The AI Security Platform Built on Zero Trust
Grade: B — Score: 70/100
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange leverages a robust Zero Trust framework to ensure that security is maintained at every level of the enterprise. By utilizing the world's largest inline security cloud, Zscaler protects users and workloads from cyber threats while enabling secure access to applications and data.
The platform streamlines workflows by eliminating the need for traditional network security appliances, such as firewalls and VPNs. Instead, it offers secure internet access, private application access, and data security in a unified solution, allowing organizations to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives.
With Zscaler, businesses can mitigate risks associated with data breaches and cyberattacks, ensuring compliance with industry regulations. The platform's advanced threat protection capabilities and continuous monitoring help organizations maintain a proactive security posture in an evolving threat landscape.
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Consider switching to Palo Alto Networks: Palo Alto Networks offers similar cloud security solutions with a focus on integrated threat intelligence.
The Zero Trust Exchange acts as an inline proxy that brokers direct, one-to-one connections between users and specific applications without placing users on the corporate network. This eliminates the lateral movement risk inherent in VPNs, where a compromised device can access the entire network. Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) replaces VPN gateways by making internal applications invisible to the internet, while Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) replaces on-premises secure web gateways with cloud-delivered threat inspection. T-Mobile completed a full VPN retirement using the platform in three months, and the State of Oklahoma reported private application access up to six times faster than its previous VPN.
All three are Leaders in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Security Service Edge. Zscaler and Netskope both use a proxy-based architecture that terminates and inspects connections, while Palo Alto Prisma SASE extends its firewall engine (App-ID, WildFire sandbox) to the cloud. Netskope differentiates on CASB depth with instance-level awareness for thousands of SaaS apps and granular activity controls. Zscaler operates the largest inline security cloud (500+ billion daily transactions across 160+ data centers), and its ZPA is considered the most widely deployed ZTNA solution. Prisma SASE is often preferred by organizations already running Palo Alto firewalls on-premises, since policies and management carry over.
Zscaler maintains over 25 certifications and attestations. Core certifications include SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, ISO 27701, HIPAA, HITRUST CSF, PCI DSS, and GDPR compliance. For government use, ZIA and ZPA hold FedRAMP High and Moderate Authority to Operate, ZPA has achieved DoD Impact Level 5 (IL5) authorization, and the platform is FIPS 140-2 validated. Additional regional certifications include C5 (Germany), IRAP PROTECTED (Australia), Cyber Essentials Plus (UK), ISMAP (Japan), and TISAX (automotive).
Yes. The platform includes IoT/OT Segmentation for agentless device isolation using dynamic micro-subnets and MAC-based authentication, with packages sized from 200 to 5,000 endpoints. Privileged Remote Access provides secure RDP, VNC, and SSH connections to industrial systems for third-party technicians, with credential vaulting, session recording, and just-in-time access controls. The Zero Trust SD-WAN product connects branch locations and factories without requiring traditional site-to-site VPNs, with throughput tiers from 200 Mbps to 10 Gbps.
Zscaler offers four dedicated AI Security modules. AI Asset Management discovers an organization's full AI footprint, including shadow AI tools employees use without IT approval. AI Access Security enforces policies on which public GenAI applications users can interact with and what data they can share. AI Red Teaming continuously probes enterprise AI systems for prompt injection and other vulnerabilities. AI Guardrails enforce runtime protection for privately hosted AI models and agents. The 2026 ThreatLabz AI Security Report found that rapid AI adoption is creating critical data exposure and supply chain risks across enterprises.
Zscaler operates 160+ data centers globally, forming the largest inline security cloud in the industry. The platform processes over 500 billion transactions daily, which is more than 50 times the volume of daily Google searches. Data centers are distributed across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Customers' traffic is routed to the nearest data center automatically, and the Zscaler Client Connector agent supports Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, and ChromeOS.
Full TLS/SSL inspection is a core architectural capability of the platform, not an add-on. Because the Zero Trust Exchange operates as a proxy that terminates every connection before forwarding it, all traffic (including encrypted traffic) can be decrypted, inspected for threats and data loss, and re-encrypted. This is performed inline in real time without the throughput bottlenecks that hardware appliances face when enabling SSL decryption. Zscaler reports blocking over 9 billion security incidents and policy violations per day through this inspection pipeline.
The platform has native integrations with over 150 technology partners. For identity, it supports Okta, Microsoft Entra (Azure AD), Ping Identity, and other SAML/OIDC-compliant identity providers to verify user identity and enforce conditional access policies. For endpoint security, it integrates with CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, and Microsoft Defender to incorporate device posture into access decisions. Log data can be streamed to SIEMs like Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, and IBM QRadar via the Nanolog Streaming Service (Cloud NSS). Cloud integrations cover AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud for workload protection.