Cloud computing is quickly changing enterprise IT with applications like Salesforce and Microsoft 365, which are improving productivity, reducing costs, and making management more... manageable.
Now, organisations are discovering that those same advantages can be achieved by migrating security to the cloud.
Organisations understand that protecting users with a consistent and enforceable policy requires much more than simple URL or web filtering. Thousands of companies have switched their IT security from appliances to experience the benefits of the Zscaler Security Cloud.
This blog will tell you why...
Point solutions are no longer effective enough to support distributed environments with many locations and branch offices, and they cannot effectively protect telecommuters and remote workers. Zscaler provides the best defence against today’s sophisticated threats, including botnets, malicious websites, scripting attacks, and more.
Appliance-based solutions are not enough to keep up with today’s workforce. Employees now work from airports, coffee shops, and other locations with internet connectivity. Establishing a secure connection with a VPN back to headquarters or to some regional hub where a security appliance is deployed is essential.
This deteriorates the user experience and creates back haul costs which encourages users to access the internet directly which could introduce malware to the network.
With Zscaler, regardless of the worker’s location, the nearest data centre is accessed, policy is enforced, and only then is the Internet accessed with Internet protection and low latency. The user gets the same policy and protection whether sitting at headquarters, in a hotel in London, or a coffee shop in Chicago.
Smartphones and tablets offer users multiple productivity benefits, as they provide access to corporate services such as email and Saas applications.
These devices typically operate on a 3 G or 4G network and connect directly to the Internet, making security a significant challenge. This traffic does not go through an appliance, and users are often compromised.
With Zscaler, you receive the same policy and protection regardless of whether your users are on a PC, laptop, smartphone, or tablet.
Companies of today no longer work out of a single facility. A typical company has multiple offices worldwide. A security appliance requires you to backhaul traffic to headquarters or a regional hub facility. Either way, you wind up paying twice for bandwidth.
One Zscaler customer is protecting thousands of users at offices worldwide and is saving $1.6 million per month by avoiding backhauling costs alone.
Zscaler offers a rich and fast Internet experience for users. Avoiding the need to backhaul traffic saves money and improves network performance.
Zscaler can do this because its fundamental innovation lies in its ability to create a large global network that acts as a single virtual proxy. Thus, any user can go to any gateway at any time for policy-based secure Internet access.
The typical appliance overhead is simply no match.
No hardware. No software. No clients. No complications. Appliance vendors can’t say that.
By consolidating multiple point products and eliminating the need for large-scale deployments across various locations, the Zscaler Security Cloud frees valuable IT resources to focus on strategic and architectural challenges, rather than patching and managing individual boxes.
With Zscaler, you are not limited to batch reporting. Whether you have 500 employees or 50,000, you can view transaction-level logs for any employee at any location from any destination within seconds.
And that’s backed by a Zscaler SLA.
Appliance vendors typically require you to purchase and maintain reporting servers, and still rely on batch reporting, with no service-level agreement (SLA).
With Zscaler, there is no CAPEX. You are not buying and deploying hardware, so deployment costs are minimal, as are ongoing management costs.
There are no patches or upgrades to worry about. You enjoy lower bandwidth costs. You get better security and fewer infected devices, meaning less time re-imaging your hardware assets.
Today, your DMZ most likely has several point products, including a web proxy, a zero-day security product, a DLP appliance, and more. Each product requires integration with Active Directory
for user and group policy settings. That carries a burden in terms of actual cost and IT overhead.
With Zscaler, integrated functionality provides enhanced security, a consistent user interface, and consolidated policy and reporting.
According to Gartner, Zscaler already has the largest global footprint of data centres among all security vendors. With data centres in over 100 locations worldwide, the Zscaler Security Cloud processes over 30 billion daily requests. And blocks more than 100 million threats per day.
Once a threat is detected in the cloud, it is blocked for all users. As a result of its threat-sharing partnerships and cloud intelligence gathering, the Zscaler cloud receives more than 100,000 security updates per day.
Impressive right?
To combat cyber threats, you need the right people, processes and tools to secure your systems and data. All three need to work together.
Just like a burglar, a hacker looks for an easy way in. Setting up a high-tech home security system is a great step, but if nobody locks the door, you have just left yourself vulnerable.
Weak passwords are like unlocked windows. Phishing is akin to your aunt letting in the gas man, who turns out to be a con artist. You can reduce risk with a cyber security improvement programme that supports and protects your business, ensuring you are not a soft target for criminals.