Cisco TrustSec vs Zscaler Internet Access

• Control access to critical enterprise resources by business role, device type, and location, so policy changes can be made without redesigning the network.
• Easily manage access control and segmentation while maintaining compliance.
• Create and manage policies in an easy-to-use matrix.
• Reduce the need for costly network re-architecture by automating firewall rules and access control list (ACL) administration.

[Zscaler Internet Access] is very well suited for scenarios where one is looking for hassle free internet and network connection. It ensures that your users can connect to any networks and they will be secure. Additional plus is ability to deploy Zscaler client to your company smartphones - this gives complete network protection. We only encounter a few issues with Zscaler Internet Access (mainly false-positives) but these were promptly resolve by the vendor.

• Reduce operational expenses by simplifying network segmentation and defining security groups based on business roles, not IP addresses.
• Limit the impact of a data breach by quickly isolating and containing threats using technology already in your network.

• Zscaler completely moved away from the traditional firewall setup to a hosted firewall solution. We don't have to worry about the hardware failing or maintaining it as part of our service plan compared to our on-premise firewall. Zscaler has a lot of data centres across the world where they are maintaining their solutions so mobile consultants will always be close to one of their data centres.
• Rolling out Zscaler solutions to our end customers' computers is actually pretty easy and hassle-free. As part of onboarding of new employees we can set up the Zscaler solution and push it to our end users' machines and get them connected to the cloud solutions.
• Zscaler does proper market research on the latest emerging threats and they keep their firewall patched and updated to the latest versions so the security team does not have to worry about keeping the firewall updated.

• Help and solutions if needed, support

• Chat or email support is not available. Only option is to either call them or raise a ticket by logging into their website.
• Pricing is not transparent and quote based.
• Access to websites is a little too slow with Zscaler monitoring on.

The overall conclusion of the review is good. Zscalar have some limitations which will surely resolved in the updates provided by company from time to time. The best part is that it doesnt reduce the speed of internet.

Zscaler is a mandatory solution required by almost every large organization with a workforce working remotely or using cloud-based apps. Its deployment is relatively easy and it keeps on working in the background without actively bothering the user. Apart from a few weird messages which a user is unable to comprehend, Zscaler is able to provide fast and safe access to the internet and other external applications.

I cannot give a fair rating for this as I have not had to contact Zscaler support. There was one time we had to contact them because we needed to check if they were having issues on their end. Our ISP was actually the problem but support seemed very friendly.

Zscaler Intenet Access proved to be superior and the difference for us was the speed of policy delivery since your policy is applied in a web console and is effective in a matter of seconds. Another point to congratulate the solution is its compatibility with different platforms (macOS, Linux, Windows, Android, and iOS).

• Reduction in IT operational costs

• ROI is there and it is safeguarding the data and user access to net.
• Being a cloud based can be scaled up when required.
• Third parties can be allowed based on the company IT policies (Clients or Vendors etc.) for business perspective.