Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only]

For Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only], we were looking specifically for agentic AI related things. Whoever has access to platforms such as Gemini or ChatGPT has prompts, and I wanted to see how they utilize those prompts and upload documents. If the documents being uploaded are sensitive, they should be blocked. This was the use case.

Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] is already part of our networking team, and we were trying to utilize it to have certain controls on the AI part. That part is not up to the mark, but the team is working on the network and other things, and they found it useful.

I use Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only]'s real-time traffic inspection feature.

I find Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] helpful. I like the way it is providing information, and the newsletters are pretty good for staying updated and knowing useful information.

In terms of improvements for Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only], I would like consistency. If the detection is there, it has to be consistent. That is one of the major aspects.

From the features perspective, Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] has been enhancing functionality, and they have added a few new features. It is always good to have features, but I would like them to be consistent. Having features is one thing, but the performance of a particular feature in identifying a certain incident is very important.

Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only]'s automated policy configuration features have been average. Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] is enhancing, but it is not up to the mark in terms of the other things.

When it comes to analytics, Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only]'s advanced analytics capabilities have helped enhance my operational efficiency. We did test a few things. The configuration is pretty easy, but the actual working process and cycle are pretty complicated. It did not work the way it is supposed to work. When an incident comes, the ticket should be created automatically and then go to the owner. This simple cycle was not executed successfully. Maybe some other customer had a different experience, but for us, it did not work. That is one of the reasons we are looking for alternatives.

I have been working with Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] for almost five years.

Regarding the performance and scalability of Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only], performance will depend on how it goes, but as we are on cloud, we did not observe much during our POV. The networking team might have observed some instances, but I am not sure about that.

When evaluating Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only]'s technical support and customer service, we had the option to connect with the TAM, and the time taken was less. For a few instances, we connected with customer support, but it took time. We raised a request once and it took at least three days. When we had a scheduled call and showed the TAM the case and the issue, he was able to fix it. The customer care or technical people probably did not have the same technical knowledge as the TAM.

On a scale of one to 10, I would rate the technical support team around six. I would give the TAM an eight.

The initial setup process to start working with Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] was straightforward. I faced no challenges or complexities, as it is already part of our network, so enabling a few features to perform the testing was pretty simple. The total turnaround time for configuring the setup was pretty fast.

The deployment of Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] was done by my team and the Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] people. This was for the POV.

I worked with Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] directly. We bought Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] directly. We connected with the TAM, and they helped us out.

Regarding Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only], to be honest, we do not like it. That is one of the reasons we checked other vendors such as Cierra, Varonis, and Capsule. We are still in the process of evaluating other vendors. Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] did not go as per our testing results. Though it is part of our other solutions, it did not do well in our testing.

The key differences, both pros and cons, between Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] and the Varonis platform or Cierra, which I also evaluated, are that those platforms offer a wide range of applications specialized in data discovery, and they understand the data. The way they work is consistent, they know the data, and restricting it and creating policies was a pretty good experience compared to Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only].

The deployment model I have with Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] is in the cloud.

I work with multiple cloud providers.

On a scale of one to 10, where 10 is the best, I would rate Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] as a product and solution around five or six at most.

My advice to other organizations looking into Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] is based on the feedback I shared. Having consistency in detection is very important. That is the only part, because the purpose of the entire exercise is to have incidents, and if the incidents are not getting triggered, it becomes difficult.

I am not using Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] products myself; I am a consultant and a reseller.

Regarding Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only]'s Zero Trust Architecture, I think it is very good and up-to-date. It has many possibilities for each company in the way they want to implement it and use it. In some way, not customization, but you can easily make it suitable to your case. I think it is quite flexible for the needs that large enterprises have nowadays.

In terms of their real-time traffic inspection feature, that is also quite excellent; better than deep packet inspection you cannot have at the moment. That is what they have offered since a long time ago. Not every manufacturer or supplier in this branch has the same ability for a long time. Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] has offered it quite from the start that they were offering their services. It is working very well. Practically, it is also recommended to all their customers to use that. If a customer really does not need it or want it, that is something else. But normally, it is something that is largely used and it is working fine. It is stable, works fine, and gives you the results as you want and need it, at least for large enterprises.

Regarding Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only]'s automated policy configuration features, I think all these possibilities that they offer are very interesting for the customers, and they are also using them very much. A large part of the scope what Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] is using for the large enterprises, they are using practically almost all options. I think it is absolutely interesting for Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] clients to use as much as possible what they are offering.

Although I am not using Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only]'s advanced analytics capabilities myself, that is something that they are expanding lately. They have analytics in place, but they bought in new firms to even more offer features in that domain. Looking at what they offer there, I think that practically it is something that is also widely used, but not as much of course as the core security features that we discussed before. Not every client wants the full analytics program yet, at least that is to my knowledge. Perhaps I have the wrong clients, clients that are not so interested in those things, but because that can also be done partially by other systems that they might have in place. They think, we do not need that supplement here. However, it is good that they have that in the package.

Regarding encrypted threat detection, I think that is still the same; nothing specific additional to that. It works, but threat detection is also some basic things in security offerings. It is something that works very well and I have no idea if something improved there ever since. Obviously it might have improved with small things, but not that I am aware of in that sense. As what they offer, they offer this, and that is part of the basics. The basic bundles do have that already. It works fine.

From my perspective, I think about Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only], not much could be improved. It is working very well. The only thing is about the POP presence, where you hook into a continent or country. In some countries, South America has some coverage, but not as much as for instance North America or Europe. If you talk with large enterprises or multinationals that are everywhere in the world present, they might need something in Africa. Africa is also a continent where you have more and more enterprises having their subsidiaries there. Africa is not covered very thoroughly, in my opinion. It only has South Africa with points of presence and then Egypt. It is either very up north or very down south. If you are in the middle of Africa, which is an extremely large continent, then you have delays and latencies. That is not very nice. However, that is not only counting for Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only]; this is also for all competitors. I am working with Cato Networks now for more than a year and the same story applies to them. I also know other competitors of Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] which have even less coverage. It is not something that I think everyone is keen on to expand in Africa because they do not see much traffic. However, if you have multinationals that are operating in Africa, then you cannot offer very good quality service because you have large latency if they are in the middle of Africa. Not even in the middle of Africa; if you talk about under Morocco, then you either connect to Cairo or you connect to Spain. Spain is closest, but if you always have redundancy, and if Spain falls out for whatever reason, even though that is not happening much because the data centers are very stable, then you have an enormous latency going to Cairo. Coming with this to more North Africa, if you talk about Angola and Mozambique in the middle of Africa, then you do not have much choice. You always have a lot of latency there. That is unfortunate. On the technical terms, that is where I stand. I mentioned this before, and it is still the same. I think I talked with you a few years back about this; I think three or four years ago. I mentioned exactly this topic then, and it is still the same.

The other thing is, I think in terms of software, they are doing their best. They are buying in firms and buying in solutions, so they are expanding, and that is fine. I would rather say to Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] to have better customer service because Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only], even with large enterprises and huge companies that I work for, they notice that Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] service management is different. They are very big and they have less attention to client matters. If that would improve, it would be the best for Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] to have better customer success managers, but more attention to clients and more direct interface to the deep core of the company for client matters if they have questions or specific things that they do not currently have. If I have something with the client, I have sometimes to escalate to the vice president that I know because I worked with him before, and that is unfortunate. That should not be necessary to go that route. You should have things arranged directly with an account manager or customer success manager of your client if you have problems, or at least have responses saying, this is impossible, we cannot do that because of this, this, this, whatever. At least you should have an answer.

I think in the future, everyone in the branch is focusing on AI and quantum computing as a mix. I think on that end, everyone in the domain is working hard to find the best solutions against those two challenges. I think Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] is doing their best as well there. That is the challenge for the upcoming years, to get the best answers to it. Eventually, they will compete with the same; fight it back with the same power. That means also with quantum computing or specially designed AI to attack back when attackers are attacking. I am not the genius saying that there will be a sort of war game coming up in the future in this domain. However, they are working on it, as all the others are doing, and I think that is absolutely the focus for the coming years because that is where everyone has concern about.

I have been working with Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] since 2015, making it 11 years. I have been a reseller of Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] since 2017.

I would rate their current support around a six or seven; 6.5 if I can give halves. For such a beautiful solution and such a large company with enormous clients and enormous reputation growing as they are doing, I think it is reflecting something unfavorable if you are performing at a six or seven for customer service.

Regarding the licensing model, with inflation, it only goes up; it will never be cheaper. It is still on the expensive route, but they are competing practically because they have a quite premium solution and they are competing practically against Palo Alto. Palo Alto is also very expensive. I can imagine if you are competing with another company that is already expensive and premium, then practically you will not lower your prices because that makes a bad image as if you are a cheaper discounter or something like that. They want to keep up with the premium pricing, that is the thing. They are still expensive, but Palo Alto is also expensive. Palo Alto Prisma is practically the competing solution against Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only]. However, they are not present in all locations as Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] is. Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] is better outlined in the world. However, they are expensive as well.

Zscaler Software [Private Offer Only] itself, I think it is pretty good and I only get compliments from clients that are using it after the implementation; they like it. I think the software itself is, I rate it around eight to nine. I do not want to say ten. I never give tens on things. I would rate this review overall at 8.5 based on the quality of the software and its performance.

Zscaler Software provides cloud security as the use case for my clients.

Zscaler Software is very beneficial for my clients. Depending on the use case, it reduces time by at least more than 50%. I have seen specific metrics improve because of Zscaler Software's encrypted threat detection. Productivity is increased, and the workload of the analyst is reduced. The analyst can respond faster.

As a service provider, I see many advantages of the tool, and they are investing a lot in technology. On the technical side, I notice they are investing a lot in visibility and AI, which I see as a major advantage for them.

When a customer wants to protect their own environment using a zero-trust architecture, where you don't trust anything, Zscaler Software provides the architecture to accomplish this. The product has a real-time traffic inspection feature that helps with the security part. Real-time traffic inspection is a very good feature and helps us to find out what real-time traffic is occurring.

Automated policy configuration features help with security management because they reduce the time. If something is found, the team can quickly implement the policies. Advanced analytics help with operational efficiency. Visibility and analytics are very important for making decisions, so the job of the analyst becomes much easier because multiple views are available.

One area for improvement for Zscaler Software is that they should have their dependency on AI validated and verified. Because if they are a service provider, they are doing a good job, but they have to keep doing it continuously; otherwise, it will be a big problem. That is the only concern I can see so far.

I started working with Zscaler Software two or three years back.

Regarding stability, I would say it is 99% stable and reliable. For stability, I would give nine plus.

Zscaler Software is scalable. As for scalability, I give nine plus.

My comment on technical support from Zscaler Software is that it is very good. From 0 to 10 points, I could give nine plus for support.

The installation depends on the situation, but I find it is manageable. The most difficult part when installing it is the customer's environment because every customer has a unique environment. I mostly deploy it on the cloud. I use Zscaler cloud. I am not working with GCP, AWS, or Azure.

Every threat detected is money saved, so I see good value for money. It is possible to quantify this ROI, provided the company captures how many threats they detected and the time taken. Once you put all of this in place, you have a good ROI.

As for the price, I believe it is affordable.

When comparing Zscaler Software to other competitors on the market, I would say Zscaler Software is an advanced one. The reason is that their technologies are good and represent the latest innovations. They are investing a lot of money in technology, and the customers feel that they are protected.