Zscaler Private Access (ZPA/ZPRA) Competitors Comparison

Conclusion

In evaluating secure user access solutions for OT/CI, it’s important that the solution be flexible enough to address the operational needs and constraints of the environment into which it will be deployed, supports a zero-trust authentication and authorization model, and brings a high degree of security to the OT environment into which it needs to connect.

Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) content includes claims that the product provides “fast, direct, secure access to industrial systems and devices.” That it provides “frictionless” access, and that it supports the needs of OT. What it doesn’t state is that the implementation of the product could take weeks, if not months. That the “frictionless” access is both conditional (i.e., non-managed devices only) and feature limited (i.e., it doesn’t support the file transfers required for contractors or vendors to patch/update systems) and that the operators of most OT environments do not want to be tied to a cloud and require core functionality such as system monitoring and recording – something that Zscaler can’t do.

In contrast, the XONA Critical System Gateway (CSG) enables frictionless employee, contractor, and/or vendor access that’s purpose-built for operational technology (OT) and critical infrastructure (CI).

The CSG is the definition of simplicity and can be deployed in less than an hour. It’s approach to data stream protection and protocol isolation mitigates the risk of connecting to a protected OT network, and eliminates common attack vectors, while reducing the overall attack surface. It also enables compliance with OT-specific regulations such as ISA99/IEC 62443, NERC-CIP, NIST SP 800-207, NIST 800-53, and TSA SD02C.

XONA CSG is your secure portal into the cyber-physical world that enables critical operations to happen from anywhere with total confidence and trust.

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