Zscaler lands dual Gartner Leader spots in SASE, SSE

Zscaler has been named a Leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for SASE Platforms and Security Service Edge. The SSE ranking marks the fifth consecutive year it has held Leader status in that category.

The recognition also marks Zscaler's first appearance as a Leader in the SASE Platforms Magic Quadrant, giving the cybersecurity group simultaneous Leader positions in both closely watched market assessments.

SASE, or secure access service edge, combines networking and security services in a single architecture for users, sites, and applications. SSE, or security service edge, focuses more narrowly on securing access to web, cloud, and private applications through identity and policy controls.

The dual ranking comes as vendors compete to offer broader platforms that combine network access, cloud security, and policy enforcement. Large organisations are increasingly seeking to reduce the number of point products they use as they respond to remote work, cloud adoption, and rising concern about data exposure in artificial intelligence tools.

Zscaler says its platform is built around a zero trust model that connects users and devices to specific applications rather than relying on traditional network-based access. It says this approach is intended to reduce exposure to attacks and limit lateral movement once a system is compromised.

According to Zscaler, its services now protect 40% of the Forbes Global 2000. It also says its platform secures users, sites, cloud workloads, internet-of-things and operational technology systems, business partners, and AI agents.

Platform shift

Zscaler is using the recognition to underline a broader industry shift from standalone security products to integrated services. In the SASE model, businesses seek to combine secure web gateways, zero trust network access, cloud access security, and software-defined wide area networking into one framework.

That trend has been driven in part by the complexity of managing separate systems for branch offices, campuses, factories, and remote workers. Security teams have also faced pressure to inspect encrypted traffic more consistently and apply the same policies across cloud services and private applications.

Zscaler also referred to a new ZAgent Framework, which it says will introduce agentic AI into SASE management. The framework is designed to help customers simplify operations and manage communications across their environments, though no commercial details were disclosed in the announcement.

The market for SASE and SSE has drawn strong attention from investors and enterprise technology buyers because it sits at the intersection of networking, cloud migration, and cyber defence. Analysts argue that vendors in the category must show they can support both distributed connectivity and consistent security policy at scale.

Executive response

Jay Chaudhry commented on the ranking in prepared remarks.

"We are proud to be recognized by Gartner as a Leader in both the SASE Platforms and SSE Magic Quadrants. True security in the modern era cannot be achieved by simply spinning legacy networks or virtual firewalls in the cloud," said Jay Chaudhry, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman, and Founder of Zscaler.

He also outlined the company's view of how enterprise security needs are changing.

"In an AI world where threats move at machine speed, organizations need our unique proxy-based architecture to actively de-risk their operations. By brokering connections between users and devices to specific applications, we inspect 100% of encrypted traffic in-line at massive scale to enforce Zero Trust security principles across the entire enterprise without compromising business velocity," Chaudhry said.

According to Zscaler, it has spent more than 15 years building cloud-based security services. Its architecture operates through more than 160 public exchanges globally, along with thousands of private exchanges at the edge.

The company's emphasis on proxy-based inspection reflects a long-running debate in cybersecurity over whether legacy perimeter tools can adapt to cloud-first environments. Supporters of zero trust designs argue that direct application-level access and continuous inspection offer stronger protection than extending old network models into cloud infrastructure.

The latest Gartner classifications are likely to be noted by large corporate technology buyers, many of whom use such assessments as one input when reviewing suppliers. For Zscaler, the result provides a fresh benchmark in the wider SASE segment while preserving its standing in the more established SSE category.

Zscaler says its platform is designed to inspect encrypted traffic in line and apply zero trust controls across the enterprise.