Zscaler vs. Legacy Firewalls: Securing Hybrid Infrastructure

What Is Hybrid Infrastructure, and Why Do Legacy Firewalls Fall Short?

Hybrid infrastructure unites on-premises data centers, public and private clouds, and remote users to enhance flexibility and scalability. Unfortunately, it also creates a wide attack surface. Legacy firewalls, built for static, on-premises network security, are poorly suited to this environment because:

• They are based on fixed, physical hardware that cannot effectively scale to secure distributed users, apps, and data.
• They struggle to inspect encrypted traffic—now 95%+ of all web traffic—without slowing down performance.
• They rely on IP- and zone-based protection, increasing the attack surface and allowing lateral movement of threats.
• They were not designed for SaaS or the cloud, leaving hybrid environments vulnerable to cloud-centric attacks.

As enterprise environments become more dispersed and dynamic, organizations need a solution engineered to overcome these limitations.

Can Zscaler Replace Legacy Firewalls in Hybrid Infrastructure?

Zscaler takes a unique approach suited to the demands of hybrid infrastructure. Our cloud native platform delivers:

• Comprehensive traffic inspection: Secure all ports and protocols, including nonstandard web traffic and non-web traffic.
• Inspection at scale: Inspect 100% of TLS/SSL-encrypted traffic with no performance impact, unlike legacy or "next-generation" firewalls.
• User-centric policies: Apply uniform protection that follows users wherever they go, fully decoupled from the network perimeter.
• True zero trust architecture: Secure user, workload, and device communication between and within branches, clouds, and data centers.

How Zscaler Delivers Firewall Capabilities from the Cloud

The cloud native Zscaler Zero Trust Firewall grants least-privileged access, never trusting any entity by default—inside or outside your network. By extending security beyond the data center, it ensures protection for all traffic, wherever it moves, with:

• Comprehensive traffic inspection: Perform deep packet inspection for 100% of traffic, including encrypted connections. Cloud-scale TLS/SSL decryption minimizes latency and ensures no traffic goes uninspected.
• Adaptive policies: Grant or deny access through dynamic policies based on context like user identity, device posture, and risk level, unlike static rules in legacy firewalls.
• Broad coverage: Handle web and non-web traffic, including DNS requests, ensuring full-spectrum security for all applications regardless of port or protocol.
• Real-time threat controls: Rapidly identify and neutralize threats with integrated intrusion prevention system (IPS), DNS tunnel detection, and advanced attack detection.

Benefits of Zero Trust Firewall

Zscaler Zero Trust Firewall enables organizations to rethink hybrid infrastructure security, delivering:

• End-to-end protection: Secure all users, devices, and apps—whether on-premises, cloud-based, or remote.
• Improved user experiences: Reduce latency and support productivity for users everywhere with direct-to-cloud connectivity.
• Simplified administration: Adapt faster and reduce misconfiguration risks with centralized policy management.
• Compliance assurance: Meet data residency, privacy, and industry-specific mandates with granular logging and consistent controls.
• Future-proof scalability: Scale with ease based on the needs of your operations, without worrying about hardware limitations.

Use Cases: Securing Hybrid Infrastructure with Zscaler

• Protect all traffic: Inspect and control all web traffic (HTTP/HTTPS) and non-web traffic (SSH, RDP, SMB, DNS, etc.).
• Control DNS traffic: Enforce security policies at the DNS level to block threats like tunneling, phishing, and data exfiltration.
• Block evasive threats: Detect and stop advanced cyberthreats such as fileless malware, zero-day attacks, and malicious payloads.
• Secure work from anywhere: Apply consistent security policies across all locations and users.

Embrace the Future of Security with Zscaler

Legacy firewalls served their purpose in the era of centralized data centers and static environments, but today’s hybrid infrastructures demand an adaptable, end-to-end security solution.

Zscaler Zero Trust Firewall goes beyond appliance-centric models to protect users, data, and applications without compromising performance.