FortiSASE vs Zscaler Internet Access comparison

The compared Fortinet and Zscaler solutions aren't in the same category. Fortinet is ranked #6 in SASE , with an average rating of 7.6, and holds a 7.6% mindshare in the category. Zscaler is ranked #3 in WSG , with an average rating of 8.6, and holds a 12.1% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Fortinet users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Zscaler users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

Zscaler Internet Access and FortiSASE compete in the network security solutions category, focusing on providing secure web gateways and cloud-based security. Zscaler seems to have an edge due to its robust security suite and cloud-native architecture, which offers advanced threat protection and effective SSL inspection.

Features: Zscaler Internet Access offers URL filtering, SSL inspection, and advanced threat protection. Its cloud-native architecture provides control over internet threats, including data loss prevention and cloud app control. FortiSASE boasts seamless integration with Fortinet's ecosystem, a unified control interface, and features like web filtering, endpoint protection, and SD-WAN capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Users of Zscaler Internet Access seek better integration with existing applications, improved reporting, and user-friendly interfaces. Network latency and proxy IP issues also need addressing. FortiSASE could enhance third-party integration and connectivity with other vendors. Its security aspects require improvement, and the management setup can be more streamlined.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zscaler Internet Access provides deployment flexibility across cloud environments, though users report support responsiveness as a challenge. Technical support is rated well but requires faster response times. FortiSASE benefits from excellent initial setup support and integrates seamlessly with Fortinet's broader solutions, offering ease of management for existing Fortinet customers.

Pricing and ROI: Zscaler Internet Access is considered expensive, but justified by its superior security features and global coverage, providing significant ROI through improved security posture. FortiSASE offers competitive pricing with discounts, beneficial for education sectors and existing Fortinet customers. It consolidates costs and shifts expenses from hardware to cloud-based management, offering substantial long-term savings.

To learn more, read our detailed FortiSASE vs. Zscaler Internet Access Report (Updated: May 2023).

Buyer's Guide

FortiSASE vs. Zscaler Internet Access

May 2023

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

iboss

Mindshare comparison

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
FortiSASE	7.6%
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks	11.8%
Cato SASE Cloud Platform	9.8%
Other	70.8%

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

Secure Web Gateways (SWG) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Zscaler Internet Access	12.1%
Cisco Umbrella	12.8%
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks	8.8%
Other	66.3%

Secure Web Gateways (SWG)

Featured Reviews

reviewer2701851

Managing Director

Enhances web security with a single pane of glass and flexible deployment

I don't see any need for improvement; one of the really good things about iboss as a company is that they listen to customer feedback. I have suggested enhancements, and they are responsive, making changes for the better, and they do a lot of testing. To improve iboss, although we haven't used it, we considered the VPN solution that comes with the highest tier licensing, which includes DLP and various other add-ons. We prefer using another product which automatically logs you back onto your network when turning on your PC. With iboss, the connection is manual, which doesn't meet our needs. Additionally, sizing can be tricky because, although the initial recommendations may seem adequate, actual usage may require more gateways than anticipated.

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LalitKumar10

Head Vice President, Delivery at Gehnax Technologies LLP

Implementation complexity challenges are addressed and bundled solution offers significant ROI

For other solutions such as FortiAnalyzer and FortiSIEM, integration is easy, but it's not straightforward due to license complexity. As FortiSASE is new in the market in India, if you want to use a Delhi data center, you need a separate license, and if you have a different kind of firewall, you cannot transfer your license from one box to another box. FortiSASE implementation is too complex where other products take two to three months or maximum four months to implement, FortiSASE took more than double that time. The product appears to have been launched without being tested properly in real market conditions. While testing may have been done in lab environments, real-time scenarios seem to be missing from this solution. The SPA licenses are limited to the box UTM, UTM make and model. If someone has a UTM currently and plans to upgrade or downgrade in the coming year after procuring the SPA license for three years, they cannot transfer those licenses to another box, which is a challenge that needs improvement.

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Mohan Janarthanan

Associate Vice President at Novac Technology Solutions

User access management and threat prevention are enhanced with user-friendly controls

The best features Zscaler Internet Access offers include application control, tenant segregation, and PoP center regions which have low availability zones. The internet access is very successful and bandwidth speed is excellent. It also has application-based control, URL-based control, and SSL inspection capabilities, which are very useful. Additionally, the in-depth CASB segregation is very beneficial to us. One unique feature I found helpful is the tenant level restrictions, which we use to only access our organization's tenant level mail IDs, drives, and specific tenant level access while restricting public access. Zscaler Internet Access has positively impacted our organization as we have noticed substantial outputs and income. It has improved our security environment control and endpoint protection. It prevents numerous web attacks through its AI/ML incorporated capability which identifies malware, threats, and viruses. It has a toggle button to enable features entirely at the tenant level for all users onboarded into Zscaler Internet Access, resulting in much better outcomes.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The solution has massively improved our security posture, giving us full visibility into what our staff does online."

"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device."

"iboss has significantly lowered the number of security incidents. It is crazy how much it blocks and how much it is aware of the outside danger."

"The security aspect of the solution, particularly the malware behind it, is excellent. That's something that really helped us out. It's not just a simple proxy that just blocks the insights of potential threats that come on behind it. They do malware detection and that helps us a lot."

"Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss."

"Our primary use case for this product is DLP,"

"I would rate the technical support of iboss a solid 10 without a shadow of a doubt."

"We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times."

More iboss pros

"The integration with the company's existing security infrastructure enhanced our security posture since it was a straightforward process."

"It's very stable."

"It has AI-based detections for any signature-less virus or any unknown vulnerabilities."

"FortiSASE can operate in a cloud environment with client certificates for authorizations and access control using features like PostCheck."

"The most valuable aspect of Fortinet solutions, such as FortiSASE, is that it provides value for money; you can get all the benefits and values, not at the level of leaders such as Palo Alto, but for much lower prices."

"I find Fortinet to be competitive with its firewalls."

"The product can scale."

"The technical support from Fortinet is highly commendable, and I rate it as nine out of ten."

More FortiSASE pros

"All internet access flows through the Zscaler proxy, regardless of whether people are in office or remote. I have greater control site access and I minimize the number of compromises that we experience to almost none."

"Zscaler excels in security protection and the cloud is always up-to-date. It does not matter if you are a small or big organisation, you will receive the same security quality."

"The solution is stable and reliable."

"It is easy to set up the solution."

"The product's initial setup phase is a bit easy, as one doesn't need high technical expertise."

"Zscaler Internet Access gives visibility, which is important to have, and the fact that it is usable everywhere is a significant advantage."

"Zscaler covers all the features needed to replace a VPN or proxy solution. They are good. They've been on the market for 15 years now, so they are mature enough."

"Since this is a cloud based product, we don't have to bother about the hardware or physical status and space."

More Zscaler Internet Access pros

Cons

"I'd like to see them accelerate development on the security side, particularly around data loss prevention."

"I am currently doing a PoC of the zero trust aspect of it. Compared to other similar solutions, it is hard to get around each feature. It takes a while to get used to it."

"To scale up, a new iboss Node Blade Chassis must be purchased."

"Our iboss subscription access should be more secure with an OTP or VPN etc. It is easy to gain access if, for example, hackers obtain my username and password."

"The area I would like to see improvement in is the ability within the reporter to navigate directly to the content the user is traversing."

"Sometimes when you call in support, you get someone who is just following a sheet. It feels like a runaround. You feel that you are running into that support wall."

"Their on-premise hardware's network interface is capped at one gigabit, which is sort of a problem. If you stand a filter up where all traffic flows through that, according to them, in order to go above a gigabit, you have to have multiple devices, which in today's IT seems a little bit silly. They could easily put in an SFP port into their device that could accommodate 10 gigs or at least offer a box."

"File integrity monitoring would be very advantageous as an additional feature."

More iboss cons

"Improvements should focus on security. Although FortiCASB performs well in many areas, I believe its security aspects could be enhanced further."

"The GUI and connectivity, along with the support offered, are some of the areas of concern in the product where improvements are required."

"Improvements should focus on security."

"They are trying to improve the features of FortiSASE, however, many FortiSASE gates still cannot connect. While connectivity from outside to inside is okay, inside to outside is not."

"FortiSASE is an expensive product and the cost is indeed high."

"FortiSASE is a work in progress. One area where there is room for improvement is the ability to use FortiSASE on an endpoint that doesn't have the client on it. Other solutions do that by building a VPN tunnel from their on-prem router into the SASE environment. FortiSASE doesn't have that feature yet, but it is on the roadmap for Q3 of this year. I've seen it in their development environment."

"While connectivity from outside to inside is okay, inside to outside is not."

"The main concern is that if the client is using another firewall, they cannot establish a private channel with the Cisco cloud."

More FortiSASE cons

"Sometimes it's not easy to use during large deployments of workstations."

"The solution's pricing is on the higher side. It would be better if it could be lower."

"An improvement would be if they could provide an out-of-the-box experience, like 20 to 30 features all ready to go. In comparison, LogRhythm offers out-of-the-box features. With Zscaler Internet Access, there is firewall IPS, multiple security services, filtering, DLP, and CASB browser isolation. These are things that all users are going to be using. However, when an administrator or architect would start building this, I would definitely need to engage professional services to help clients do it."

"The tool should improve the predefined dictionaries."

"One feature I am missing is the ability to connect automatically to internal monitoring systems."

"Zscale is providing a proxy IP, and most government sites will block traffic from a proxy. Also, we see some performance issues on the cloud side during DC failover."

"Initially there were issues in terms of stability and improved a lot now."

"Zscaler needs to add client-to-client communication. It's always client-to-server communication. The cloud and branch connectors could be improved because we're still dependent on traditional firewalls. They should eliminate this. They should also provide WAN devices should to compete with the SD-WAN solutions also."

More Zscaler Internet Access cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."

"I rate the product's price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."

"I can only speak about the pricing for education users because we get discounts. Other users aren't going to get the same price, but FortiSASE is competitive with the other products out there. All the solutions came in at the same price, so it just came down to the product that works best for us."

"I rate the product price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is high price, and ten is low price."

"Roughly, we might spend $70,000 a month on the solution. We don't pay for anything beyond the standard licensing fee."

"ZIA follows a subscription model pricing and charges you based on the number of users. I would say its price is good."

"The tool is moderately priced."

"Licenses are available on a per-host basis. Some features like sandboxing require an additional fee, but most standard features are included in the license."

"We pay around 6,500 INR per user per year, which is very expensive. I would rate Zscaler's pricing one out of five."

"The price of Zscaler Internet Access should improve, it is expensive."

"There are multiple bundles: enterprise, business, and transformation. Transformation includes all the features, but recently I've seen a few more line items that are additional costs. Overall, it's expensive."

"Our monthly fee is around R3000."

More Zscaler Internet Access pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	37

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?

For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company Exxon...

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What is your primary use case for iboss?

Previously when I used iboss, we did the POC for iboss for ExxonMobil. Four or five people wanted to move from our ol...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?

Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern. There are cheaper alte...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FortiSASE ?

The pricing, licensing, and setup costs of FortiSASE are very advantageous if you are already a Fortinet customer. If...

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What needs improvement with FortiSASE ?

Areas of FortiSASE that could be improved or enhanced in future releases are related to being more open to supporting...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for FortiSASE ?

FortiSASE is typically used by customers with two major concerns: many branches or stores and sometimes remote worker...

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Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Zscaler?

Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access are two broad-spectrum Internet security solutions that I have tried. Zs...

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Which is better, Zscaler internet access or Netsckope CASB?

We researched Netskope but ultimately chose Zscaler. Netskope is a cloud access security broker that helps identify ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zscaler Internet Access?

It is only for big companies currently and they only focus on that. That is one of the problems to get into the marke...

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Comparisons

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 10% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

Compared 8% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs iboss

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs iboss

Compared 7% of the time

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs iboss

Compared 4% of the time

More iboss Competitors

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs FortiSASE

Compared 20% of the time

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs FortiSASE

Compared 10% of the time

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs FortiSASE

Compared 9% of the time

Netskope vs FortiSASE

Compared 8% of the time

Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform vs FortiSASE

Compared 3% of the time

More FortiSASE Competitors

Cisco Umbrella vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 22% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 11% of the time

Netskope vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 4% of the time

Skyhigh Security vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 1% of the time

More Zscaler Internet Access Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

March 2026

Download iboss product report

Buyer's Guide

FortiSASE

March 2026

Download FortiSASE product report

Buyer's Guide

Zscaler Internet Access

February 2026

Download Zscaler Internet Access product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

No data available

ZIA

Overview

Iboss offers a comprehensive cloud-based security platform valued for its scalability and autonomous features, ensuring robust security with easy deployment and management capabilities.

Renowned for its robust security architecture, Iboss integrates seamlessly within diverse networks, delivering efficient granular filtering and advanced content categorization. Its single pane of glass console provides ease of management, allowing rapid scalability suitable for rapidly deploying environments. Operates in BYOD setups due to inline filtering without device installation. Integration with cloud-based applications enhances user control, and features like SASE, SSL inspection, and ChatGPT risk protection stand as highlights. Despite its strengths, users have pointed out areas for enhancement like direct navigation in reports, SSL decryption, and better cloud integration while having room to improve data loss prevention.

What are the most important features of Iboss?

Scalability: Supports rapid deployment across diverse networks.
SASE: A consolidated approach to secure access.
SSL Inspection: Ensures safe data transmission.
Granular Filtering: Detailed control over accessible content.
Single Pane Management: Unifies control through a centralized console.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Offers competitive pricing with robust features.
Autonomous Operation: Reduces management overhead.
Responsive Support: Provides assistance when needed.
Flexible Deployment: Available for both cloud and on-premises environments.

The usage of Iboss spans educational institutions, specifically K-12, to enforce internet policies, protect data, and support remote work environments. It provides web filtering and security frameworks to ensure safe browsing. Its platform-as-a-service model offers flexibility for both cloud-based and on-premises requirements, integrating seamlessly to deliver enhanced security features suitable for various deployment needs including zero trust, CASB, and network security for work-from-home setups.

iboss

FortiSASE is a comprehensive security solution that combines SD-WAN, security, and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) capabilities in a single platform. It provides secure access to applications and data from any device, anywhere, and at any time. FortiSASE offers advanced threat protection, real-time visibility, and control over network traffic, ensuring that organizations can securely connect their users and devices to the cloud and on-premises resources. With FortiSASE, organizations can simplify their security infrastructure, reduce costs, and improve their overall security posture.

FortiSASE Benefits:

Easy to use and set up
Good value for the price
Provides accurate and reliable results
Compact and portable design
Comes with helpful instructions and customer support

FortiSASE combines the following key elements:

Networking: FortiSASE provides networking capabilities, including SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network), WAN optimization, and network traffic routing. It allows organizations to optimize and secure their network connectivity.
Security: FortiSASE integrates multiple security services, including next-generation firewall (NGFW), secure web gateway (SWG), secure web application firewall (WAF), and zero-trust network access (ZTNA). It offers comprehensive protection against various threats, such as malware, intrusions, and data breaches.
Cloud Security: FortiSASE includes cloud-native security services to protect cloud-based applications and workloads. It offers secure access to cloud services, cloud-based firewalls, and security for multi-cloud environments.
Zero Trust Security: FortiSASE follows the Zero Trust security model, where all users and devices are treated as untrusted and must undergo strict authentication and authorization before accessing resources. It enforces granular access controls and micro-segmentation to limit lateral movement within the network.
Secure Web Access: FortiSASE includes secure web access capabilities, enabling organizations to enforce web filtering policies, block malicious websites, and protect against web-based threats like phishing and malware.
Visibility and Analytics: FortiSASE provides centralized visibility and analytics to monitor network traffic, security events, and user behavior. It helps organizations detect and respond to security incidents and provides insights for ongoing security improvements.

FortiSASE aims to simplify and streamline security operations by integrating multiple security functions and network services into a single platform. This approach allows organizations to reduce complexity, improve efficiency, and enhance overall security posture.

Reviews from Real Users

Peter VanDorp, Cyber Security Analyst and Network Operations Supervisor at a non-tech company, says that "Deep packet inspection is easier to deploy in the FortiSASE environment. It's much simpler to configure one-touch deployment. It was considerably more convoluted to get that to work using FortiClient. All that processing horsepower is happening in Fortinet's cloud infrastructure, reducing the load on our local routers and on-prem FortiGate firewalls."

Jose-Rivera, Account Manager at Telefónica, that FortiSASE is "Reliable with good security and helps with network optimization".

Fortinet

Zscaler Internet Access is a cloud-native security service edge (SSE) platform. Its main purpose is to provide AI-powered protection for all users, all applications, and all locations. The solution replaces other legacy network security solutions to stop advanced attacks and prevent data loss by using a comprehensive zero trust approach.

Zscaler Internet Access Features

Zscaler Internet Access has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Proxy (native SSL)
IPS and advanced protection
Cloud sandbox
DNS security
Cloud firewall
URL filtering
Bandwidth control
DNS filtering
Cloud DLP w/EDM and IDM
Cloud access security broker (CASB)
Cloud security posture management (CSPM)
CloudBrowser isolation
Cloud secure web gateway (SWG)
Zero trust network access (ZTNA)
Digital experience monitoring

Zscaler Internet Access Benefits

There are several benefits to implementing Zscaler Internet Access. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Fast access with zero infrastructure: Zscaler Internet Access creates a fast, seamless user experience because of its direct-to-cloud architecture. With no infrastructure, Zscaler Internet Access helps you eliminate backhauling, which improves performance and simplifies network administration.

Threat intelligence: By using threat intelligence, Zscaler Internet Access can stop ransomware, zero-day malware, and advanced attacks via Inline inspection of all internet traffic, including SSL decryption, and a suite of AI-powered cloud security services.

Consistent security: With Zscaler Internet Access, your security policy goes everywhere your users go. When you move security to the cloud, all users, applications, devices, and locations remain protected and secure based on identity and context.

Hybrid workforce: Zscaler Internet Access enables secure access to all external and internal apps from anywhere, so remote work is not an issue. You can also enforce business policies that follow the user, making security identical regardless of location.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Zscaler Internet Access users.

A Service Manager at a construction company says, "There are a bunch of different capabilities that are valuable within the platform. We use quite a lot of them, but not everything. The ones that are most important to us are the URL Filtering and the application control. For our needs, the cloud-native proxy architecture is a very good solution. This architecture helps with cyber threats because we inspect most of the traffic and we can see that a lot of threats are stopped directly in the secure web gateway."

Owen N., Security Architect at Claro Enterprise Solutions, explains that the solution’s most valuable features include “The integration of the gateway that inspects all ports and protocols. So, there is threat prevention; The cloud sandbox; VNS security; Access control that will protect URL filtering and the cloud firewall; Data protection that will protect your gateway, like your CASB or your cloud DLP; The capabilities of this will point your traffic to Zscaler Cloud.”

An Architecture Senior Manager at an insurance company mentions, "The data loss prevention feature is the most valuable. It stops our users from inadvertently leaking our customers' data to the Internet or anywhere else it shouldn't go." He also adds, “The solution provides quick access to cloud services, securing our data and allowing us to inspect all our traffic.”

Zscaler

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.

Information Not Available

Ulster-Greene ARC, BanRegio, HDFC, Ralcorp Holdings Inc., British American Tobacco, Med America Billing Services Inc., Lanco Group, Aquafil, Telefonica, Swisscom, Brigade Group

Buyer's Guide

FortiSASE vs. Zscaler Internet Access

May 2023

Free Report: FortiSASE vs. Zscaler Internet Access

Find out what your peers are saying about FortiSASE vs. Zscaler Internet Access and other solutions. Updated: May 2023.

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