Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform Reviews

We use Zscaler Private Access to authenticate our applications, which provides a more secure way to access the Internet from our work environment. We have multiple policies for different types of users. When new users join the company, they authenticate the VPA application to access the Internet. We use SSL bypass policies, tenant restrictions policies, and Microsoft tenant cloud application policies. We also use File Type Control Policy for all categories of files, and our traffic goes to the WAPAC file and the application. We are using services as per the requirements of our clients.

The most valuable features are the File Type Control and SSL bypass policies. We have multiple options, such as very flexible policies and modules in Zscaler. We will define them based on our requirements and the active Internet. We also have geolocation users. For example, a user from Singapore moves to Dubai. When the user tries to access the Internet, Zscaler automatically detects the geolocation and drives our traffic to the other channel. There is no issue here. 

When using a Blue Coat, we have some problems. Sometimes, some of our users have some issues, but once we update the agent, the traffic goes to the current geolocation without any problems, and they can access it. Sometimes, we have some URL categories blocked in our environment, but HPE sometimes removes the block. We request that the vendor to remove the block from the correct URL category. They provide a suitable solution based on the findings.

There is some issue while accessing the portal. It takes too long. It will take longer if I am on the URL Cloud App category and switch to other tabs.

I have been using Zscaler Private Access for five years.

If something happens, they have integration and they send notifications. I rate the solution’s stability a ten out of ten.

If I need to switch the policy to another task, the solution takes time. I rate the solution’s scalability a nine out of ten.

Compared to other proxies, such as Glook and IronPort, Zscaler Private Access is very easy to handle.

The initial setup is easy. You need to configure the proxy tool for the network configuration. They can forward multiple services based on the client's requirements. If we need to use the VPA, we need to authenticate. It takes one day to implement the solution, but for smooth running, it takes around a month because of timely revision.

The solution is expensive.

The categorization issue is dependent on the end user. For example, if I am trying to access a categorized URL but need to access it for work, I should be able to request a change to the categorization. Forcepoint can change the categorization itself, or the client team can do it for me. This is enough to change the categorization to meet the requirements. Overall, I rate the solution a ten 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.

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 Zscaler CASB for DLP and shadow IT.

The most valuable features of Zscaler CASB are API integration and DLP.

Zscaler CASB should include integrations with other SaaS applications.

We just bought Zscaler CASB a week ago.

I rate Zscaler CASB a nine out of ten for stability.

Zscaler CASB has good scalability. I rate Zscaler CASB a seven out of ten for scalability.

The solution's technical support provides a late response; otherwise, it's fine.

Neutral

I have previously worked with McAfee. Compared to Zscaler CASB, McAfee needs to upgrade a lot of things. We chose Zscaler CASB because of more applications and information that we could get to do some fine-tuning on the policies.

The solution's initial setup is supposed to be fairly easy since it's an API.

We haven't yet started to deploy the solution. We will seek the help of professional services to deploy Zscaler CASB.

Zscaler CASB is an expensive solution. On a scale from one to ten, where one is less expensive and ten is more expensive, I rate Zscaler CASB's pricing a seven out of ten.

I recommend users consider the cost and benefit, integration, and supported applications before choosing Zscaler CASB.

Overall, I rate Zscaler CASB a seven out of ten.

We manage multiple customers using ZIA and ZPA to access internal resources and secure their own web applications. It acts like a VPN access connectivity, and ZIA is used as an internet gateway for users.

Sandboxing, DLP, and SSL inspection engine are the most valuable features of Zscaler SASE. Zscaler SASE is an easy-to-use tool that manages the cloud security architecture.

Currently, we are using APIs, and we need some enhancement on the script running with the Zscaler SASE cloud API. Also, it would be better if we could integrate with other vendors. We often face performance and latency issues with Zscaler SASE.

I have been using Zscaler SASE for the last four years.

I rate Zscaler SASE a seven and a half out of ten for stability. We face performance issues if there is any anomaly on the nodes bonded with our architecture from some location. We also face some routing and latency issues on Zscaler SASE that need to be rectified. In addition, there are no dedicated Zscaler nodes in countries like China and Dubai.

I rate Zscaler SASE a six out of ten for scalability.

Zscaler SASE's deployment time depends upon your design, architecture, and infrastructure size. If you have a small network of offices, the deployment will take at least three to four days. But if you have a larger architecture, deployment time will depend upon your planning, staging, and implementation.

With Zscaler SASE, we can manage multiple features in a single platform. We can manage all allocations that we have in our architecture on a single platform. This reduces the operation cost and takes fewer resources to deploy because we have APIs in Zscaler SASE. API would be the simplest way to configure anything across our sites if we have a larger retail architecture.

ZPA is configured on our architecture, but ZIA's traffic goes to the Zscaler-hosted cloud.

Overall, I rate Zscaler SASE an eight out of ten.

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.

We've so far recommended the solution in one or two engagements.

We work with customers who have various businesses like banking, finance, travel, et cetera, where we do a solution for them, a security solution for them. We are an IT service consultant company.

We generally use that product for the proxy setup, for URL dealing and blacklist blocking, and all that stuff. When the customer has a requirement where their workforce is very mobile or if they're on-premise and moving the workforce, we do recommend the Zscaler product.

There are also other cases. We extend other modules like CASB or another setup, where we say they can access the public cloud or send some data against the policy.

Scanning the internet traffic for any malware, et cetera, is quite useful. That is the primary use case. 

It is straightforward to set up.

The solution is stable.

It's scalable.

We would like to extend the SASE applications for Zscaler. We'd like to see more work in the area. In our understanding of it, SASE features are very helpful in extending to various other applications like CASB, DLP, et cetera, ensuring the network can be set up to be very agile. SASE adoption is a very prime focus for most customers due to its benefits.

We've dealt with the solution for a year and a half. 

For our use cases, we have found the solution to be reliable and stable. I haven't dealt with crashes or it freezing. There are no bugs or glitches. 

The solution is scalable. It's cloud-based, making it scalable and agile. It's great if companies are going through mergers and acquisitions. 

I've never reached out to technical support.

Before Zscaler, we used to use a lot of other products, however, when we were introduced to Zscaler we became confident it could meet the use cases. Due to its cloud features and cloud-based proxy, unless the customer has very specific use cases that don't include the cloud, it's one of the best products. 

The solution is straightforward to set up. There may be certain use cases where it may be more complex; however, largely, it is easy.

How long it takes to deploy depends on how the workforce is enabled and how they are deployed across, as well as whether they are in a single country or multiple countries. There are instances where we have deployed within a country within less than three months for a scale of 10,000 users.

We typically go for annual license payments.

I'm not a product seller. I'm a service seller. We are mainly a service integration team. We do recommend certain products. However, we don't sell products. I'm a consultant.

If it aligns with a client's needs, I would recommend this solution to others. 

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.

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.