# Joint Venture: The Case For Federated Identity And Zero Trust

- Link: https://www.agilicus.com/joint-venture-zero-trust/
- Published: 2021-01-07T00:14:08+00:00
- Author: Don Bowman

A [Joint Venture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_venture) allows 2 unrelated
companies to share resources, ownership in a new special purpose entity. For cost
reasons you might want the new JV to have access to partial resources of one or 
more of the parent entities. Users might have permissions in both the JV and the
parent organisation. How does one achieve this? A mesh of VPN’s? A new Identity 
system? These seem likely to lead to heart ache and security woes. Business needs
to be fast and efficient. Starting a new JV we should not have to worry about who
can login to what. What’s the best approach? A Joint Venture with Zero Trust.

First, we need a Federated Identity system. Don’t create new accounts and logins.
Instead, create a new Federated Identity system which allows for a user to be working
for one of the parents, or the other of the parents, or the JV directly. Make no
differentiation in ease of use nor security nor access.

Second, we need a means of authorising access to the resource. Zero Trust Network
Architecture allows us to treat resources in isolation. Make no differentiation 
in ease of use nor security nor access for any resource, regardless of which of 
the 3 entities “owns” it. A Joint Venture with Zero Trust allows authorisation regardless
resource or user location or ownership.

Don’t hire a firewall or a VPN to do the job, they are not fit for purpose. They
have a time and a place. But not here.

Once achieved, we can a la carte build the team and tools that will make the Joint
Venture successful. And, in the unlikely event the Joint Venture fails and needs
to be wound up, its trivial to disconnect. Fast to start and try, fast to fail if
needed. This is what [continuous](https://www.agilicus.com/agilicus-agile-philosophy/)
is all about. Joint Venture, Zero Trust.