Celebrating 15 Years of Innovation | Zscaler

This year, I’m thrilled to celebrate Zscaler’s 15th anniversary. When we first started the company in 2007, I knew that we had a real opportunity to transform the security industry, especially in light of enterprises’ migration to the cloud – we had a bold idea, bright minds, a solid business plan, and the conviction to make it work. But the journey was not without risk, nor was it always easy. Like many companies, we had our own share of growing pains, but we also shared many moments of discovery, camaraderie, excitement, and accomplishment. These moments are now woven into the fabric of our company’s DNA and are truly what makes me proud when I reflect on how far we’ve come. 

Fifteen years ago, we signed The Arc Mid-Hudson, as our first, and now longest-standing, customer. They are a not-for-profit organization in New York State dedicated to supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and they were looking for a cloud-native security solution that would allow them to provide secure connectivity to employees, while maintaining client data integrity and adherence to strict healthcare compliance mandates. I still remember the excitement we had over winning the account and how great it felt to know that Zscaler technology would be helping them to better serve their community. Today, The Arc Mid-Hudson is still a Zscaler customer and they’re leveraging the power of the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange to support its transition from a site-based human services provider to a remote and highly mobile service model.

The first Zscaler solution slide that was created in 2007 is still relevant today. Since then, we have kept the same focus and mission.

It’s extremely satisfying to know that there are customers who have been with us since the very beginning. These relationships are built on trust, openness, and an exceptional level of service. Customers have the confidence of placing their most precious data assets in our care and that’s a responsibility that we take to heart each and every day. It’s what motivates me to continue to develop and deliver solutions that improve our customers’ security posture. Our success as a company heavily depends on our commitment to our customers and we never lose sight of that.

Among our current workforce are employees who have been with the company since the very beginning. Recently, we came together to reminisce about how it all started and I jotted down a few memories which I thought really captured the sentiment and entrepreneurial spirit that underpins our company culture today:

“It was during dinner at Jay’s house when he first proposed the idea of a cloud security platform. After we spoke, I was so convinced that this is the future, but the problem wasn’t easy to solve from a technology standpoint and it hadn’t been done. After four months of development, discussion and lots of trial and error, it seemed that we had a viable solution.” 

– Kailash Kailash, Zscaler Co-Founder

“Kailash called me up, explained the concept, and suggested we do a workshop and start building something. To be honest, I wasn’t overly convinced that it would work, but Jay was always very clear in his vision of using a cloud-native architecture and that we were not going to build an on-prem solution. The team had conviction, which always kept me motivated.”

-Srikanth Devarajan, early Zscaler employee

“I think I was at the right place at the right time and I feel fortunate to be a part of this amazing journey. The passion of the founders was inspiring and the early team was very close. We were doing agile development before it became an industry-wide practice, so it was exciting to pioneer new methods while developing new capabilities at a lightning pace. We had the best time!”

-Siva Udupa, early Zscaler employee

“The time has gone by really fast. I still remember the early morning voice calls with Jay and the software teams, discussing a new feature to implement. By the end of the day, the feature was ready and the process started again the next day. We created our own agile methodology, but it was very exciting!” 

-Pratibha Nayak, early Zscaler employee

The past 15 years has been quite a remarkable journey – what started out as an idea has grown into a company that’s generating in excess of $1B in revenue and is a recognized industry leader in cloud security. As a company, Zscaler has driven growth and innovation that’s constantly adapting to the changing security landscape and our customers’ evolving needs. I couldn’t be prouder of all of our accomplishments to date and I’m looking forward to another 15 years. To see a timeline of notable technology triumphs and significant company milestones, please click here.