A simple and affordable way to secure web communications
Security in the cloud may be the ’next big thing’ but, apart from hosting existing products on servers of their own, few security vendors have done much to embrace the concept. One exception is Zscaler, which offers a unique web filtering service designed from the ground up as an answer to cloud computing security.
Zscaler offers, in effect, a secure internet connection for a simple monthly subscription. There’s no need for any extra hardware, making it very easy to test. All we needed to do was configure the browsers on our test network to connect to the web via a Zscaler proxy. We did this manually and it took just a few minutes, but the process can be automated for large companies and locked down to prevent users bypassing the controls later on.
As well as being quick and easy to set up, another advantage with Zscaler is the ability to protect mobile as well as office-bound users equipped with either notebooks or smartphones. To support this Zscaler has servers in over 40 datacentres across the world, insuring fast, low latency connectivity regardless of location. Users are connected to a local proxy by default, but even when we manually attached via proxies in the US or as far away as Hong Kong we saw no real drop in performance and remarkably little impact on latency.
Security profiles likewise are maintained and applied regardless of the proxy server being used. A simple yet comprehensive web-based console is provided for management and, when a change is made, it’s immediately implemented across the Zscaler network.
How it works The Zscaler proxies inspect all web traffic passing in or out of customer networks, applying a variety of user configured filters or profiles as it goes. A default set of profiles were configured as soon as we were signed up, providing a base level of security, and a useful online getting-started guide took us through tweaking the settings to suit our needs.
