The city of Scottsdale’s innovative cybersecurity modernization effort has earned national recognition as a 2026 CSO (Chief Sustainability Officers) Award winner, highlighting the city’s leadership in protecting critical public services and digital infrastructure.

The annual CSO Awards honor organizations that demonstrate outstanding cybersecurity innovation, measurable risk reduction and meaningful business impact. Scottsdale’s recognition celebrates the city’s Zero Trust and Secure SD-WAN transformation, a major initiative designed to strengthen cybersecurity while supporting the growing digital services residents rely on every day.

The project modernized Scottsdale’s network architecture using Zero Trust principles — a security model that continuously verifies users and devices instead of relying on traditional perimeter defenses. The city deployed advanced software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) technology with integrated security protections, creating segmented and highly secure connections across more than 120 city facilities, public safety operations and cloud platforms.

“Protecting the systems that support our community is one of our most important responsibilities,” said Scottsdale City Manager Greg Caton. “This national recognition reflects Scottsdale’s commitment to investing in modern technology that keeps our services reliable, resilient and secure for residents, businesses and visitors.”

Scottsdale operates one of the most digitally advanced municipal environments in the country, supporting systems such as real-time crime centers, emergency communications, smart-city sensors and cloud-based service platforms. As these technologies expanded, the city’s legacy network architecture needed modernization to better protect critical infrastructure and reduce cyber risk.

The Zero Trust-aligned SD-WAN transformation significantly reduced the city’s cybersecurity attack surface while improving network performance and reliability. The system also introduced advanced segmentation capabilities that isolate devices such as cameras, sensors and phones from user networks — a key safeguard as cities deploy more connected technology.

“This project represents a fundamental shift in how we protect Scottsdale’s digital environment,” said Chief Information Officer Bianca Lochner. “By moving to a Zero Trust architecture, we’ve strengthened security while improving the speed, resilience and reliability of the systems our departments depend on to serve the community.”

Implementing the transformation required meticulous planning to avoid disrupting essential services such as police, fire and water operations, which run 24 hours a day. The city deployed the system through a phased rollout that included pilot testing, parallel system operations and comprehensive failover testing. The modernization was completed with zero unplanned outages to mission-critical services.

Today, the architecture supports secure connectivity across Scottsdale’s public safety operations, city facilities, devices and hybrid cloud platforms, ensuring that vital municipal services remain protected and operational.

The recognition from the CSO Awards program underscores Scottsdale’s continued leadership in digital government and cybersecurity innovation.