Zscaler > Case Studies > HCR Manor Care Inc. Streamlines Web Security with Zscaler Cloud Solution

HCR Manor Care Inc. Streamlines Web Security with Zscaler Cloud Solution

Technology Category

Cybersecurity & Privacy - Application Security
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Device Management Platforms

Applicable Industries

National Security & Defense
Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Maintenance

Use Cases

Traffic Monitoring
Transportation Simulation

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
Cybersecurity Services

About The Customer

HCR Manor Care Inc., founded in 1959, is a leading provider of short and long term medical and rehabilitation care. The company employs 60,000 people across over 500 locations, with 14,000 Internet users accessing a wide range of web applications. HCR’s business consists mainly of skilled nursing, rehabilitation services, and home care and hospice agencies. The company was facing high infrastructure and administrative costs due to its existing web security solution, and was in need of a more cost-effective and efficient solution.

The Challenge

HCR Manor Care Inc., a leading provider of medical and rehabilitation care, was facing significant challenges with its existing web security solution. The company's previous solution was a central proxy-based product used in conjunction with a URL filtering product that backhauled all traffic from users to headquarters. This setup resulted in high infrastructure costs due to the on-premise hardware and software, and a high administrative burden associated with maintaining the URL filtering list. Furthermore, the solution did not provide support for road warriors and mobile device users. The company was considering renewing or upgrading its current solution, but found both options to be cost prohibitive.

The Solution

HCR Manor Care Inc. decided to switch to a cloud-based web security solution provided by Zscaler, an industry-leading managed service provider. The Zscaler solution eliminated the costs associated with maintaining a large URL filtering list and installing and maintaining an appliance-based solution. It also provided transparency across all organizational web traffic, which was a significant improvement over the unconsolidated and uncorrelated logs produced by the previous solution. The Zscaler solution offered uniform protection for all users, including road warriors and mobile device users, and did not require any hardware, software, or client installation. All traffic was forwarded to Zscaler’s cloud via a GRE tunnel, with the upkeep responsibility lying with the provider.

Operational Impact

The implementation of the Zscaler solution resulted in significant operational improvements for HCR Manor Care Inc. The company was able to easily define and maintain unique policies for every office, thanks to the intuitive, granular, and flexible policies provided by the Zscaler solution. The solution also offered protection against newer threats such as botnets, phishing, and cross-site scripting, which may not be detected by URL filtering lists or signatures. This was achieved by scanning every single transaction in real-time and applying heuristics to determine risk. Furthermore, user data was not stored by the Zscaler solution, eliminating any data security or privacy concerns.

Quantitative Benefit

HCR saved approximately $150K in terms of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by switching to Zscaler’s solution.
The company experienced a 40% increase in effectiveness of blocking malicious sites compared to the legacy solution.
The Zscaler solution provided 99.99% availability and data protection guarantees.