Zscaler hosted its annual Zenith Live earlier this month. AI was the main theme (as expected), and two new partnerships were also announced. In this article, I will delve into details shared by the management team and highlight my findings.
Nvidia is a driving force behind AI security innovations
Nvidia’s silicon and software stack is quickly becoming the de facto standard in the emerging field of generative AI. Infrastructure companies like Cisco, Dell, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise have been scrambling to direct development efforts in order to partner with Nvidia. (See, for instance, Patrick Moorhead, chief analyst and CEO of Moor Insights & Strategy, recent coverage by Dell Technologies World on the “AI factories”, a partnership between Nvidia and Dell.)
Zscaler has now been added to the growing list of partners following announcements made at Zenith Live. Before we get into the technical details, partnering with Nvidia makes sense from a business perspective.
Zscaler’s zero-trust framework is being enhanced with Nvidia AI technologies to improve threat detection and deliver new services and user experiences. These efforts have resulted in two new Zscaler copilot assistants for digital experience monitoring:
- Zscaler’s ZDX Copilot and Nvidia Morpheus are GPU-accelerated AI frameworks that allow developers to create new applications to filter, process, and classify large volumes of threat data. Zscaler has already analyzed trillions of datapoints, and this number will continue to increase over time. Zscaler is hoping to increase its capabilities by leveraging AI-driven automation and analysis with Nvidia. I think it’s an excellent codevelopment effort that could enhance Zscaler’s Security Cloud, the largest security cloud currently in operation.
- Zscaler’s ZDX Copilot and Nvidia NIM use the Nvidia AI Enterprise Software Stack to deliver a series of microservices which accelerate AI inferencing. This in turn helps optimize security and data privacy outcomes very efficiently. Zscaler’s DLP capabilities have been refined for over a century, and partnering up with Nvidia will strengthen them even further. NIM’s ability support a large range of language models and multimodal abilities is powerful. Zscaler can see immediate benefits as it could improve its data protection suite.
Does the Google Chrome Enterprise-ZscaIer partnership signal the end of VPN?
Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry lamented the demise of VPNs for years. His views on what’s next have now taken a quantum leap forward, given Zscaler and Google’s announcement at Zenith Live. VPNs have been plagued by problems, from poor performance to poor user experiences. They are also a target of bad actors. Many legacy applications still require VPNs. Many companies are turning to enterprise browsers as an alternative. These browsers use isolation techniques to eliminate risky Internet activity.
Google Chrome is one of the most popular browsers. Google has created an enterprise version powered by Zscaler’s private access, no trust capabilities. The integration is designed for Chrome Enterprise browser signals to improve security posture and fortify threat identification and harden access controls for private applications, both on-premises as well as in the cloud.
It’s worth mentioning that the new Zscaler integrations for Google Workspace were designed to prevent sensitive data loss from applications such as Gmail, Google Drive, and Google’s productivity suite Sheets, Slides, and Docs. A new integration with Google Security Operations will also help organizations to detect, investigate and hunt down threats.
It’s clear that this collaboration between Zscaler, Google and other companies is a strong one. It could help address the shortcomings of VPN solutions by providing a flexible, enterprise-grade browser which is highly secure. The additional Google Workspace enhancements and Security Operations are equally compelling.
Zscaler and Partnerships: Boosting the Impact of Zscaler
Chaudhry, during the Zenith Live keynote on the opening day, suggested that Zscaler could be paired up with identity management and enterprise endpoint security to create a consolidated and complete approach to securing an enterprise. This is a bold statement but it’s not a stretch given Zscaler’s consistent growth and financial performance over the past few quarters.
Consolidation in cybersecurity is a constant trend, given the explosion in point solutions and the challenges of managing security operations on a large scale. Nvidia, Google and other tech giants touch millions of endpoints. They also strengthen the infrastructure. The partnership announcements made at Zenith Live may have a major impact on Zscaler’s cybersecurity initiatives.