Zscaler > Case Studies > Delivering Zero Trust Access for Aster Group UK with Zscaler Private Access

Delivering Zero Trust Access for Aster Group UK with Zscaler Private Access

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Event-Driven Application
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Middleware, SDKs & Libraries

Applicable Industries

National Security & Defense
Telecommunications

Use Cases

Personnel Tracking & Monitoring
Tamper Detection

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

About The Customer

Aster Group UK is a not-for-profit, ethically-driven organization based in the UK. Their vision is to ensure that everyone has a home, and they currently own and manage over 30,000 homes, with a value of £1.6 billion. The company provides safety and security to their customers through their services. As their workforce began to shift towards remote work, they needed a solution that would allow their employees and partners to work remotely without adding complexity for IT administrators.

The Challenge

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.

The Solution

Aster Group discovered Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) at an industry event and decided to implement it after a successful Proof of Concept. ZPA is a cloud-based solution that allows authorized users to securely connect to internal applications from any device and from anywhere. Unlike other solutions, ZPA establishes 'inside-out' connections from the application to the user, without exposing the application's IP address. This approach reduces vulnerability to DDoS attacks and eliminates the need for IT to set up ACLs, firewall policies, and security groups. ZPA is a completely software and cloud-hosted service, which made it easy for Aster Group to deploy without having to implement additional infrastructure. The company was able to deploy ZPA three times faster than planned and roll it out to four times more users than originally planned within the first month.

Operational Impact

The implementation of ZPA has resulted in a number of operational benefits for Aster Group. The company has been able to provide secure remote access for 70% of its users, improving the user experience and boosting productivity. The cloud-based nature of ZPA has also simplified the process of datacenter consolidation, minimizing potential downtime or loss in productivity. Furthermore, ZPA's infrastructure-agnostic nature means that user traffic can be routed directly to the application’s new location within minutes, easing the process of application migration to the cloud. Finally, ZPA has become an integral part of Aster Group's disaster recovery and business continuity strategy, enabling swift recovery and crucial connectivity.

Quantitative Benefit

ZPA was deployed three times faster than planned
ZPA was rolled out to four times more users than originally planned within the first month
70% of the company’s workforce now use ZPA to securely connect to internal applications