I am very excited to share that this week Gartner released its 2018 Secure Web Gateways Magic Quadrant (MQ) report, and Zscaler was named a Leader for the eighth consecutive year. This report, which measures companies on their “ability to execute” as well as their “completeness of vision,” also positioned Zscaler as furthest for completeness of vision.
Leadership and vision are two attributes that have driven Zscaler from the beginning. They drove us to design and build our architecture 100% in the cloud, and they’ve continued to drive us to add new and groundbreaking services that enable customers to transform to the cloud securely. We’re proud of our position in the 2018 report and grateful to our customers who share our vision and have helped make Zscaler a recognized leader and innovator in cloud-delivered security.
This year’s report emphasized the growth of the market for cloud-based secure web gateway (SWG) services and the rate at which it is outpacing the market for appliance-based security. As applications move to the cloud and there’s an increased need to protect mobile users off the corporate network, the approach to the enterprise security architecture mandates a change; therefore, enterprises are adopting cloud-based SWG services in increasing numbers. This is a trend that Zscaler customers have led for years, cloud-enabling their networks and connecting their users to applications, seamlessly and securely.
Recently, I had the pleasure of joining Peter Firstbrook during his keynote at the Gartner ITxpo in Orlando. He used an interesting metaphor to illustrate the difference between a hybrid security solution and one built from the ground up for the cloud. He described a hybrid vs. a pure-electric car. While the hybrid, with its supplementary batteries, gets great gas mileage, it remains a gas car. The pure-electric car is an entirely different vehicle, reimagined for the modern world. Correspondingly, while hybrid security adds a cloud feature for mobile users, you are still at the end of the day relying on the limitations of an appliance-based security architecture. By reimagining security and building it in the cloud from the beginning, Zscaler is enabling new capabilities and greater opportunities for customers to transform their organizations at scale.
The move to the cloud requires a move to cloud security
Enterprises are shifting their budgets from legacy appliances to cloud services. According to Gartner, “The five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for SWG cloud services is 32%, and the five-year CAGR for SWG appliances is 5%.” With an increasing percentage of enterprise traffic now bound for the internet, we believe that appliances designed to secure the network are no longer effective. Zscaler customers have embraced this belief, making Zscaler one of the fastest-growing vendors with the largest installed base of customers of any of the cloud-based SWG providers.
In addition to a growing customer base, we have expanded Zscaler cloud services and scale. Like cloud applications, known for enabling new capabilities, cloud security makes possible more comprehensive protections, better visibility, and a faster user experience—even as it reduces complexity across the network. Some Zscaler innovations include:
- The inspection of all traffic, including SSL/TLS traffic, regardless of site reputation
- Cloud DLP with Exact Data Match capability that supports up to a billion cells per customer
- Zscaler Private Access, which provides secure, user-based access to applications inside customers’ data centers or hosted in Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud—without a VPN
Four years ago, the SWG Magic Quadrant had five companies in the Leaders quadrant. Of the two remaining, only Zscaler offers a 100% cloud platform purpose-built for security, with a scalable, global architecture that’s always up to date. And Zscaler is the only leader that eliminates the cost and complexity of owning and managing security appliances, so you can focus on moving to the cloud, securely.
We invite you to download a copy of the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant Report for Secure Web Gateways with our compliments.
