Maximizing yourMicrosoft 365
investment
Enhance connectivity, security, andaccelerate productivity with Zscaler

1INTRODUCTION

The nature of the workplace ischanging. Is your IT environment?
As the workplace shifts its shape to accommodate

In reality, organizations don’t need to go to theseconnections to mission-critical applications—whileto cloud-based applications for workers everywhere,

Staff and teams are physically removed from their officeTurn IT into the business enabler you need.

keeping the moving parts of the workforce together. To

With the right tools, IT teams can easily accelerate

unite and drive productivity, they require direct user-to-connections that promote seamless, securea changing world, the need to facilitate fast, securecontrolling costs—remains top of mind.

“hubs,” and cloud-based applications are the glue that’swith an unmatched user experience:

optimize these applications and unlock their power toapplication transformation with direct-to-internet

app connection.

collaboration to drive efficiency and productivity.

Legacy hub-and-spoke architectures, by design, rarely

traffic, which will enable them to better respond tosupport these efforts—instead forcing traffic to be

backhauled over slow and costly multiprotocol label
switching (MPLS) network connections.

To handle this increase in traffic, and the need to secure

it, many organizations have turned to massive hardware
investments to keep up with changing times.

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extremes. There’s a new way to support connectivity

They can also provide full visibility into all network

the needs of workers and to have a clear line of sightto growth and modernization.

Not only are these tools essential—they’re easy

to deploy and they actually simplify your networkarchitecture. So let’s explore what they are, and how
they can help.

Hub-and-spoke networking
is impacting your applications
The name “hub and spoke” brings a well-formed image to mind: its overall
network topology resembles a wheel with a central hub connected topoints along its edge, through multiple spokes.

Sometimes called a “star network,” the hub is the central component• Segregating environments to meet compliance requirements,
such as PCI and HIPAA• Providing shared IT services such as log server, DNS,and file sharing from a central network

to which the multiple endpoints around it must connect. While hub-But in today’s displaced working environment, modern, SaaS-poweredsolutions, its topography is geared towards isolation, not collaboration.

direct internet access to ensure a great user experience and optimize

and-spoke architecture has the potential to build powerful networking

In the past, an organization’s mandates may have required:• Setting up separate development and production environments• Isolating the workloads of different customers, such as thesubscribers of an ISV

collaboration is the new reality. And that requires applications with fast,productivity gains.

Unfortunately, many organizations continue to rely on their traditional

hub-and-spoke architectures, which simply weren’t designed for today’s
virtual collaboration needs. To compensate, they’re forced to increasespending on next-generation firewalls to handle increasing traffic volumes,
use legacy VPNs, or continue to backhaul traffic over MPLS links.

The consequence: out-of-control costs and complexity, with a severely

42% of the US labor force is working fromhome during the COVID-19 pandemic

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degraded user experience.

Fortunately, there’s a better approach—one that’s effective and simple.

The path to the future is direct
What, then, is the alternative for enterprises seeking to move into themodern age by enhancing their productive and collaborative workflows?
Strengthening their cloud-based application delivery with a directinternet connection.

When Microsoft Exchange servers and Office applications were on-premises, backhauling traffic from remote sites and mobile users to thedatacenter was inevitable—it was the only way to provide connectivity.
But now that these services have moved to the cloud in the form ofMicrosoft 365, backhauling all of your traffic to your datacenters creates

the kind of latency that leads to frustrated users and delayed deployments.
As the world’s largest inline cloud security platform, Zscaler makes
Microsoft 365 deployment easy.

It provides your users with a fast application and internet experience via

local internet breakouts while maintaining the highest level of security forinternet traffic.

In fact, when Microsoft assessed four basic network concepts for Microsoft
365 connectivity, there was one outright conclusion for best performanceand cost savings: Direct-to-internet connections. To achieve this withZscaler, simply point your internet and Microsoft 365 traffic to Zscaler

Internet Access. With more than 150 edge datacenters around the world,

you can guarantee that your users are getting the best experience possible.
Plus, there’s no hardware to deploy and manage, and since traffic is routed
locally, you can drastically reduce your MPLS spend.

Zscaler’s Cloud Firewall, which is application- and user-aware, scales

elastically to support the massive number of persistent Microsoft 365

connections. Making firewall changes is simple—unlike with appliances.
Zscaler is a truly multi-tenant cloud platform, so within seconds, yourchanges are enforced worldwide.

There has been a 400% increase ininterest for collaboration software

4Zscaler helps enterprises seeking to rein in spiraling costs, reduce risk
and overhead, and get the most complete and clear view of all
Microsoft 365 traffic.

Get more from yourMicrosoft 365 investment with Zscaler
Zscaler has helped thousands of organizations accelerate their adoptionof Microsoft 365 and Teams. The unique cloud-based proxy architectureof the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange™ enables all traffic to be securely

routed through Zscaler Internet Access™ (ZIA™) for fast, direct internetconnections; SSL inspection at scale; and superior inline security controls.
Organizations can leverage unlimited cloud capacity without the need toadd legacy appliances to keep up with growing usage and performance

Zscaler’s global security edge locations are also directly peered with

Microsoft datacenters for the best possible security and performance.
With deep, built-in integration with Microsoft Office 365 and Teams,

ZIA makes deployment fast and management simple with a one-click

configuration. ZIA enables two powerful one-click configuration optionsfor Microsoft 365:

needs. To keep users and applications secure, organizations have the• Enhanced security: Complete or partial SSL decryption and full inline

and can gain real-time threat prevention and detection backed by theconnection for Microsoft 365 applications to ensure a great real-time

option to enable SSL inspection for some or all Microsoft 365 applications
world’s largest inline security cloud.

security controls for Microsoft 365 traffic while creating a direct-to-internet
collaboration and meeting experience. IT and security teams continue
to benefit from Zscaler’s superior visibility of all application activity.

• Visibility: Choose to inspect SSL traffic for trusted Microsoft 365

61% of CIOs intend to standardize
on Microsoft Teams

5applications while maintaining visibility, in compliance with Microsoft’s

Networking Partner Program guidance. Zscaler has the scale to ensure
optimum performance, including SSL inspection and inline security.

Although this option is not necessary, it is available for specific instances.

Zscaler: Strengthening yourMicrosoft 365 experience
Zscaler for Microsoft 365 complies with Microsoft’s connectivity recommendations, equipping
businesses with the power to:

1. Identify and differentiate Microsoft 365 traffic.

One-click configuration automatically optimizes your Microsoft 365 traffic and automates
IP range updates without administration effort.

2. Egress network connections locally.

Enable direct connections through the Zero Trust Exchange for the fastest pathto Microsoft 365.

3. Avoid network hairpins.

Enable local internet breakouts to Microsoft 365 for remote users and branches
without VPNs, network hairpins, and costly MPLS connections.

6CASE STUDY

Global brewer taps Zscaler tosecure its digital transformation
CompanyHeadquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, Carlsberg isa global brewer that owns 140 brands distributed to 150
markets worldwide. In addition to beer, Carlsberg sells
ciders, soft drinks, and bottled water.

•	Embracing Microsoft 365 and moving legacy
applications to the cloud• Taking control of operational costs• Strengthening security

Situation

Challenge

In 2016, Carlsberg’s executive leadership team definedCarlsberg had been operating a traditional centralized

its objectives as strengthening its core business,needs of today’s businesses and users. “Our networka strategic initiative called “Sail ’22,” and identified

positioning the company for growth, and enhancingvalue for its shareholders.

To support Sail ’22 from an IT perspective, Jonathan
Sheldrake, Director of Carlsberg’s Global Network
Services, and the team needed to undertake acomplete system overhaul, including:7• Modernizing the IT infrastructure

network that was not set up to accommodate theconsisted of a hub-and-spoke architecture, MPLS withcentral internet breakouts, and centralized securitycontrols. Our employees had to suffer through a poor
user experience,” explained Sheldrake.

In addition to performance issues—including slow connectivity for users—

Results

required a new approach to security to protect and optimize connectivity for all

Zscaler’s centralized controls help Carlsberg simplify policy

administrators lacked visibility into threats and the sources of traffic. The company
users, regardless of location.

management and improve visibility into traffic across theirlocal breakouts to Microsoft 365.

Solution

Carlsberg’s IT team was also able to optimize connectivity

Carlsberg initiated the project by upgrading all its laptops and desktops tointernet breakouts drastically optimizing connectivity whileused from 873 to 350, and their on-premises servers from 1,300 to 700. Of

connections. Using Bandwidth Control—natively integrated

by providing each of its branch locations with secure local

Windows 10. The team then reduced the number of applications being

being able to move to more cost-efficient broadband

the remaining servers, 600 were moved to the cloud as part of a full SAP

into ZIA—the team can prioritize Microsoft 365 traffic tomigration to Microsoft Azure.

keep the business moving.

Carlsberg had previously processed around 70% of traffic on its

To learn more about Carlsberg and Zscaler’s modernizationinternal network, and 30% was to and from the internet. After

partnership, click here.

migrating its servers, Carlsberg was then sending about 70% of
its traffic over the internet, with about 30% traversing its MPLS
network—which, in addition to being slow, was expensive.

Carlsberg introduced SD-WAN to enable local breakouts andoptimize the use of MPLS connections and upgraded its

traditional network perimeter security for Zscaler InternetAccess, which offers a complete security stack delivered
as a cloud service.

“Thanks to Zscaler’s interoperabilitywith Microsoft 365, I eliminated a hugeheadache. I no longer have to maintainACLs, IP addresses, and new DNS
addresses. Zscaler takes care of it all
through its one-click feature.”– Jonathan Sheldrake, Director of Global Network Services, Carlsberg Group8

When you’re ready to optimize
or deploy Microsoft 365—
look to ZscalerWith more than 2,500 customers optimizing and securing their Microsoft 365
users through Zscaler Internet Access, Zscaler can help deliver a great user
experience while reducing costly MPLS connections and avoiding forklift
upgrades to next-generation firewalls.
Zscaler can make your Microsoft 365 deployment simpler, faster,
more secure, and more successful. Contact Zscaler to request a fulldemonstration and more information.

Request a demo

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