Cisco Umbrella vs. Zscaler Internet Access

Well suited to networks that include Active directory, as you can hook it into the directory to allow you to target specific users and computers. Not particularly well suited to personal users due to the price point, and also not well suited to organisations with disorganised IT, since the system can be bypassed simply by changing the DNS server of the device. You need a dedicated IT department to ensure these sorts of settings are locked down

Incentivized

Zscaler Internet Access is an internet tunnel that pairs with the network adapter to secure traffic between servers and workstations. It can refresh policies automatically and log intrusions but does not broadcast intrusions. Cloud-based Zscaler Internet Access is easy to deploy and scale, with no hardware or software needed. In a hybrid model, Zscaler Internet Access performs some security functions on-premises and others in the cloud, allowing organizations to keep infrastructure. There is a slight learning curve from VPN and appliance architecture to this paradigm.

Incentivized

• Cisco Umbrella protects our devices and users from malicious sites of all kinds.
• Cisco Umbrella allows us to add additional web site types we may want to block for specific users.
• Cisco Umbrella keeps the list of sites blocked current by utilizing data from their entire security platform.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Umbrella Virtual Appliances have been buggy in resolving local domain hosts.
• Integration between other Cisco and Meraki products is complicated.
• Reporting is not always accurate; for example, if you configure a Meraki access point to use an Umbrella Virtual Appliance, you lose device reporting. All reporting shows up under the AP's IP.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

First off I never give anything a "10" unless it's perfect. LOL - I grade on the curve. I think OpenDNS/Umbrella is a very good product. I think that fact that Cisco absorbed them is one of the proofs of that. I have used the product back when it was free for companies our size. I have not always appreciated the cost - but in the post pandemic cyber chaos, I believe the cost benefit ratio is still very high. I have honestly not looked at other products because Umbrella continues to work to my satisfaction. I consider Umbrella to be one of the key layers in my cyber security strategy.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Better features and easy to manage system with great customer support and overall usability is great as it works for hybrid environment with ease as it is having features for on prem users as wells as cloud users with great customer support and great team of trained engineers to support our opeartions.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Cisco Umbrella's availability was great, they got back to me in less than an hour to get my problem solved.

We needed to get our Meraki AP's hooked up to Cisco Umbrella to monitor that specific traffic and they got back to me promptly, they guided me and explained every question I had.

Incentivized

We have not had a chance to use Cisco support frequently, but when we needed to troubleshoot some issues that we were having with the agent installation, the support was very responsive and the solution that they offered worked. The only reason I give it one less point is that the turnaround time for non-critical issues is very long.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Quite easy to understand training modules prepared by knowledgeable trainers.

Incentivized

The implementation just required us a bit of study because there are a lot of options and configurations available. I believe that the interface could be a bit better, but it works fine. We did an initial setup and only need to do changes when a new demand appears. Other than that, we just keep it running.

Incentivized

We used a product before this called iPrism by EdgeWave and also briefly tried Barracuda Web Security in the cloud. We were having such a large influx of service desk calls about proxy-based layer 7 web filters that we wanted to step back and pick something more at the DNS level, to protect our employees but not hover over their social media use, etc. Cisco will also employ a layer 7 proxy if a site is suspicious, which does require us to push a certificate out should we want that feature. For most policies we have it enabled.

Incentivized

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).

• Positive ROI when the service keeps users from going to malicious websites.
• We had it deployed while users were internal and external with the AnyConnect Umbrella module so our protection was both on and off the corporate network.
• Great product. Has paid for itself two time over.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized