Cenitex taps Zscaler for secure services on 39k devices

The Victorian government’s state-owned IT services provider Cenitex has tapped cloud-based security vendor Zscaler to deliver services for its 36,000 users in 450 locations across the state.

The push comes as part of Cenitex’s ongoing shift to an end-to-end VMware hybrid cloud environment under its Program Fortify overhaul to improve the resilience, reliability and security.

Cenitex’s director of Digital Transformation, Nav Pillai, said that the agency’s move out of its data centres and onto the cloud has meant it needs to reconfigure its security operations.

“Security is no longer in the data centre - security follows the user,” he said.

And as the Victorian government is pursuing remote working and flexibility as a means of enticing a more diverse workforce.

“All of this means we couldn’t keep doing what we were doing in a data centre,” Pillai said.

“Rather than deploying cloud security from legacy firewall vendors, we chose Zscaler’s cloud-based platform to protect corporate-issued devices wherever they are connected to the internet and give us near-instant scalability capability to support new users.”

It also enables users to stay connected to their organisations’ systems while working remotely, whether it be from home or a public wi-fi environment like a cafe or conference, by plugging going through Zscaler’s secure cloud.

“Zscaler has been a game changer in the way we are able to deliver services to our users,” Pillai said, adding that the deployment of the security services to 39,000 devices in under six weeks would have been impossible with Centix’s previous on-premises set up.

Feedback from users has reflected the changes, with corresponding improvements in performance thanks to increased flexibility.

“As user internet traffic no longer has to be routed through the Cenitex data centre, application performance has improved.

“We are seeing significant improvements for our Office 365 users and other internet-based applications.”

Pillai added that it the program of work also provides a central, single model of use for Victorian government CISOs to follow, simplifying discussions around procurement and practices.