Zscaler Cloud Firewall Reviews

My primary goal is to find the simple and easy cloud solutions that I am reselling. Zscaler is one of them because it provides something that is broader than only firewalling on cloud. There is a lot of work around it and it's all outsourced once it's in the cloud and protects from attacks. The great thing about it is that people get the most updated software and hardware security guarantee. 

We deal with medium-sized enterprise companies. We're in Europe and I am the only unique Zscaler reseller for companies with less than 2000 users. They normally don't deal with companies smaller than that.

The solution has great features like configuration. It would be difficult to improve or simplify what Zscaler does. Once you have Zscaler running you have access to configure it however you want.

The only thing that might be improved would be to enable application of different settings. It's really the difference between having it on premises or on cloud. If you have a next gen firewall from Palo Alto which is the best on-premise solution, then you might be able to configure some things a little more. It's possible that with Zscaler, the customization of some options could be improved a little to match what is available on-premise but because it's on cloud, it doesn't allow application of extra settings.

I've been using the solution for about 18 months. 

I haven't seen any stability issues and I've seen it running in large banks. 

The scalability of the solution is good and fast to implement. 

Technical support is generally fine although sometimes there are exceptions. But there's generally a quick response and they're cooperative. 

Initial setup is very simple and then it's just a matter of IP addresses exchanged between Zscaler and the customer, and then configuration. Any extras require just ticking the box and it's done. Technically, setup can take five minutes, and up to a week dealing with individual customer requirements, IP addresses, etc. Most of our customers have their own IT people who implement. Maintenance is included with the product, it's all in the cloud server which is maintained 24/7. 

Cost is about the same whether it's on-prem or on cloud. Initial cost is higher with an on-prem solution and with cloud there are additional fees for configuring extras. 

I would recommend people figure out what they need and then check the market. Zscaler is  the Rolls Royce for this kind of solution. If you can afford to buy a Rolls Royce then you should take it even though it's one of the more expensive solutions. It's the best one with full integration and everything you would expect. If you're looking for a quick and cheap solution, that would be TitanHQ. It's a reasonable product but there is obviously a big difference between Zscaler and TitanHQ.

I would rate this product a nine out of 10. 

We like URL filtering, category filtering, and content filtering.

We are having some issues with internet access being denied when organizational ID-based policies change. For example, a lower level employee ends up getting the same level of access as that of a higher level employee.

What happens is that the organization ID does not match the one we allowed in Zscaler. As a result, we have to allow each organization ID one at a time in the Zscaler Portal.

There are also problems with the mapping of the geographic location of an IP address. For example, the IP address might be in India, but the geographical location may be mapped to a US location.

In the next release, I would like to see user-based access. I would like to be able to create user-based policies so that the user can be placed in the correct AD group and get access easily.

We started using it last November. We have now finished implementing it and are in the process of fine-tuning it.

We use it in our company and have customers who use it as well.

The product is stable, but if you compare the hardware appliance to the cloud solution, the performance is decreased with the cloud level access.

The scalability is okay. We have around 2200 people using this solution.

Technical support is okay.

The initial setup is easy. We have four people for the maintenance of the solution.

Zscaler is priced too high compared to the cost of Fortinet.

We previously used Fortinet. It has many features and an unlimited license. However, Zscaler has license limitation, as in, user-based licenses. Fortinet provides many features that are included.

Cost comparison wise, Zscaler is priced too high compared to the cost of Fortinet. My experience with Fortinet is good, but as per the standard cloud-based policies and cloud-based access, Zscaler is good as well.

Zscaler recently came on the market and is at the improvement stage right now. Maybe, after two or three years Zscaler will be very good, and I'd be able to recommend it to the user.

Zscaler Cloud Firewall is good but not very good, so I would rate it at seven on a scale from one to ten.

We are establishing IT systems from the customers' routers to the nodes in Zscaler. Once we hand over the traffic to them, we wait for them to claim the full IP packet and we send the traffic back to them along with the destination. From our perspective, Zscaler is a security solution that is implemented in the cloud so it's a cloud supported service solution. We are not specifically working on a specific firewall.

The solution has this SSL feature which is quite interesting

URL filtering is quite good.

The solution offers good sandboxing.

We've had some concerns with Zscaler, but a new version is coming out that we hope will address them. This is scheduled to be released in March 2020. They've probably done some gap analysis and will be introducing more versatile features according to customer requests.

The issue right now is probably that Zscaler is not providing web browser isolation. Another solution, Menlo, offers this. For one customer, we had to send traffic to Menlo to do the isolation for us. It was requested by the customer so that they could integrate any iframe. Zscaler needs to add this type of feature in their next release.

I've been using this solution for a year and a half.

The stability of the solution is good. Our customers have been quite happy with it.

You can scale the solution without any issue. It's very good.

We largely work with enterprise-level organizations.

I have the impression that technical support is good, but it's the customer that creates the tickets and has direct contact with them. I understand that the number of users is more than 10,000. That means Zscaler is providing a dedicated technical account manager who resolves all the outstanding queries and issues that arise on the network. 

This is the first vendor we have used as far as cloud security is concerned.

The initial setup was straightforward. It wasn't too complex.

Deployment times vary. It depends on the number of sites, for example. We have a separate team that works on the delivery part so I'm not able to discuss implementation on a micro-level. 

However, deployment depends on the complexity of the solution, the number of sites and what the specific requirements of the customer are. It may take a day or two to fully implement, or three days, at a maximum.

From our perspective, we're selling three separate packages: Basic, Advanced and Premium.

Depending on the requirement of the customer, we offer the package that makes the most sense. 

With Basic, we provide a very limited feature set. Advanced packages will probably provide some better and more advanced features. Premium will provide everything that Zscaler has to offer. That means URL filtering, sandboxing, endpoint mitigation, etc. I'm not sure of the exact costs from Zscaler's side.

The Zscaler pricing, in general, is okay. Once more vendors come into the picture, there will probably be more competition and they may have to reduce their costs. Still, as of right now, it's reasonable.

We're partners with Zscaler.

We have this production suite which we have customized with Zscaler and we are selling this solution to a lot of customers in which we provide sandboxing, URL filtering, testing, blacklisting, etc. We're not using the solution ourselves so much as selling it to our customers.

Zscaler has a good foothold in the market and any new competitor will have to be cognizant of the fact that they will have to be affordable and provide all of the features Zscaler has while being good at threat analysis and filtering.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. If it had web browser isolation I'd rate it higher.

We use Zscaler Cloud Firewall to enable quick and secure internet access for branch offices, small offices, and retail stores. It's very convenient for deployment.

I like the ease of deployment and its flexibility. We don't need to deal with license, quotes, procurement, delivery, and installation. Everything is software-based, and it's very easy to operate.

It would be better if they improved their policy, package visibility, and flexibility while we're creating rules for inspection. It could also be cheaper or more things could be included in the basic package. In the next release, I would like better coverage in the Asia Pacific region and better quality of service.

I have been using Zscaler Cloud Firewall for about two years.

Zscaler Cloud Firewall is a stable solution.

Zscaler Cloud Firewall is a scalable solution. We currently have 12 to 15 people using this solution.

The initial setup is super easy.

I implemented this solution. There's nothing really outstanding, and it's very easy.

There are licensing costs, and I would not say that it's a cheap vendor.

In general, I would recommend this product to new users. But I would say that they should carefully evaluate it with the business needs of a specific customer. However, in general, it's a leader in this area, and it's definitely worth their consideration.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Zscaler Cloud Firewall a seven.

It's on the customers' premises. I've designed and supported several client projects and this is definitely for customers, for enterprise networks. 

I've leveraged heavily the web proxy solution. 

The secure web gateway, the web firewall is great. 

CASB Enterprise DLP, the network DLP solution, is useful. 

Most of the features that Zscaler has to offer, we will deploy.

We are functioning fairly well with Zscaler Internet Access. With regards to scale, with regards to performance, the end-user performance and resiliency are good.

The initial setup is easy.

I don't see any other improvements required with regards to the use cases that we have. I think they are good for now. I have no complaints.

It would be nice to have some sort of a form factor, a physical form factor perhaps, or virtual machine that you could install on devices or on a cloud, and have some cloud computing. That provides the segmentation capabilities within the environment itself, instead of going all the way to Zscaler cloud and then coming back and get all the inspection capabilities. That's definitely one thing that I would want Zscaler to explore. That would serve 100% of use cases that I look for as an architect.

I've used the solution for four to four and a half years.

We never face any problems. Like most products, it does have its hiccups. Sometimes we face some performance issues, however, nothing critical. The problems are kind of the things that we usually face with most of the cloud-managed providers. Mostly, it's fine.

The solution is absolutely scalable. Every single time we have a new footprint in a different geography, they are doing great, and I've never faced any challenges even in China, which is the bone of contention for most providers. They're certainly scalable. There are not any delays in regards to upscaling them. We are good there.

We are leveraging professional services and advanced tech support. The response time is great - at least during business hours. During holidays, sometimes we do face some problems, however, that is acceptable and we tend to work during the standard market business hours. Any gaps in the support during off business hours, they're able to handle business outages or critical issues. 

I work on various firewalls, Palo Alto being the closest that I can think of with regards to having parallel features. I use it as kind of an in-series. It's not either/or. It's both of them. For all the traffic that is non-web or non-FTP, that's inspected by Palo Alto. The rest, everything else, goes by proxy.

If I'm looking for a cloud-managed service, a cloud-managed firewall, something like a McAfee solution, Palo Alto is the close competitor that I would rate with Zscaler. With regards to cloud web proxy, I don't see any other competitor which does better than Zscaler.

The initial setup is fairly easy. We've never faced any problems there. We deployed it for both on-premises and a couple of our cloud infrastructure setups. It's a piece of cake. 

We had to deploy the back files so we push backfiles to CCM and Intune. With regards to the agents, that was fairly seamless. We set up about 20,000 users and had them up and running within close to two weeks - three days for the actual implementation and deployment. It was fairly seamless.

I haven't handled much of the procurement side of things. My understanding, however, is that it's fairly cost-effective. With regards to the kind of support that they offer, it's fairly justified. It's additive pricing. If you don't want to subscribe to a single service, you can, of course, skip it. It's fairly flexible. 

The use cases need to be fairly solid if you're looking for Zscaler. Zscaler doesn't do intra site segmentation, therefore, if you want a segmentation within a branch office, that kind of traffic flow, that is not well addressed. That said, that's due to the fact that Zscaler isn't targeting itself to address that kind of issue. That's where you require traditional or the NextGen firewalls on devices. With regards to the cloud-first model, of course, there is absolutely no gap with regards to Zscaler. It would largely depend on the use cases, the kind of business that you are deploying the solution for if this solution is right for you. 

With regards to ease, with regards to scalability, with regards to performance and support, those are the kind of top features that I would always look at and I have had a great experience in general.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

Our customers use the solution to manage workload traffic and security mode access.

The solution's most valuable feature is its ability to integrate with security features such as malware detection, encryption, etc.

The solution's deployment process and technical support services could be better. Also, it could have more functionalities similar to other legacy firewall applications.

I have been using Zscaler Cloud Firewall for around six months.

I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten.

The solution is scalable as it is a SaaS-based application. I rate its scalability a ten out of ten.

The solution's technical support team responds quickly. But sometimes, the team cannot fix the issue at the earliest. They pass the case to another expert to resolve, which consumes additional time for them to understand the problem and get back.

Positive

The solution's deployment process is straightforward compared with legacy appliances, on-premises, or cloud applications. We configure all the essential policies, including ZIA. Later, we can also use the same network for filtering policies for workload traffic.

It is user-friendly and can be deployed quickly without purchasing any physical hardware. It requires five to seven days to complete.

Although, in some cases, we couldn't find specific procedures. We ask their support team to assist us and enable those particular options. They should include all the essential information and functionality in the admin console. It will help new executives review the reference article and configure the solution.

The solution is expensive for small businesses.

The solution is suitable for medium and enterprise businesses. I rate it an eight out of ten.

This solution is in the cloud firewall where you just divert your router into the IP address and it goes to the Zscaler Cloud. Our current customer is a major financial institution and the solution is being used as general insurance for the company. Everyone is using the second generation VPN of Zscaler. There are 11 people in our company using the solution and our current customer has around 15,000 users, all using the product on a daily basis. We are customers and resellers of ZScaler and I'm a director of our company. 

I like the advanced tech protection Cloud Sandbox, it's a nice feature. Then there's the DLP, Data Leak Prevention, and the Cloud Application Control which are also good features.

Currently, the Data Leak Prevention is only for web filtering and there is nothing for email and the USB, so it would be an improvement if that could be included.

I've been using this solution for over three years. 

This is a stable product. 

Our current customer has 10,000 users so the scalability is good.

Our technical support is mainly in-house. If we need second-level support we'll turn to Zscaler. The support from them is fast and smooth. 

The initial setup is very straightforward, you need to put an agent into your machine and it goes directly to the cloud. If you have 500 users, setup can take about a week. For 10,000, it takes about a month. Generally, though, the setup will happen in one or two days and then it's just rolled out onto the machines. There are usually some technical errors here and there which can slow things down a little but otherwise it's easy implementation and not very time consuming. Our company does the implementation and we have support from Zscaler. 

I would rate this solution a nine out of 10. 

We are a distributor and Zscaler is one of the vendors that we work with. We sell the Cloud Firewall product to IT companies.

Our customers use this product for remote access, VPN, and security for Office 365. There is also integration available for protecting SD-WAN networks.

This product has a lot of features and which ones are used will depend on what a customer wants to do. For example, if the customer plans that they want to go into the cloud, or they are in a digital transformation journey, then they should look at Zscaler cloud solutions.

It helps a lot of companies to reduce their downtime. Also, It helps businesses in terms of being secured and protected from any threats.

As a product that is 100% cloud-based, there is no hardware or software to invest in. This means that it's an operational cost model, rather than a capital investment. Having an OpEx cost is something that has really helped our customers and their partners because it saves them money for any capital investment.

In the age of digitalization, a lot of companies do mergers and acquisitions. With Zscaler solutions, you can manage the users of two different companies. For example, if company A and company B do a merger tomorrow, Zscaler have a solution that enables both companies or organization users to work, using the same security policies and administration. This is a unique feature, as none of the other security vendors provides such capabilities that can be enabled or implemented quickly.

Certain criteria need to be met if you want to scale this solution.

I have been working with the Zscaler Cloud Firewall for approximately four months.

This is a stable product. Zscaler has been a Gartner Magic Quadrant leader for the last 10 years.

This is a scalable Firewall but like any other security product, there are certain criteria for it to scale. It depends on the number of users and what the customer wants to achieve. 

There are different subscription models available.

Zscaler is one of the leading vendors in the cloud space. My advice for anyone who is looking to go on a cloud journey or is in the transition of moving their business from on-premises data centers to AWS, or any cloud platform, is that Zscaler is a great product to have in the organization. It helps lots of our customers.

Zscaler provides people with security and they don't need to have a VPN connection. Essentially, it provides more access and provides a secure connection to the business applications in the cloud.

With Zscaler, there are no major versions with different flavors. It's as if you're buying a Mercedes car. You choose your model, then ask for add-ons. it's still the same base product that we discussed.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.