Appliances or the Cloud? The Choice is Simple.

“Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” This was written by George Bernard Shaw back in 1944. Yet, it might be more relevant today than ever before as many organizations are ready to make a significant change—moving away from their hardware-based network and security infrastructure to a cloud-based platform.

A switch like this isn’t always easy to justify. After all, you’ve invested quite a bit of money in building this infrastructure and even more in keeping it up and running. But, with more applications moving to the cloud, and your employees becoming more mobile and working from home, a switch to the cloud is inevitable.
 

Trust in the cloud

Many organizations have already begun exploring what the cloud can offer—some simply by using cloud-based applications, such as Office 365, while others have already embraced a full cloud transformation. The cloud promises a host of business benefits, but they can’t be fully appreciated unless organizations change their way of thinking—especially when it comes to their network architecture and security.

Hardware-based security appliances worked well enough with traditional hub-and-spoke networks, which created a secure perimeter around your company’s data. But the move to the cloud has changed all that. The traditional perimeter doesn’t exist anymore. The internet is the new network, forcing organizations to re-think their approach around securing access to their data. Security appliances just weren’t built for a cloud-centric world and, soon enough, they will suffer the same fate as Blockbuster or the local record store—replaced by new offerings that are, in this case, built specifically for the cloud.
 

The choice is clear

Why is a cloud-based platform better for today’s security and networking needs than legacy appliances? Let’s get a better idea by taking a closer look at the benefits provided by the Zscaler Cloud Security Platform.
 

• Reduced business risk: On-premises appliances are no longer effective in the cloud-first world. With most traffic going to the internet and more users working off-net, policy enforcement is uneven. Our cloud-built SASE-based platform reduces the attack surface and provides identical protection with consistent policy enforcement everywhere users connect.
   
• Better user experience: Appliance-based virtual machines delivered from the cloud have the same limitations as on-premises appliances and can’t scale with user demand. Our cloud-native multitenant architecture scales security services dynamically across more than 150 global data centers. Therefore, users always connect to the nearest data center for a fast, secure experience.
   
• Stronger protection: Inspection constraints lead to compromises between user experience and security, which results in more missed attacks across users on and off the network. With Zscaler, every connection to the internet and SaaS applications is secured with a full range of services, including Cloud Firewall, IPS, Cloud Sandbox, DLP, CASB, Browser Isolation, advanced threat protection, and more. Our proxy architecture delivers full content inspection at scale, even inside SSL traffic.
   
• Simple administration: A hybrid approach that uses appliances on-premises and cloud services for mobile users adds complexity. And the use of appliances and traffic backhaul increase networking costs. With Zscaler, there is no hardware or software to manage, and no point products. The Zscaler platform unifies access controls and security services, centralizes policies, simplifies logging and reporting, and ensures compliance.
   

Learn more about replacing your appliances with the Zscaler SASE-based platform

A proven and reliable leader

Many of the customers we’ve talked to are concerned about Broadcom’s acquisition of the Symantec enterprise business (which was responsible for your Blue Coat devices). This is yet another significant change for that organization. And this constant change in executive leadership can have major consequences on an organization and its products, often leading to a slowdown in innovation.

With Zscaler, you’ll be partnering with a cloud security pioneer and innovator that’s been running the world’s largest security cloud and platform of services for more than 12 years. And, our industry-leading platform has been recognized as a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for nine consecutive years—with this year’s furthest position for leadership and vision.

Change is inevitable. And the most successful organizations are the ones that embrace this change, usually to their benefit. That’s why thousands of companies around the globe are leaving their appliances behind and turning to Zscaler.

Isn’t it time for you to embrace the change that is coming, or, more accurately, is already here?

Visit our website where you can learn how you can easily replace your appliances. And check out our Internet Threat Exposure Analysis tool to see how your security stack stacks up against 16 common security threats.

Steve Grossenbacher is the head of product marketing for Zscaler Internet Access