NHS goes for in-cloud security from Zscaler

It appears that the NHS will move security for its million-plus users to in-cloud services from Zscaler.

The deal has not officially been announced but news is leaking out, such as in an agenda item entitled "Zscaler – Web Security Service Within N3" for an N3 user conference happening now.

There is also a Satisnet Zscaler seminar which is described thus: "Within 45 minutes you will be able to understand why Zscaler has a vast array of UK customers from NHS to retail and financial institutions reaping the benefits from their web and email technology."

Privately owned Zscaler was founded in 2007 by Jay Chaudhry and has no VC funding. It has 50 or so data centres around the globe providing low-latency traffic-scanning services in the cloud for its customers.

Its thinking is that mobile users need protecting when outside company firewalls and security perimeters. If the perimeter becomes the cloud then users don't need in-device security products such as McAfee or Norton anti-virus products.

Our understanding is that NHS chose the Zscaler technology for several reasons, with one being network bandwidth concerns.

One commonly-encountered problem is that of users going to YouTube to play videos. Among other capabilities, Zscaler's technology enables realtime bandwidth-throttling for such sites. ®