Cisco Multicloud Defense vs. Zscaler Internet Access

For WAF functionality and delivery of websites, It's very well suited for traditional firewalling, if you're doing that already, it can be quite difficult to rearchitect everything around this product. So an example of that would be if, like us, you came from a datacenter style architecture within your cloud environment and you are trying to move to a more cloud-fronted architecture. Probably the best way to put it is that can be quite difficult, but once you've deployed, it gets easier operationally. So to kind of reverse engineer everything and then do everything again can be quite tedious in some ways. But that will be specific to people depending on where they're coming from with it.

Incentivized

It's best suited for a distributed remote workforce, securing internet access for users from anywhere. Suitable for highly regulated industries, such as banking and Healthcare. Not a good fit for an organisation where most of its legacy is in an on-premises environment. Bandwidth-intensive industries like media/entertainment firms.

Incentivized

• DLP monitoring - key item for us which helps to view if anything which should leave our environment our or even between each part of network between/inside specific clouds
• Segmentation of subnet, basic but helpful to isolate each host into their own part of single subnet and connect them, including all visibility features which are offered by Cisco defense systems
• Allow/deny rules helps us to block, monitor and logs traffic passing in each direction of our environment

Incentivized

• Single Pane of Glass Management - Everything is very easy to access and monitor the entire environment from an internet security perspective.
• Install Flexibility - We can and do install Zscaler Internet Access on both our client devices as well as our SD-WAN appliances and servers. This allows us to control internet security even on devices without an agent in our networks.

Incentivized

• The ability to see traffic flowing and identify malicious traffic is amazing.
• The ease of setting up the connections of the cloud platforms is perfect.
• Dynamic based security policies allow for better protection.
• I don't have any detailed examples of improvement so instead I highlighted a couple of aspects that make the solution amazing.

Incentivized

• The logs feel kind of lack luster
• When issues are arising with SSL Inspection, logs show everything working despite end user experience
• Could use some kind of global find functionality or something that would allow you to search the entire configuration for matching URLs and the like

Incentivized

If it maintains its current direction it will be very disruptive in the cloud security space

Incentivized

While Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) delivers critical value in cloud security and RBI compliance, I rate renewal likelihood 7/10 due to evolving needs versus platform limitations. Below is my rationale:

Key Gaps:

1. Advanced Threat Costs:

ZIA’s add-ons (e.g., Advanced DLP, Sandboxing) incur 35%+ cost premiums – straining budgets as transaction volumes (UPI/iMobile) grow 50% YoY.

2. API Banking Scalability:

ZIA’s API rate limits throttle real-time policy sync during UPI peaks (10K+ TPS), forcing workarounds for finacle integrations.

3. RBI Future-Proofing:

Limited native support for upcoming digital rupee (CBDC) security rules requires custom development, increasing compliance overhead.

Incentivized

Ease of Use

Incentivized

The application is easy to install and configure on all Windows devices. To troubleshoot any internet issue, we can easily collect all the relevant logs from Zscaler and check the exact issue. The only problem is with the uninstall, as a dedicated crew needs to provide the password.

Incentivized

There are often performance issues reported

Incentivized

As of yet I havent logged a TAC case - It will be interesting to see how it is supported as a new product in the medium term

Incentivized

Zscaler's ZIA support is quick and knowledgable. They respond within 1-2 hours of you submitting your ticket. They are very thorough and are typically ready to jump on a live troubleshooting session. Our ZIA platform and how we use is it unique so at times tickets can be open for weeks but we alway get quality support compared to other unrelated product support in our enterprise

Incentivized

Cisco Multicloud Defense, Crowd Strike Falcon, and Arctic Wolf Cloud Posture Security Management System as a service SAAS platforms are very comparable platforms. Unfortunately for Croud Strike, they had a mishap recently that caused major downtime for many companies worldwide. I do not think that you would have to worry about this happening with Cisco Multicloud Defense.

Incentivized

Zscaler Intenet Access outperformed the competition due to its lightning-fast policy delivery and cross-compatibility. It is easy to track employee usage and block unnecessary websites, reducing company internet usage. Zscalar installed on every system increases cloud-based software bandwidth, decreasing user turnaround time and increasing efficiency.

Incentivized

• The insight that it provides allows us to move away from other tools and just utilize the Cisco Multicloud Defense.
• Insights into data usage provides tangible analytics.
• Ease of management and use allows for less in-depth and specialized training.

Incentivized

• Has allowed us to remove other products that were suboptimal
• Saved us money overall by stacking it with other Zscaler products
• Created a more secure work environment for our users through intelligent internet policies that are not needlessly restrictive while still maintaining security best practices

Incentivized