Zscaler has announced the launch of an industry-first single-vendor Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution. The product has been created using Zscaler Zero Trust AI and is designed to assist organisations in reducing cost and complexity while implementing Zero Trust security across users, devices, and workloads.

The company also announced the general availability of its Zero Trust Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) solution, along with a range of plug-and-play appliances. These innovations aim to modernise secure connectivity for branch offices, factories, and data centres and to erase the necessity for ineffective firewalls and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).

The fresh Zscaler solutions are based on a Zero Trust architecture, whereby business policies dictate user and device access. The legacy network and firewall architectures can often introduce risk and complexity, enabling lateral threat movement that can be exploited by ransomware attacks. Hence, Zero Trust SD-WAN offers secure inbound and outbound connectivity while mitigating business risk and network complexity.

Naresh Kumar, Vice President of Product Management at Zscaler, explained: "Users and organisations want a café-like branch experience to empower hybrid work. Employees expect the same seamless and secure access they would have in an office setting, whether they are at home or on the go, without having to access their applications over a slow, cumbersome VPN. Zscaler Zero Trust SD-WAN will connect and secure users, devices, sites, and workloads using our single-vendor SASE platform, without the cyber risks of traditional SD-WAN".

Zscaler's Zero Trust SD-WAN approach requires no overlay routing complexity, no additional firewalls, and no separate policies for sites and users. Moreover, it secures inbound and outbound Zero Trust connectivity in a single device.

Mike Gemza, CTO of Cornerstone Brands, reflected on the benefits of this new approach: "By adopting Zero Trust SASE, we've successfully implemented a comprehensive Zero Trust security framework that spans across our branches, data centres, and the cloud. The implementation of Zero Trust SD-WAN has empowered us to protect our business against increasing cybersecurity threats by reducing attack surface, preventing lateral threat movement, and enhancing application performance with a non-routable WAN".

Christopher Rodriguez, Research Director, Security & Trust at IDC, acknowledged the importance of Zscaler's latest venture: "We continue to see strong interest and significant adoption of SASE among enterprises, along with a move to simplify, consolidate, and reduce costs. With a strong emphasis on its Zero Trust heritage, Zscaler has made a bold move to introduce a solution that combines its popular SSE platform with a new Zero Trust SD-WAN offering that can help these enterprises on their SASE journey".

Zscaler's Single Vendor SASE utilises Zero Trust AI cyberthreat and data protection capabilities, including integrated Firewall as a Service (FWaaS), Secure Web Gateway (SWG), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) services. It also offers a cloud-based management console with integrated policy management capabilities across users, locations, and clouds.