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As operational ecosystems grow more complex, resilience can no longer stop at the edge of the enterprise. It’s a reality that today’s businesses recognise. Yet, many remain focused on what they can control, overlooking the external dependencies that increasingly shape resilience. This is one of the key findings in a new Zscaler report based on a survey of 1,750 IT leaders across 14 countries.
The good news is that cyber resilience is reported to be a strategic priority, with investment in it increasing, giving many businesses confidence in their ability to withstand disruption. But the findings suggest that this confidence may be blinding decision-makers to an important challenge.
While resilience efforts have traditionally focused inwards on strengthening systems, processes and culture within the enterprise, today’s threats increasingly originate outside it.
The danger of perceived control
Businesses have become more and more reliant on contractors, suppliers, partners and other third parties. In fact, for 68 per cent of IT leaders, this reliance is greater than ever before. Yet, adoption of necessary third-party risk-control measures such as segmentation, data encryption or partitioning is below 50 per cent.
The implications extend far beyond traditional vendor management. Today, when disruption occurs within any part of the ecosystem, the effects can travel quickly across connected organisations.
A supplier outage may prevent employees from accessing critical systems. A failure affecting a shared service provider can interrupt business operations. A breach within one part of an ecosystem can create disruption well beyond the third party directly impacted.
The challenge is not that organisations are ignoring resilience. Rather, many continue to assess their ability to maintain business continuity through an internal lens. This is reflected in one of the report’s most striking findings: six in 10 IT leaders admit their resilience strategies remain too inward-looking. The result is a gap between perceived control and genuine preparedness.
Leaders often feel most confident about areas they can directly manage, such as internal systems, policies and processes. Yet resilience failures increasingly originate elsewhere, within operational ecosystems, partner networks and shared digital infrastructure. As those external dependencies grow, so too does the risk of overlooking threats capable of sending shockwaves through business operations.
Extending the ripple effect
This challenge sits at the heart of what the report describes as the ripple effect. A robust foundation of cyber resilience creates positive outward ripples that can absorb the shockwaves of external disruption. Like a stone dropped into water, the strength and reach of those ripples depends on how intentionally resilience has been built into an organisation’s way of working. This distinction matters.
Resilience does not automatically extend beyond the enterprise simply because strong internal controls are in place. Businesses must actively consider how resilience principles apply across their wider operational ecosystem, so they are better positioned to absorb, contain and recover from external shocks before they escalate into larger operational issues.
In other words, resilience is no longer simply about protecting what sits inside the company’s four walls. It is about strengthening the foundations that allow protection to travel further.
Looking beyond today’s dependencies
The risk from a rapidly expanding operational ecosystem is just one example of a wider pattern identified by the research.
The findings also highlight how emerging technologies such as quantum and agentic AI and market volatility such as evolving regulatory pressures are creating fresh external pressures on enterprises, often exposing similar gaps between confidence and preparedness. Across each of these areas, the challenge remains consistent: resilience must be built from the inside out, shifting from reactive measures to proactive, deliberate action.
This is why the report argues for a resilient-by-design approach that intentionally extends foundational resilience principles outward. The approach requires greater visibility into external dependencies and a mindset shift where resilience is viewed as an ongoing process rather than a one-time project. It also demands architectural flexibility that helps enterprises avoid brittle, tightly coupled environments where disruption in one area can quickly cascade across the wider business.
The goal is not to eliminate uncertainty. It is to ensure that when disruption arrives, whether through an operational dependency, a new technology risk or wider market forces, businesses are prepared to withstand its impact and maintain continuity.
Explore the report’s full findings and discover three practical actions for strengthening the ripple effect across your organisation. To find out more about how Zscaler can help, visit zscaler.com/products-and-solutions/zero-trust-exchange-zte.