State of Oklahoma Implements Zero Trustand Improves Security Posture by Standardizing on Zscaler

State IT Leaders Implement a Zero Trust Approach to Strengthen Security While Keeping Employees Productive and Supporting Citizens.

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZS), the leader in cloud security, today announced that the State of Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) selected and implemented Zscaler Internet Access™ (ZIA™) and Zscaler Private Access™ (ZPA™) products, part of the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange™ platform, to simplify the IT operations, quickly scale remote access for all employees anywhere they reside, and protect government data and applications from cybersecurity threats.

When the pandemic hit, the State of Oklahoma needed to rapidly support more than 30,000 teleworking employees as they adapted to evolving workstyle requirements. Oklahoma Human Services (OKDHS) needed to prepare for up to 50% increase in requests for benefits month over month.

Using their legacy remote access solutions, many State agencies initially experienced outages as networks were overwhelmed with external logins and service requests. The State’s legacy VPN solutions simply could not meet the increased volume and scalability demands. This resulted in a surge in calls to service desks and hundreds of VPN tickets a day, as well as increased cyber risk.

OMES deployed ZPA, a cloud-based zero trust network solution and ZIA, a cloud-based secure internet and web gateway solution, strengthening security, policy enforcement, and significantly improving the user experience. With Zscaler:

• The OMES team provided secure direct access for 10,000 users in days, and fully implemented ZPA within just 48 hours, deploying to 90+ State agencies to date.
• The Department of Corrections (DOC) standardized their remote access solution and scaled down expensive connected services, which ultimately sped up VPN efficiency by five to six times. This efficiency resulted in reduced costs, increased productivity, and enhanced user experience..
• OKDHS reduced the number of tickets and DOC provided five times faster secure access than its legacy VPN solution.

“The more complex an environment, the more difficult that environment is to secure,” said PJ Joubert, Public Sector Regional Sales Manager, Zscaler. “For Oklahoma, as well as other states and Federal agencies, Zscaler simplifies remote access and accelerates digital transformation progress,” said Joubert. “This means government teams keep employees safe, productive, and focused on serving citizens and reducing cyber risk.”

“We’ve completely changed the cybersecurity posture of the State of Oklahoma in the last 18 months – Zscaler played a big part in that,” said Matt Singleton, CISO, Office of Management and Enterprise Services, State of Oklahoma. “The integration of the different platforms is giving us unprecedented visibility into the environment. We can respond faster. In some cases, we can forecast where we may have issues, and address those things before they become a problem.”