Crutchfield Corporation, a leading catalogue and Internet retailer of consumer electronics, faced a significant challenge in protecting its corporate assets from web-based threats. The company's legacy URL filtering solution was ineffective, often allowing threats to go undetected as it was not deployed in-line with traffic. It was unable to protect against zero-day exploits despite frequent maintenance updates. Furthermore, the solution was not trivial to protect multiple Internet gateways and the growing base of mobile users. The company needed a comprehensive security solution that could effectively protect its diverse employee base, including call center staff, distribution agents, and traditional knowledge workers.

Ulster-Greene ARC, a non-profit agency providing services to people with autism and other developmental and intellectual disabilities, faced significant challenges with their web security and data protection. They were backhauling web traffic from 35 locations to 3 central locations for URL filtering on traditional proxy servers. This process introduced latency and performance degradation. The URL filtering appliances they used could only define broad, static categories of filtering, but could not provide granular, dynamic control of web content. This led to the blocking of many websites, even legitimate ones, due to the fear of potential security threats. Furthermore, mobile users were left unprotected, creating difficulties in enforcing policies for these users. The organization also needed to ensure HIPAA compliance and prevent data loss, particularly of private medical information.

The YMCA of the USA (Y-USA), a leading nonprofit organization, was grappling with a significant challenge in managing its internet security. The organization's small IT team was spending an excessive 15 hours per week on remediating malware on employee systems, despite having anti-virus software and controls in place. The challenge was to balance the need for employees to use the Internet and Web 2.0 applications with the need to control corporate liability and security. Furthermore, Y-USA was unable to control Web 2.0 and could not trace the source of malware infections. The existing anti-virus approaches were failing to keep up with new threats, leading to a pressing need for a more effective solution.

La-Z-Boy Inc., a leading residential furniture producer, was facing significant challenges with its existing web security solution. The company's infrastructure, which includes five manufacturing facilities, five distribution facilities, six regional offices, one large supply center in Mexico, and 70 stores throughout the USA, was heavily reliant on a central proxy-based product used in tandem with a URL filtering product. This solution was causing high bandwidth costs and increased latency due to all traffic being backhauled to La-Z-Boy’s headquarters. Additionally, the company was dealing with a high administrative burden due to the large number of false positives resulting from the misclassification of web content by the URL filtering solution. This not only led to a frustrating user browsing experience but also increased the workload for the IT department.

Dillen Bouwteam, a Belgian construction company, faced a significant challenge in ensuring the security of their internet access, particularly for their remote workers. With 50% of their staff accessing the internet and the corporate network remotely, the company was exposed to advanced threats. As their business processes increasingly moved online, including technical documentation, construction plans, and supplier interactions, the need for a robust and secure internet environment became paramount. The company required a cloud-based solution that would not only provide advanced security but also align with their preference for outsourced IT processes. Their IT service provider, Aurelium, recommended Zscaler's Cloud-based Web Security Solution.

API Group, a leading manufacturer of specialized materials for packaging, was facing significant challenges with their legacy IT solutions. The company's IT department was backhauling Internet traffic from all international offices to two central gateways in the UK and US, where URL and anti-virus filtering was handled using a traditional on-premise Web proxy-based solution. This process was not only cumbersome but also wasted much-needed and expensive bandwidth of their newly purchased Multi Packet Label Switching (MPLS) network. Additionally, the company lacked a reporting facility, making it difficult to monitor and manage their security posture effectively.

Lawter, a global supplier of resins and additives, operates in over 20 countries with a highly distributed IT infrastructure. The company faced a challenge in improving its internet security with a highly integrated solution that could cover mobile and remote workers. The company also sought to improve the performance of its internet traffic and facilitate a planned Office 365 implementation. The existing network setup required all remote access to be tunneled to headquarters and scanned by a firewall, which increased network latency. To improve the performance of internet traffic, local breakouts were required on three different continents. However, Lawter did not want to implement and manage additional network hardware, making security appliances an unsuitable solution. The company also needed to consider staff mobility, remote access to the corporate network, improved web security, data loss prevention, and productivity in the social media age.

SANTALUCÍA, a leading insurance company, was facing a significant challenge in enhancing employee productivity through mobile support while maintaining robust security. The company was struggling with two main issues: the inability to secure user browsing from mobile phones and the inability to control data usage over cellular networks. The company had implemented a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution, but it did not provide control over traffic or data consumption. To promote secure mobility, the company tried implementing VPN connections from all mobile devices to the corporate network. However, this approach increased latency for users, required significant administration and end-user support, and generated an overwhelming increase in traffic that the existing infrastructure could not handle. Furthermore, it did not provide the granular control over user profiles, application types, and content categories that the company desired.

MedAmerica Billing Services, Inc. (MBSI), a long-standing physician practice management organization, was facing significant challenges with its existing LAN proxy appliance. The appliance required substantial in-house maintenance, consuming valuable IT resources. Furthermore, the appliance was a single point of failure, causing outages across the entire organization whenever it went down. The existing security vendor suggested installing a proxy at each of the three office locations, a solution that MBSI found financially unacceptable. The vendor's hybrid solution failed to meet MBSI's policy requirements and the quality of support deteriorated after the company was acquired. Additionally, the existing system did not provide security coverage for mobile users.

The company, a leading provider of industrial equipment, technologies, and services, was facing a significant challenge in standardizing web security across its global branches. The existing solution, McAfee SmartFilter, had been deployed in some locations but not in others due to performance issues. When McAfee announced the discontinuation of SmartFilter, the company saw an opportunity to implement a single global web security solution to protect its workforce and improve its overall security posture. The company needed a solution that could be quickly and easily deployed across multiple global locations to meet the end-of-life (EOL) deadline for the prior solution. The challenge was to find a solution that would ensure minimal latency for an optimal user experience.

Curalate, a digital commerce optimization platform, was facing challenges with its Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) instances housed on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The company was using OpenVPN, an open-source VPN product, to provide access to applications housed in the VPCs. However, this system had several drawbacks. Firstly, to access a specific application, the end user had to know which VPC hosted that application, requiring the user to have knowledge of the network. Secondly, OpenVPN had performance, usability, and redundancy challenges. Lastly, it lacked granular access based on policy, and policy management was difficult as each VPN instance needed to be updated every time an application access policy was changed. Despite having built its infrastructure on the latest cloud-based technology with AWS, Curalate's day-to-day operations were being impacted by the legacy 20-year-old VPN technology required to access that infrastructure.

Mondi, an international packaging and paper group, was facing challenges with its existing network infrastructure. The company was backhauling Internet traffic over MPLS to two centralized gateways, which was not only expensive but also impacted the user experience. As part of a decentralization strategy for all of its worldwide locations, Mondi sought a more scalable network infrastructure with increased security. The company also had a hardware-based proxy, software-based URL filter, and a large number of firewall clusters, all managed by a small IT team. It needed a solution that would considerably reduce the work required to provide secure Internet access for Mondi’s 10,000 PC workstations.

ECS European Containers, a Belgium-based intermodal logistics operator, was facing significant challenges with its on-premise server-based solution. The system was reaching its limits and was proving difficult to maintain. It lacked support for SSL inspection, which resulted in inadequate protection against viruses and other malware. Additionally, employees had unrestricted outbound access to the internet, posing potential security risks. The ICT environment, managed by 13 employees at the company's headquarters, was integrated into the entire service life cycle of ECS, supporting transport planning, warehouse management, and other paperless processes. The existing solution was not only failing to provide the necessary protection but was also proving to be difficult and expensive to manage and maintain.

The HARTMANN Group, a leading healthcare solutions provider, was facing a significant challenge in its digital transformation journey. The Group had introduced Microsoft Office 365 to reduce administrative outlay for its IT department. However, during the conversion process, it became apparent that the bandwidth capacity at some locations would cause performance bottlenecks in cloud access. Additionally, mobile employee access lacked adequate security. The Group needed to replace the security hardware at each location with a cloud-delivered platform to reduce the administrative outlay. The challenge was to find a solution that could provide faster, more secure Internet access at all locations, enhance network security, improve efficiency, and lower costs.

In 2014, the sharp decline in oil prices led to a significant reduction in IT spending at NOV, a global provider of equipment for the oil industry. The company's CIO and CISO, Alex Philips, was faced with the challenge of upgrading the company's outdated security appliances and maintaining its legacy MPLS network, both of which were financially untenable. The company had already begun its cloud migration by adopting Microsoft Office 365 and moving internally managed applications to AWS and Azure. However, the challenge was to establish local internet breakouts at its 635 locations in 66 countries, which was a complex and costly task. Additionally, the company needed to replace its risky and cumbersome VPN technology to ensure fast, secure access to internal applications.

The largest local government agency in the U.S., a California County government, was faced with the challenge of rapidly adopting a scalable zero trust network access solution to enable a smooth transition to a Work-From-Anywhere (WFA) model due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The County, with 110,000 employees and over 12 million citizens, had to secure data for a significant number of remote employees almost overnight. The County operates as 36 autonomous groups, each with its own IT staff and technology applications, except for services like cybersecurity. The challenge was to quickly secure access to thousands of applications, for which the cybersecurity team had no prior visibility.

Cenitex, a Victorian public-sector organization providing IT support and advice to various state government agencies, faced a significant challenge in its service delivery. The senior management team realized that their existing operating methods were no longer effective and couldn't meet the organization's changing requirements. They needed to increase their use of cloud-based resources to meet the demand for improved flexibility. The need to support Office 365, which caused network load performance issues as it came online for Cenitex’s customers, was a significant part of this challenge. The organization was also suffering from reliability issues within its ageing data centre infrastructure. Additionally, the centralised model Cenitex used to route data traffic from some 450 customer sites across Victoria was causing performance issues and meant there was a single point of failure that could cause service disruptions.

The Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC), an independent statutory body advising the Australian Government on financial assistance for states and territories, was facing a significant challenge with its aging access infrastructure. For several years, the CGC’s staff had relied on a secure internet gateway (SIG) service based on a 10Mbps network link. This SIG was the only link with the outside world, and congestion and performance had gradually become a significant issue. The move to the cloud was part of an 'anywhere, anytime, any device' strategy adopted by the organization to maintain business continuity and rapidly support staff wherever they may be located. There was also a plan to shift into new premises in about 18 months and a need to improve performance to access cloud-based solutions.

Cushman & Wakefield, a global real estate services firm, faced a significant challenge in providing a secure, responsive network that offered a uniform experience to its users, regardless of their location. The company's employees relied heavily on software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings like Workday, Salesforce, and Microsoft 365, both in offices and on the go. However, the traditional hub-and-spoke WAN architecture was not meeting the company's needs. This was particularly problematic as the company was focusing on its growth strategy through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Integrating new companies into the Cushman & Wakefield network meant bringing technology, software, networks, processes, and people on board as seamlessly and quickly as possible. The existing WAN architecture was not suited to handle this rapid onboarding.

HCR Manor Care Inc., a leading provider of medical and rehabilitation care, was facing significant challenges with its existing web security solution. The company's previous solution was a central proxy-based product used in conjunction with a URL filtering product that backhauled all traffic from users to headquarters. This setup resulted in high infrastructure costs due to the on-premise hardware and software, and a high administrative burden associated with maintaining the URL filtering list. Furthermore, the solution did not provide support for road warriors and mobile device users. The company was considering renewing or upgrading its current solution, but found both options to be cost prohibitive.

Heritage-Crystal Clean, an environmental services company, was faced with the challenge of securing 60 Internet gateways. The company had initially deployed a traditional URL filtering solution, which was centralized and handled requests from all 60 locations. This architecture created re-routing latency and lacked a comprehensive reporting solution. The technology offered little flexibility, forcing the IT department to either allow a website or block it entirely. It was incapable of protecting against newer threats, such as active content embedded in legitimate websites, unless it blocked those legitimate sites altogether. Furthermore, mobile users were left entirely unprotected, posing a significant security risk.

Brigade Group, a leading property developer in South India, was facing significant operational challenges due to their reliance on a hardware-based solution for their IT needs. The company had to frequently send IT staff to remote sites to repair systems infected with malware, which was both costly and time-consuming. With 15 sites spread across India, this was a significant drain on resources and productivity. The existing solution, a combination of Websense and Microsoft’s ISA, was proving unreliable and did not provide the necessary control over remote sites. Furthermore, some sites had no firewall protection at all, leaving them vulnerable to security threats. The company was in dire need of a solution that could provide reliable remote site coverage and meet the stringent reliability requirements of their business.

The LANCO Group, a diverse conglomerate with 16 operating companies spread across the U.S., Canada, and Central America, faced significant challenges with their legacy centralized URL filtering solution. This system required backhauling traffic from all locations to its headquarters for URL filtering, which introduced significant latency and dramatically increased bandwidth costs. The alternative of deploying and managing multiple point products at each location was not feasible due to the complexity and administrative overhead involved. The group was in need of a solution that could provide efficient and effective security without the latency and cost issues associated with their current system.

The County Clerk Office's Information and Technology Services (ITS) department was facing a significant challenge in improving web security, providing a seamless user experience, and reducing IT costs. The department had been using Blue Coat appliances for web security, which initially worked well. However, as the county began to offer more online services such as training and streaming, the Blue Coat devices could not handle the increased load. This resulted in frequent slowdowns and crashes, requiring frequent reboots to maintain functionality. The ITS team was inundated with calls from dissatisfied users, making their approach to web security both frustrating and inefficient.

Trade & Investment Queensland (TIQ), the Australian state government’s global business agency, faced significant challenges in managing its IT infrastructure due to its dispersed operations. With 23 offices and 180 staff spread across multiple countries and locations, maintaining strong, centralized control over IT security was a daunting task. The Global IT Manager, Anthony Kennedy, expressed the difficulty in providing comprehensive reporting to senior management due to the existing infrastructure. He sought a solution that could accurately depict the network's performance and the level of security threats the agency was facing.