Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Don't Buy Zscaler without Reading this First!
Will Zscaler Secure Web Gateway meet your organization’s needs?
With the growth of Zscaler many organizations have been trying to review if this solution is a good fit. While Zscaler has many strong points, there are also some substantial concerns to be aware of. Zscaler has a strong cloud footprint with global reach which can be a big advantage for many organizations. Zscaler also provides key features like IPSec tunneling, which are vital for a cloud based solution. Malware and SSL inspection are also key features that many organizations find valuable. Zscaler also has very high cloud uptime, which is very important for selecting a cloud based security solution. Log streaming is another valuable area, this allows logs to be analyzed quickly by third party services.
Some areas of concern with Zscaler include complex and troublesome deployments. Routing is commonly misconfigured, and a complex proxy deployment that many users have problems with is commonly recommended. Due to this proxy configuration many port evasive applications like Bittorrent are not identified. While direct support is adequate, their reseller support is poor so finding contacts capable of deployment or support can be problematic. This is in part due to the complexity of configuring the solution and maintaining it.
Another major issue with is that it does not have any systems in place for prioritizing malware traffic or notifying administrators of the severity of problems. This is one of the driving reasons for implementing the enhanced log option to allow them to be fed into 3rd party log analysis tools. If you plan on deploying Zscaler for its security features one should also budget and plan for the deployment of a 3rd party log management tool as well.
Due to the cloud nature of one should expect lower upfront costs but significantly higher recurring subscription costs. Many find that this pricing structure prohibits Zscaler from being a viable long term solution.
Due to the concerns with complicated deployments, poor malware prioritization, and higher long term costs we recommend you thoroughly review Zscaler and alternatives to ensure you deploy a solution that appropriately meets your organization's specific requirements.
If you are still unsure of some of the requirements needed today for proper Web Security join our Webinar to learn about some of the key findings top security analysts have identified from breaches in 2015. This presentation will share some great findings from this years top security breaches, and how you can protect against them. I HIGHLY recommend you watch this!
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