Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform Reviews

It serves as a globally distributed solution, differing significantly from MPLS. Unlike traditional firewalls, it seamlessly accommodates cloud services and enables remote work from any location. The product's global distribution across the cloud facilitates internal access with the necessary licenses. Whether connecting from a branch office, on-premises solution, private data system, public data center, or the cloud, the platform ensures consistent and robust security protection throughout the entire infrastructure.

The most valuable feature is its seamless integration capabilities, streamlining the process by eliminating the need for extensive installations. Users can connect to the SaaS solution by simply installing the necessary apps. This includes the flexibility to connect with any firewall or router capable of setting up IPSec, providing users the freedom to choose their preferred hardware. This versatility extends beyond Zscaler-specific applications or devices, making it compatible with a range of SD-WAN solutions, such as Cisco Meraki, Palo Alto, and Juniper.

A suggestion for improvement is the development of their own proprietary SD-WAN device. Currently, the experience can vary when integrating cloud protection with different vendors, such as Palo Alto, Meraki, or Juniper. Having a Zscaler-specific device could streamline this process and provide a more consistent user experience across diverse branches. Additionally, expanding their offerings to include solutions like SIEM, similar to competitors, could enhance their portfolio and cater to clients interested in a broader range of services.

I have been working with it for two years.

It is highly reliable and ensures that users receive optimal performance regardless of their physical location, creating a more seamless and user-friendly experience.

The initial setup was straightforward.

The perception of cloud services being expensive is often a result of the initial migration costs, especially when transitioning from traditional and limited MPLS environments. In the long run, cloud services are not inherently costly. If you're starting fresh and adopting a cloud-first approach from the beginning, the perceived expense is considerably less significant.

It is not economically viable for individual users but is highly recommended for companies with a substantial user base, multiple branches, extensive cloud operations, and remote employees. The solution offers enhanced protection across network, on-premises, and cloud environments, making it valuable for enterprises adapting to the evolving landscape of cloud adoption and seeking comprehensive security and networking benefits. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

We use the product for the process protocol for tunnels to manage network traffic.

They should work on a replica account. There could be alerts and replica files sent to the DLP team during data collection.

We have been using Zscaler Cloud DLP for three years.

I rate the product’s stability an eight out of ten. We encounter high latency for cloud data centers.

The product’s scalability depends on specific requirements. We manage more than 50 Zscaler Cloud DLP accounts for customers. We have created certain rules to cover and manage our sensitive data. I rate the scalability a ten out of ten.

They should assign an L2 engineer to resolve the issue. The L1 engineer takes time to identify and elaborate on the problem.

Our organization has used Symantec, Trend Micro, and McAfee.

The initial setup is easy. It doesn’t take much time and depends on the IP server requirements.

I rate Zscaler Cloud DLP an eight out of ten. I recommend it for customer service companies to protect sensitive data.

We use the product to control traffic and for user management purposes.

The product’s most valuable features are data discovery, activity control, and zero trust exchange.

There could be a feature to view the VPN tunnel activities in terms of configuration.

We have been using Zscaler Cloud DLP for a year and a half.

I rate the product’s stability a ten out of ten.

We manage accounts for around 2,000 to 3,000 Zscaler Cloud DLP users. It is a scalable product.

The technical support services are good.

Positive

The initial setup process is easy with a helpful GUI. It takes a second to complete the deployment.

I rate Zscaler Cloud DLP a ten out of ten. It is a good and easy-to-use product with efficient scalability.

The main purpose was to use it as a zero-trust solution. Or also to have control over the inbound and outbound traffic coming and going through the end user's device.

It does the job. What it is needed for. I can use it for VPN, I can use it for secure connections, I can use it as a firewall. So the solution does the job.

It has a limitation, if you are creating a rule or something for a web application or something, you could only add five users, not more than that. Five or four users are only included in a rule. If you want to create a rule for more than five or four users, you have to go through other methods, not particularly with the application. Working within the application with this method would be quite easy as compared to listing a URL or a normal IP address.

I have been using this solution for one and a half year. 

It is a stable product.

It is a scalable solution. Around 300 end users are using this solution.

The customer service and support have a good SLA. They return queries on time.  

Positive

I would say go ahead because it has a quite friendly interface. It has a lot of stuff you can do. If you are using the old infrastructure technique, you would love it because you can control most of your endpoints network on the device by a single interface. That is the Zscaler.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

Zscaler CASB breaks down at times. 

I have been working with the solution for six months. 

The tool's scalability is good. 

The solution is easy to deploy. 

The solution has increased prices this year. 

I rate the solution a seven out of ten. 

We use Zscaler Cloud DLP to maintain data load and for storage reports. 

The solution is the best for storage. 

We have issues with the tool's maintenance and networking. It should be able to work in offline mode as well. 

I have been using the solution for two years. 

Zscaler Cloud DLP is stable. 

The tool is scalable. My company has 250-300 users. 

Zscaler Cloud DLP's installation is difficult. 

Zscaler Cloud DLP is moderately priced. We pay around 2 million rupees per year. 

I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

Most people use Zscaler SASE as a replacement for VPNs. You know, with a VPN, once you establish connectivity to the network, you have unrestricted access. But with Zscaler SASE, you have strict access control. You don't get any access unless you adhere to the policies set in Zscaler. 

So, you can control who has access to specific applications at a URL level rather than granting access at the physical IP level. That's what most people appreciate about it. IPs provide access to everything on the machine, whereas Zscaler SASE provides access to specific services within the network. 

The most valuable feature is its ability to establish connectivity for remote users and remote endpoints. It offers a high level of granularity compared to typical VPNs, which also encapsulate a lot of I/O. By using Zscaler SASE for home access or access in remote areas, it bypasses the issues introduced by ISPs. 

Sometimes ISPs block certain protocols or applications, but when everything is encapsulated within the Zscaler Cloud, the ISPs don't get a chance to interfere or block. This is especially helpful when it comes to file sharing. Sometimes ISPs block it, so we can't share files using cloud services remotely. Zscaler SASE gives non on-premise users the ability to securely access and sync with on-premise resources.

The area that requires improvement is their support. The current support is lacking. 

Other than that, once you have the right people on the phone, the product performs as advertised. However, multiple clients have complained about the support. 

I have been working with Zscaler SASE for two years. 

When it comes to stability, it's similar to any outsourced service. There will always be some outages because of the global nature of the network and the involvement of various cloud providers. There are many moving parts. I don't anticipate more frequent outages, but it's important to acknowledge that Zscaler is not flawless.

I haven't encountered any clients who have had problems with scalability or performance issues. There were a couple of outages less than six months ago, but that's to be expected. Every service experiences occasional outages. It's like having allergies; every product at a global scale will have such issues. 

I have heard a lot of complaints from my clients about the support. Even VMware's support has declined since it got acquired by Broadcom. 

So, we're not receiving the kind of support we used to get, like from Cisco. It's more akin to Microsoft and internal support.

Neutral

The initial setup does take some time to get used to. Zscaler does a good job with its specialized services in setting up and installing the product. 

Once you start using the product, any issues that arise are generally handled well. The support is not as terrible as it may seem at first. While there may be instances where one technician transfers the case to another technician, it doesn't mean starting the entire process from scratch.

However, most people are deploying it on AWS or Azure. I have some clients who still prefer on-premises deployment. It depends on their specific requirements.

The pricing is quite high, especially when it comes to the gateway. It costs around $10,000 per gateway per data center, which can be seen as ridiculous. Other cloud-based solutions charge based on the number of clients without the need for a gateway for each data center. 

This pricing approach doesn't sit well with my clients anymore. When Zscaler SASE had a monopoly in the market, it could get away with it, but now there are alternatives cutting into its market share.

I would rate Zscaler's pricing model as an eight out of ten, with one being cheap and ten being expensive. 

There are other solutions like VMware that also have high costs, but Zscaler SASE stands out because of the expensive gateway for each data center. It's not a cheap implementation. 

Every time you set up an Azure data center, you have to spend another $10,000 to $15,000 on a gateway. It adds up quickly. Creating a VPN between data centers might be an alternative, but it introduces a single point of failure. So, that pricing policy alone makes it very expensive.

It's a great product. My advice for those considering using it is to understand the concept of zero access. It's different from just having VPN access. If someone can perform a DNS lookup, they still have access. 

People are often stuck in a VPN-centric mindset. It requires a paradigm shift, similar to transitioning from traditional applications to Microsoft applications. Instead of focusing on what services the user needs, it's about restricting access to specific applications regardless of the user. Once you embrace this mindset, it becomes easier to navigate. It's not a major impact, but it does require a change in thinking.

Overall, I would rate this product an eight out of ten, with the exception of pricing and support issues. It is one of the better implementations available, surpassing Cloudflare's capabilities. However, there are still areas for improvement, particularly in terms of pricing and support.

The security issues one faces with legacy VPN solutions are addressed using a SaaS VPN platform. If an organization wants to implement a zero-trust network architecture, then a SaaS VPN platform is the way to go about it.

The most valuable features of Zscaler Private Access are its ability to integrate with multiple IDPs and application segmentation.

More on-prem infrastructure is required when Zscaler Private Access is to be implemented as a single point of entry.

Since the whole concept of app segmentation is license based, making the app segmentation extremely granular becomes very expensive for an organization. As a result, not all organizations would adopt a granular approach for rolling out their Zscaler Private Access solution. So the entire approach must be seen differently, not the standard license-based approach. As an organization, if I want to make the access for my employees more granular, then it means that I will have to buy more licenses. Organizations with 10,000 to 20,000 applications, including their business partners also connecting to their applications, would need to invest a lot of money into making it granular. Okay. That kind of investment may not be viable for every organization to make, which could limit the use of Zscaler Private Access.

I have been using Zscaler Private Access for about two and a half years.

I rate Zscaler Private Access a nine out of ten for stability.

I rate Zscaler Private Access a ten out of ten for scalability. Zscaler Private Access can be used for more than 2,00,000 users.

Zscaler tells you right at the front that the implementation needs to be taken up by Zscaler-certified people. It does require a good amount of knowledge of the platform. Other options are available where Zscaler makes professional services and resident engineers available. So Zscaler Private Access is a complicated solution, but they facilitate much of that implementation. I rate Zscaler Private Access a seven out of ten for ease of initial setup.

Zscaler Private Access's deployment depends on how much time an organization spends preparing for the solution's implementation. If you have a checklist prepared beforehand, you can deploy the solution in probably one and a half or two months. But if you start deploying it and then start making the necessary preparations for the change, it could easily take more than a year for a large organization.

To deploy Zscaler Private Access, you need to follow a full-fledged project management process. This process includes requirement definitions, coming up with a high-level design document, preparing your project plan, coming up with a low-level design document, going into a pilot phase, and then the production rollout.

Zscaler Private Access is extremely expensive. I rate Zscaler Private Access an eight out of ten for pricing.

Zscaler Private Access has its own data centers and its own private cloud.

Overall, I rate Zscaler Private Access a seven out of ten.

I work for a service provider for a defense customer. We are using Zscaler Private Access to connect to the Internet. This is how we keep our customers protected with the latest inspection of the URLs.

The most valuable feature of Zscaler Private Access is the categorization of the dynamic URLs which keeps the customer's environment protected. The threats and the malware are correctly categorized.

Zscaler Private Access's reporting is poor. We should have more insight into the reports regarding what is blocked and allowed.

I have been using Zscaler Private Access for approximately four years.

I rate the scalability of Zscaler Private Access a ten out of ten.

I rate the support of Zscaler Private Access a five out of ten.

Neutral

There is a lightweight agent on six laptops and the agent reaches out to the SaaS-based cloud.

The process of deployment takes 15 to 30 days.

I rate the initial setup of Zscaler Private Access an eight out of ten.

I rate the ROI from Zscaler Private Access a seven out of ten.

The price is competitive. 

I rate the price of Zscaler Private Access five out of ten.

If the reports were improved the customer would have more insight.

I rate Zscaler Private Access nine out of ten.

We use this solution for traffic and establishing the connection.

It's deployed on-premises.

There are 60,000 people who use Zscaler in my organization.

The best feature is the ability to establish the connection between your public network and automatically connect to the intranet connection.

The stability could be improved.

I have worked with Zscaler Private Access for six months.

I would rate the stability as eight out of ten.

I would rate Zscaler as eight out of ten.