Zscaler > Case Studies > Zscaler™ Facilitates Agilent’s Transition to Cloud and SD-WAN

Zscaler™ Facilitates Agilent’s Transition to Cloud and SD-WAN

Technology Category

Cybersecurity & Privacy - Network Security
Networks & Connectivity - Gateways

Applicable Industries

Life Sciences
Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Logistics & Transportation

Use Cases

Traffic Monitoring
Transportation Simulation

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

About The Customer

Agilent is a global leader in life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemistry. The company provides laboratories around the world with instruments, services, consumables, applications, and expertise. This enables Agilent customers to gain the insights they seek in food sciences, pharmaceuticals, chemistry, and other essential markets. The company has a user count of 12,500 and operates in 120 locations across more than 30 countries. Like many forward-thinking organizations with widely distributed operations, Agilent was looking to take advantage of cloud applications and services to enhance flexibility and user productivity.

The Challenge

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.

The Solution

Agilent turned to Zscaler in early 2015 to resolve bandwidth and security issues at its regional offices. Zscaler was chosen for its central management framework that supports a distributed environment, allowing for Internet traffic to undergo URL filtering and scanning for malicious content. It also enables bandwidth controls to prioritize mission-critical traffic over lower-priority web browsing. With Zscaler, Agilent could break out its regional Internet gateways without incurring the enormous cost or management complexity of deploying appliances in all six locations. Zscaler also provided detailed visibility into network activity and threats from any device, from anywhere, and at any time. Later, Agilent transitioned to SD-WAN using Viptela combined with the Zscaler Cloud Security Platform. The cloud-based Zscaler security solution now safeguards local Internet breakouts and Viptela provides the framework that allows Agilent to securely transport its internal WAN traffic between sites.

Operational Impact

The implementation of Zscaler and Viptela SD-WAN has been extremely successful for Agilent. It has not only improved performance but also increased security without adding complexity. The solution has provided Agilent with a level of flexibility it hadn’t experienced before. The company can now respond more rapidly to changing business requirements. When it comes to mergers and acquisitions and business partner enablement, Agilent can get these organizations up to speed more quickly. With the previous MPLS system, it could take up to six months for provisioning, but today, the IT team simply ships a router, and the partner organization plugs it into its Internet connection. The company is now exploring ways to use Viptela and Zscaler to enable secure communications with partners and businesses within Agilent using network segmentation.

Quantitative Benefit

80 percent improvement in turnaround time when new capabilities are added
Notable increase in application reliability and performance
Reduced costs associated with bypassing standard methods and developing custom solutions