trust flips the model: every request to every internal app is authenticated and authorized individually, with no inbound ports opened on your firewall. Here is how to get started.
Step 1: Set up your Zero Trust organization
Create a Cloudflare Zero Trust account and choose a team domain (for example yourcompany.cloudflareaccess.com). This becomes the login portal your users see when accessing protected applications.
Step 2: Connect an identity provider
Integrate your existing identity provider — Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace, or Okta — under Settings → Authentication. This means users sign in with credentials they already have, and you inherit your existing MFA and group structure.
Step 3: Install cloudflared tunnels
Instead of exposing an internal app to the internet, you install a lightweight cloudflared connector next to it. The tunnel makes an outbound-only connection to Cloudflare, so there is no inbound firewall rule and no public IP to attack.
Step 4: Define Access policies
For each application, create an Access policy specifying who may reach it: a particular email domain, a security group, devices with a valid certificate, or a combination. You can require MFA, restrict by country, and block access from unmanaged devices.
Step 5: Roll out the WARP client for device posture
Deploy the WARP client to managed devices to enforce posture checks — disk encryption enabled, OS patched, Defender running — before access is granted. This turns "who you are" into "who you are, on a healthy device".
For most SMEs, Cloudflare Zero Trust eliminates the maintenance burden and attack surface of a legacy VPN while giving far finer-grained control. Start with one or two internal apps, prove the model, then migrate the rest.
Korur Security Team
Korur Security Team