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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.

Agilent, a global leader in life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemistry, was facing a significant challenge with its network growth and the need to enhance flexibility and user productivity through cloud applications and services. Initially, 90 of Agilent’s 120 locations relied on Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) for wide-area network (WAN) connectivity. However, over 60 percent of its traffic was destined for the Internet, and the MPLS system was causing performance issues, cumbersome management, and high costs. Agilent was forced to bypass standard methods and develop custom solutions for its larger offices to keep up with the increasing demand for bandwidth. This practice was not only expensive but also gave Agilent’s network administration team little or no visibility into Internet traffic. The company needed a more cost-effective way to secure Internet-bound traffic consistently across all its global locations.

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.

Barry Callebaut, a leading global supplier of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, faced a significant challenge in integrating 12 international locations with 1600 employees into the company network and providing secure Internet access within a six-month timeframe. This was due to a major acquisition of the cocoa production business of Delfi Cocoa in 2013. The company, with over 85 connected sites worldwide, was also dealing with growing concerns about malware threats and cyber risks at the management level. These concerns were compounded by employee complaints about bandwidth congestion for corporate applications. This situation prompted the company to seek new tools that would enable the IT organization to gain insight into bandwidth consumption and control the usage of non-business-related applications in the social media age. The company needed guaranteed bandwidth for corporate applications and the ability to block unwanted traffic causing congestion.

GHD, a leading professional services company, was grappling with the challenge of providing secure, reliable, and scalable internet access to its employees across various locations. The company's complex ICT environment, coupled with an increasing reliance on internet services, posed significant challenges for GHD’s Information Security team. The team was tasked with ensuring secure internet access for every data center, office, and employee, regardless of their geographical location. The task was further complicated by the need to maintain and deploy firewall appliances in several offices or project sites.

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.

Salmat, a leading Australian marketing services company, was grappling with a complex and outdated IT infrastructure. The company had grown organically and through acquisitions, resulting in a mixed bag of systems with no real standards, unsustainable customizations, and complicated integrations. The IT team was spending most of its time on maintenance tasks such as patching web proxies and updating security software, rather than focusing on delivering client solutions. The company was also struggling with product renewals and version upgrades. The outdated enterprise resource planning (ERP) system was a particular challenge. After implementing a cloud-based ERP solution, Workday, the company saw the value of the cloud and decided to embark on a full-scale cloud conversion initiative. However, they faced a security dilemma as they were unable to implement single sign-on for Workday with the existing on-premises solution.

Umicore, a global materials technology and recycling group, faced a significant challenge in maintaining simplicity, productivity, and reliability in its IT systems across a highly distributed environment. With over 100 sites worldwide and a workforce that needed to operate both on-site and remotely, the company's IT infrastructure was under strain. The increasing use of cloud applications led to a rapid growth in the need for Internet access. However, security controls were only present in the larger manufacturing plants. The IT team was faced with two options: backhauling the Internet traffic through the company’s private MPLS with an Internet breakout in regional data centers or deploying a cloud-based Web security solution with local Internet breakouts. The first option was ruled out due to cost and latency issues. The second challenge was to remove complexity while ensuring superior support services.

AutoNation, America’s largest auto retailer, faced significant challenges in securing Internet-connected computer systems and IoT devices across its 360 locations. The company needed centralized controls for managing Internet security policies, monitoring and responding to threats, and ensuring reliable Internet access for employees. The challenge was to apply consistent and robust security across all retail and corporate locations. Each location’s network includes an Internet point of presence and a direct connection to AutoNation’s data center. The company also had to accommodate the slightly different connectivity requirements of the more than 30 car manufacturers it supports, especially concerning Internet-connected vehicle diagnostic systems. Routing all Internet traffic through the company’s data center was too inefficient and costly, and deploying Unified Threat Management (UTM) devices to each store was also unfavorable due to the increased cost of hardware, implementation, and maintenance.

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.

Aster Group UK, a not-for-profit organization that owns and manages over 30,000 homes, faced a significant challenge when their workforce began to shift towards remote work. Their existing remote access solution, Citrix Netscaler, was unable to keep up with the demands of an increasingly mobile workforce. The company needed a future-proof solution that would allow their employees and partners to work remotely without adding complexity for IT administrators. Additionally, Aster Group was in the process of consolidating servers to free up resources, which required a simple solution that could reduce complexity while still allowing users to connect securely to mission-critical applications.

UST Global, a leading digital technology organization, was facing challenges with its on-premises web security appliances. As the company expanded, it needed a centralized management system for its web security, a reduction in security appliance expenditure, and a more secure and consistent internet experience for users across its multiple worldwide locations. The existing approach was time-consuming and costly, with the IT team spending a significant amount of time setting up, upgrading, and managing appliances to maintain high availability. Frequent unplanned downtime resulted in performance issues that impacted employee productivity. Additionally, the company was burdened with steep hardware licensing and maintenance costs. The lack of consistency in the way branch offices handled security posed a significant challenge. Deploying security policies consistently across multiple devices was becoming increasingly difficult and expensive. The company also needed a better web security solution for its remote workforce of about 7,000 employees.

Sanmina, a Fortune 500 global manufacturing and logistics company, embarked on its digital transformation early, adopting cloud applications and services like Google G Suite. The company has been actively migrating applications to the cloud and leveraging its advantages. However, the company’s migration to the cloud raised the bar for security. Prior to the Zscaler deployment, endpoint security and local firewalls on employee laptops provided a certain level of protection. However, when Sanmina’s more than 6,000 mobile employees were outside of the network and connected directly to cloud apps, they bypassed the security perimeter, increasing their exposure to internet threats. The company needed a solution that could provide comprehensive protection from web threats and enhance usability.

MAN Energy Solutions, a leading provider of largebore diesel engines and turbomachinery, was facing challenges due to rapid technological changes, particularly in the field of IoT. With engines and systems of all sizes deployed globally, many of which were in motion, the company was struggling to keep up with the pace of change. Additionally, the company's large and distributed global workforce was increasingly mobile, requiring mobile access to web apps and custom business applications. The traditional approaches to network and app security were proving inadequate for the modern cloud deployments that enabled global scale and access. The company was seeking a solution that would make these applications dark to the internet, with authenticated access only between trusted users and trusted applications. The improved speed and agility gained in cloud deployment was being offset by a poor user experience associated with accessing apps through legacy corporate VPN solutions, with increasing appliance, software, and MPLS networking costs. Furthermore, there was a desire to gain security advantages associated with making the apps invisible on the internet.

Genpact, a global professional services firm, made a strategic decision to streamline its IT infrastructure and fully embrace a multi-cloud strategy. This involved moving the entire application stack to the cloud, including Office 365, Salesforce, SAP Concur, ERP, and other software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms. The organization was also consolidating data centers, aiming to reduce the number to single digits. However, the transition was not without challenges. Certain products like Microsoft Active Directory were not cloud-ready, nor were some of Genpact’s partners. Additionally, the transformation demanded a cultural shift within the organization. Genpact’s internal teams were initially hesitant, citing potential loss of control and visibility. They were concerned about securing 75+ different locations across 25 countries, with anywhere from 500 to 5,000 users per office. Another significant issue was managing increased network complexity due to rapid growth and launching new locations.

Carlsberg, a global brewer headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, was facing a significant challenge in modernizing its IT infrastructure. The company had been operating a traditional centralized network that was not set up to accommodate the needs of today’s businesses and users. The network consisted of a hub-and-spoke architecture, MPLS with central internet breakouts, and centralized security controls. This resulted in a poor user experience, slow connectivity, and lack of visibility into threats and traffic sources. To support its strategic initiative 'Sail ’22', Carlsberg needed to undertake a complete system overhaul, including modernizing the IT infrastructure, embracing Office 365 and moving legacy applications to the cloud, taking control of operational costs, and strengthening security.

In 2015, Nuffield Health, a UK-based healthcare organization, was preparing to undertake several projects aimed at improving productivity, efficiency, and patient services, while enhancing user experience across its corporate office, hospitals, and gyms. These projects included a migration to Microsoft Office 365 and the introduction of TrakCare, a new electronic health record application. However, the success of these projects was heavily dependent on the performance of Nuffield Health's network, which needed to secure sensitive patient and personal data flowing in and out of its facilities. At the time, Nuffield Health had only one MPLS network link running at 30 MB at each of its sites, which was insufficient for the upcoming projects and the required resiliency. Furthermore, 60% of its traffic was already destined for the internet rather than its data centers, a percentage that would increase significantly once Office 365 was deployed. The team realized that it needed more bandwidth and more resiliency in its network, and it needed to consider the cost and latency resulting from backhauling all that traffic through the data center. It also had to determine the best way to secure all that internet-bound traffic.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was facing significant challenges with its legacy network infrastructure. The agency, which is responsible for conducting independent accident investigations, advocating safety improvements, and deciding pilots’ and mariners’ certification appeals, has a highly mobile workforce that conducts investigations throughout the U.S. in varied environments. However, the requirement to route all traffic through a legacy Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) was not designed to handle an increasingly mobile workforce. This resulted in latency and connection issues, creating a poor user experience and negatively impacting NTSB’s mission. Additionally, the traditional model of routing remote connections through a VPN client, to the agency data center, through a stack of on-premise security devices, and back out through the TIC, where it traversed another stack of security appliances to its destination, was frustrating for remote users and complicated security.

Siemens, a global leader in energy-efficient, resource-saving technologies, was facing a challenge with its traditional hub-and-spoke network architecture. As more and more traffic was being directed to the internet rather than the corporate network, the company realized the need to rethink its network architecture. The goal was to fully leverage cloud applications like Microsoft Office 365 and platforms like Azure and AWS. With a massive user base of over 350,000 users and more than 30,000 contractors spread across 2,200 offices in 192 countries, Siemens required a solution that was not only scalable and elastic but could also adapt to constantly changing requirements.

General Electric (GE), a global powerhouse that generates a third of the world's energy, manages 90 percent of the electrical grids with its software, and powers two-thirds of all commercial aircraft with its engines, was facing a significant challenge. With 425,000 active users across 4,000 locations in more than 180 countries, GE processes approximately 3.5 billion transactions daily. However, the company's network had become increasingly complex and costly to maintain. Usage demands were mounting, data and applications were moving to the cloud, and the company was struggling to keep pace with 50,000 cybersecurity attacks every day. The need for a more efficient, secure, and cost-effective network solution was evident.

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 Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARMA) was established in 1994 to support the development of agriculture and rural areas in Poland. As an accredited paying agency, ARMA processes applications, verifications, and other forms, as well as paying refunds for more than 2 million farmers and others in the agricultural industry throughout Poland. ARMA was faced with the challenge of enabling its growing mobile and remote workforce to work securely and efficiently. The solution needed to provide a secure and stable connection to their applications when working away from the office. The challenge was further intensified by the global pandemic, which necessitated a quick shift to remote work for all employees.

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.

Ciena, a global networking systems, services, and software company, faced a dual challenge. The CEO, Gary B. Smith, tasked the IT team with increasing employee engagement levels, particularly during daily meetings. The team identified video conferencing as a potential solution, following positive feedback from peers who had seen a significant rise in engagement when video was used for internal meetings. However, implementing video conferencing across Ciena's 70+ global locations, coupled with the growing volume of traffic accessing cloud-based applications, posed a significant challenge. The company's existing hub-and-spoke topology was not equipped to handle this increased demand, leading to concerns about network strain and potential security issues.

The City of Boston, like many cities across the country, was working to reduce its data center footprint and shift its infrastructure, applications, and data to the cloud. The goal was to provide responsive, modern citizen services. However, as the city relied more on web-based applications and infrastructure, new challenges arose. The existing internet security solution was inefficient and unreliable. It was increasingly important to ensure employees could safely access web-based applications and data. The city needed a secure, scalable, cost-effective cloud access for its 5,500 users to improve workflow efficiency and reduce user frustration. The city was also looking to shift to a cloud security platform and adopt a zero trust approach.

Coca-Cola Consolidated, the largest bottler of Coca-Cola products in the United States, faced a significant challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company, which serves over 66 million consumers and operates in more than 110 locations across 14 states, had to ensure the safety of its over 17,000 employees by encouraging them to work from home. This shift presented a communications challenge for the company, which heavily relies on Microsoft Teams and other latency-sensitive applications for internal communications. Traditional VPN connections often reported latency, which could affect Office 365 productivity. The IT team had to remove as many variables as possible to provide remote workers with a safe and predictable user experience, one that is comparable to or better than at the office—especially for Office 365 because the Company is so heavily dependent on this suite.

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.