Wipro Replaces Traditional Firewalls/VPNs with Zscaler

Zero trust advances IT goals and business strategies

Dedicated to empowering enterprises to outperform, Wipro ramped up its consulting services to help its clients take full advantage of the latest technology trends—from AI to blockchain to 3D printing. Wipro is focusing its business strategy on creating outcome-based business transformation models, modernizing IT through a cloud-first approach, implementing AI-connected intelligence, and achieving strong cybersecurity. 

To drive its strategy forward, Wipro launched three internal IT initiatives: create an enhanced digital user experience, enable a secure work-from-anywhere environment, and ensure IT alignment with overall business objectives. Legacy technologies such as VPNs and firewalls were creating barriers to agility and security, so the organization decided to upgrade its castle-and-moat IT security model to a modern zero trust architecture that did not require these tools.

“Wipro prides itself on its high-performance culture. To ensure the most efficient delivery of technology solutions for our clients, we needed a high-performance solution. The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange has all the right ingredients to help us better serve our customers and users: scalability, flexibility, a holistic approach to security, and an emphasis on maximizing the user experience,” said CIO Anup Purohit.

An incremental approach to building a zero trust architecture

Wipro initiated the rollout of the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange with the deployment of Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) to provide faster and more secure internet access for its remote users. The integrated Zero Trust Exchange platform acts as an intelligent switchboard to broker connections between users, devices, and applications. It keeps applications invisible to the internet and outside threats, reducing the attack surface, and prevents access to corporate networks, eliminating the risk of lateral threat movement. 

Zscaler’s direct-to-cloud architecture eliminated poor performance and bottlenecks caused by backhauling internet-bound traffic to Wipro’s data center for access and inspection. By utilizing ZIA, users obtained fast, direct internet and SaaS connectivity, along with consistent zero trust security for any user and any device, at any location. 

Then, when the COVID-19 pandemic required Wipro’s employees to work from home, IT found that existing VPN equipment was unable to scale up to meet user demand. Disconnections and latency issues plagued users every day when they attempted to access Wipro’s more than 430 private applications hosted in data centers and on public cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, and GCP). Equally concerning were the expanded attack surface and the risk of lateral threat movement associated with VPN. 

Wipro deployed Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) to displace VPN and further build out its zero trust architecture. Zscaler uses the principle of least privilege to provide fast, seamless, and secure access that connects users directly to private applications, regardless of location. And the Zscaler zero trust architecture keeps the network and applications invisible to the internet, minimizes the attack surface, and eliminates lateral movement and malware proliferation. 

The IT team soon recognized that increased use of the cloud required a different approach to data protection. Existing appliances were incapable of monitoring and protecting users and data off-network or on the web. To provide consistent, unified data protection, they deployed Zscaler Data Protection. Now, they are assured that sensitive data at rest and in motion is secure across all devices (including BYOD) and cloud applications. 

“Prior to Zscaler, our commitment to a seamless user experience was put to the test by lagging internet access due to backhauling and the persistent challenge of VPN disconnections. We were also faced with ineffective SSL inspection and insufficient data protection. These issues hampered IT efficiency, demanding a holistic and more secure solution,” explained Nitin Sharma, Global Head, Strategy and Planning. “Zscaler has bolstered the resilience of our digital environment, processing more than 100 billion transactions per quarter, while appreciably strengthening our defenses in multiple ways.”

Measurable improvements in security posture

As a technology consultant, it is critical to Wipro’s reputation to continuously monitor and enhance its security posture. Prior to implementing the Zero Trust Exchange, Wipro only had selective TLS/SSL inspection due to the inherent limitations of firewalls and other appliances. Implementing Zscaler strengthened Wipro’s defenses with inline TLS/SSL inspection of all internet and SaaS traffic to detect and block encrypted threats. Now, 80% of Wipro’s encrypted traffic is being scanned for security and data loss, with the ability to inspect 100% as needed. 

Additionally, Wipro lacked standardized security policy enforcement—its security posture varied widely depending on users’ locations. With Zscaler, security and access policy enforcement is tailored based on  risks associated with users, devices, applications, and content. 
Furthermore, Zscaler’s AI-powered advanced threat protection thwarts sophisticated cyberattacks and protects data in motion from internal and external threats. In a three-month period, Zscaler prevented 8.1 billion policy violations, blocked 15.7 million threats, including 8.2 million threats hidden in encrypted traffic.

“Using the MITRE ATT&CK framework as a basis for our analysis, we discovered that Zscaler closed critical security gaps across the cyber kill chain and improved our security posture by 85%,” observed Purohit.

Increased productivity means happier users and customers

Since deploying the Zero Trust Exchange, Wipro has seen a significant improvement in the user experience for its employees and partners, regardless of where they work. Access to the internet and private applications has never been faster. Users connect directly to the nearest Zscaler point of presence—one of more than 150 worldwide—taking the shortest path to the application or internet destination. There’s no longer any need to backhaul traffic to Wipro’s data centers. Zscaler also makes it easier for Wipro’s partners to securely access critical resources when collaborating on consulting projects.

“Our goal is to make our users happy, not just satisfied, and I’m pleased to say that we are accomplishing that. Zscaler has improved the productivity of our workforce by 30%,” remarked Sharma. “When our employees are empowered to do their jobs more efficiently and with minimal disruption, our customers benefit tremendously, too.”

Zero trust leads to quantifiable business outcomes

Since deploying the Zero Trust Exchange, Wipro has reaped significant economic rewards by reducing the cost and complexity of its infrastructure. The company dramatically decreased its capital expenditure for on-premises security appliances, cloud proxies, load balancers, servers, and VPNs. 

On the operational side, Zscaler has greatly simplified administration, reducing the need for dedicated full-time resources to manage security and perform manual networking tasks, such as adding routing paths for processing Microsoft 365 and other SaaS applications.
“Our partnership with Zscaler facilitated a simplification of our IT infrastructure, resulting in multimillion-dollar annual cost savings,” noted Purohit.

After experiencing the many benefits of the Zero Trust Exchange firsthand, Wipro forged a strategic alliance with Zscaler to help its clients move forward with their digital transformation goals. In collaboration with Zscaler, Wipro is now offering clients a comprehensive zero trust solution for cloud-first organizations, with secure access to SaaS, internet, and private applications as part of a seamless work-from-anywhere user experience. 

“We are excited about delivering a cost-effective zero trust solution that empowers users to work from anywhere while offering an enhanced yet simple alternative to traditional network security,” said Purohit.

Advancing social and environmental goals with zero trust

Sustainability is a core value at Wipro. Zscaler’s energy-efficient, multitenant cloud architecture supports the organization’s environment, social, and governance (ESG) compliance goals by reducing its hardware footprint (and the corresponding energy consumption) at the main data center and across its distributed locations.

“Because Zscaler is a cloud-based multitenant platform powered by 100% renewable energy, it is helping us lower our overall environmental impact,” pointed out Purohit. “Instead of setting up our network security on premises, with all the hardware that this entails, Zscaler has enabled us to quickly roll out a vastly simplified architecture, resulting in a scalable, resilient, and agile environment.”

Future plans for extending zero trust

Fully committed to zero trust, Wipro plans to expand Zscaler zero trust solutions across its organization.

To further leverage the power of Zscaler, Anup Purohit’s team has focused on integrations with the existing technology stack. They have already integrated Zscaler with Microsoft Azure to deliver enhanced security and fast, direct connectivity to private applications, Microsoft Active Directory for user authentication, and adaptive access control policies leveraging Endpoint‘s real-time security posture assessments for all devices. Down the line, IT plans to integrate Zscaler with other tools in its technology stack. 

Currently under consideration is Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) to keep users productive by rapidly detecting and resolving application, network, and device issues. ZDX would reduce mean time-to-resolution for network operations and help desk teams by ensuring a great user experience across all locations, devices, and applications with AI-powered root cause analysis. 

Wipro is also interested in exploring Zscaler Zero Trust Branch Connectivity to allow branches to communicate with any destination, independent of existing networks. The solution will also help curb shadow IoT by discovering and categorizing devices, getting visibility into their behavior, and improving access control. 

Finally, as Wipro continues to acquire technology companies to augment its portfolio of services, the combined tools will simplify and accelerate M&A integration. With the Zero Trust Exchange, users can securely connect to business critical applications from another company without the need to integrate networks of the two companies.
“In a rapidly changing digital landscape, we partnered closely with Zscaler to improve cybersecurity, simplify operations, and boost user productivity. Our collaboration has been transformative,” said Sharma. “With Zscaler, Wipro is not only digitally secure, but future-ready—and we’re looking forward to going even deeper with the Zero Trust Exchange.”