Zscaler

Zscaler

Founded in 2007 by Jay Chaudhry, Zscaler operates as a publicly traded cybersecurity company headquartered in San Jose. Chaudhry, a serial security entrepreneur, started the firm after selling previous ventures, structuring Zscaler around a cloud-native architecture at a time when most enterprises still relied on on-premise appliances. Zscaler deploys capital across a security platform spanning secure web gateways, zero-trust network access, cloud access security brokerage, and data protection. The platform now secures over 500 billion transactions daily. Unlike legacy network-security vendors, Zscaler routes all traffic through its own global cloud, eliminating the need for hardware firewalls. The acquisition pipeline includes the 2025 deal for Symmetry Systems, which adds data-security posture management and AI-security capabilities. Confirmed enterprise customers include T-Mobile, Siemens, and United Airlines. The firm employs a direct-to-enterprise model supplemented by a partner ecosystem that integrates with major technology and channel partners. No adjacent philanthropic vehicles or holding-company structures are publicly documented. In 2025, Zscaler announced a partnership with OpenAI, aiming to embed frontier AI models into cybersecurity workflows, and earned Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice recognition for Security Service Edge. Zscaler's structural distinction lies in its refusal to sell hardware — a posture that places it outside the traditional NGFW and on-prem security appliance markets that competitors like Palo Alto Networks still dominate. The company operates an asset-light, proxy-based architecture that scales through colocation data centers rather than customer-installed boxes, making its cost model and deployment speed structurally different from both appliance and SD-WAN peers.