Kemp Flowmon ADS vs. Zscaler Private Access

Flowmon ADS is a customizable anomaly detection solution with excellent scalability capabilities and quick integration into the organization environment. Flowmon ADS provides a large set of essential detections out of the box, which allows to quickly acquire an awareness of potential problems in the monitored network. Custom configuration, filters, and false-positive flagging make the system highly customizable for diverse environments. Powerful dashboards make summaries and reporting a breeze. We use the Flowmon Anomaly Detection System daily for event detection and incident handling. It provides high-quality detection methods with low false-positive rates.

Zscaler Private Access works really well in environments setup for FQDNs and where you know what users should/shouldn't be accessing on what ports. You can use Zscaler Private Access to figure out these kinds of features but that doesn't always mean you'll be correct. It also provides a consistent experience for users as they can access their materials anywhere. It also makes the user the last line of defense. If a user's account is compromised then the attacker has access to everything they already did. It doesn't work great in OT environments or Server based environments. Flows have to be initiated from the client and not the server for stuff to behave properly.

Incentivized

• Kemp Flowmon ADS provides a large set of essential detections out of the box, which allows us to quickly acquire an awareness of potential problems in the monitored network.
• Custom configuration, filters, and false-positive flagging make the system highly customizable for diverse environments.
• Powerful dashboards make summaries and reporting a breeze.

• Connecting users remotely with a secure connection. I am a service desk agent who works with end users, and if there is an issue due to ZPA, it's most likely due to configuration. A really good service.
• Logging, I believe, works well as I troubleshoot end users and can gather extra details for my network admin. IP.zscaler.com, and the debug logs are nice. Additionally, I like how it shows the App policy assigned to the user's machine ECT.

Incentivized

• Multi-license policy
• Outdated GUI
• Limited use of AI methods

• Needs an interface for Support Desk/Help Desk to more easily understand that the problem is a lack of an FQDN or access is not allowed due to policy, not because of a technical shortcoming in ZPA.
• Documentation of the BC solution is not well-detailed.

Incentivized

When it works - it works incredibly slick. It's only L4 which seems like a downgrade of security from solutions that promote L7.

Incentivized

The environment feels more secure, and we are seeing that users are adapting to it fast. The fact that we have tools to assist the users with their day-to-day access helps, as we can hand it off to the helpdesk without any escalations to the Network team. It is a work in progress for our agency, but we are seeing the benefits from the solution.

Incentivized

ZPA is where the bulk of zero-trust access is found. While the functionality for ZIA is excellent, the policy we implement for internet access is more focused on threat prevention and not narrowly scoped access.

Incentivized

• Early detection of cyber security events and incidents.
• Processing a large number of network flows on input (which means more than 60K flows per second)
• Parameterization of detection methods.
• The possibility to decide on the false-positive rate within the output of each method.

• We used to get anywhere from 30 to 50 tickets surrounding our previous VPN solution every month. We now average 3-5 tickets regarding remote connectivity, and of those, only 1 or 2 are actual issues with ZPA.
• Using ZPA Access Policies, we can now block endpoints that have outdated security software from ever connecting to our environment. This was simply not possible with our previous solution.
• Some of our employee base skews older and had a harder time understanding the change from VPN to Zscaler.
• There is significantly less downtime with ZPA when compared to other VPN solutions.

Incentivized