01
Discovery & proof of concept
Application and traffic inventory, identity source review, and a scoped PoC with a pilot department to validate policy model, inspection depth and user experience before any broad rollout.
Program deep dive
Zero Trust & SASEProgram overview
A phased enterprise transformation from castle-and-moat network access to identity-aware, policy-driven Zero Trust delivered through a cloud security edge.
Zscaler ZIAZscaler ZPAZscaler ZDXZscaler Authentication BridgePalo Alto Prisma AccessNetskopeSD-WAN local breakoutActive Directory / SCIMMicro-segmentationSIEM dashboards
What the program does
The program replaces implicit network trust with per-session, identity-and-posture-based authorization. Users, contractors and OT operators reach only the specific applications their role entitles them to — never the flat network behind them.
Internet and SaaS traffic is inspected at the nearest cloud edge (Zscaler ZIA / Prisma Access) with full TLS inspection, DLP, CASB and sandboxing applied inline. Private application access moves to ZPA App Connectors deployed across on-prem data centers, AWS and Azure, sized to application throughput.
Branch traffic is offloaded locally over SD-WAN instead of being backhauled across MPLS to central data centers, and digital experience monitoring (ZDX) gives support teams hop-by-hop visibility so user complaints are diagnosed with data rather than guesswork.
02
Identity & policy foundation
IdP and Active Directory integration, Zscaler Authentication Bridge for on-prem identity, SCIM/AD group sync, and a least-privilege policy framework mapped to business roles rather than subnets.
03
Internet access & inspection
ZIA rollout with holistic SSL inspection, URL and cloud app control, advanced threat prevention, sandboxing, and DLP for data in motion — tuned to avoid breaking business-critical apps.
04
Private access & segmentation
ZPA App Connector deployment across DC, AWS and Azure, application segment definition, then VPN decommissioning department by department with micro-segmentation for sensitive and OT zones.
05
Local breakout & experience
SD-WAN local internet offload per branch, GRE/IPSec tunnel design to the nearest edge, and ZDX baselines so latency regressions surface before users report them.
06
Operate & optimize
SIEM dashboards over proxy and access logs, policy hygiene reviews, exception burn-down, and RCA reporting on every access or performance incident.
Value delivered to the enterprise
Why the business funds it
Attack surface removed, not just guarded
Private applications stop being reachable from the internet at all — no inbound listeners, no exposed VPN concentrators. Lateral movement after a credential compromise is contained to a single application segment.
Lower WAN and appliance cost
Local internet breakout retires MPLS backhaul for internet-bound traffic and shrinks the perimeter appliance estate that had to be refreshed, licensed and patched at every site.
Faster, quieter user experience
Traffic reaches the nearest cloud edge instead of a distant data center, and ZDX turns 'the app is slow' tickets into a specific hop, ISP or device metric.
Third parties and M&A onboarded in days
Contractors and acquired entities get application-level access through the broker without network extension, IP overlap remediation or new site-to-site tunnels.
Audit evidence by default
Every session is logged with user, device posture, application and action — the access-control and data-movement evidence HIPAA, PCI-DSS, ISO 27001 and GDPR reviewers ask for.
OT protected without production risk
IEC 62443 and NIST CSF-aligned segmentation and read-only inspection paths raise OT security posture without inserting inline failure points into control networks.
Success metrics
How success is measured
- 100%
- Inspected internet egress
- Advanced security engines of ZIA such as Cloud App Control, Sandbox, File Type Control and DLP get applied to all internet-bound network traffic.
- -70%
- MPLS backhaul for internet traffic
- Achieved by offloading branch internet directly to the nearest cloud security edge over SD-WAN.
- Zero
- Internet-exposed private apps
- Inbound-listener count for ZPA-brokered applications after legacy VPN decommissioning.
- <5 days
- Third-party access onboarding
- From access request to scoped, identity-aware application entitlement — no network extension needed.
- 6 phases
- Departmental rollout cadence
- Each wave gated on PoC success criteria, helpdesk ticket volume and ZDX experience scores.
- 3 clouds
- Connector coverage
- ZPA App Connectors sized and deployed across on-prem data centers, Azure, AWS and GCP.