IBM Secure Gateway vs. Zscaler Internet Access

Datapower external connectivity is made easy with built-in client provisions in gateway servers. [There are] other use cases if you need to access resources in IBM Cloud with enterprise connectivity setup.

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

• Ease of setup
• Integrated Datapower clients
• Console based management in IBM Cloud

Incentivized

• Automatically block the malicious content and websites
• Scans inbound and outbound network packets
• Has a proxy server through which all the network calls pass through
• We have customized Zscaler Internet Access to block websites like Netflix, Hotstar etc which can hinder producivity

Incentivized

• Product documentation on setting up various client use cases
• Flexible plan
• Deployment options beyond saas

Incentivized

• My personal opinion about Zscaler is their idea is that all the services are online and are moving to the cloud but the truth is some of them have to stay on-premise and employees still need to work from an office. Zscaler simply doesn't have any on-premise solutions like an NGFW to provide a complete package. We are supporting Fortinet NGFW for our on-premise solution.
• As mentioned earlier Zscaler being hosted online we don't get the full flexibility of managing our firewalls. Although it's a good thing we keep running into problems like when we want to allow list a service from a specific source IP Zscaler cannot provide a static IP for that. They route traffic through multiple IP addresses and the IP's keep changing every 15-20 minutes. So you cannot allow list a specific IP on the receiving end. The only way to move forward would be to allow an entire range of IP's which opens a security loophole on the receiving end.
• For every small thing we have to keep opening a ticket with Zscaler. Their response rate is fast but still in a fast-moving world it's not fast enough. Especially since we need to get approval from our change control to get something done and then again we have to raise a ticket to get something done from the Zscaler side.

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

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

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).

• Was able to quickly set up vpn tunnel with our IBM Cloud resources access. That helped to get quick time to market.

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