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Curalate's Digital Commerce Optimization with Zscaler Private Access
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Event-Driven Application
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Virtual Private Cloud
Applicable Industries
- Cement
- Construction & Infrastructure
Applicable Functions
- Procurement
Use Cases
- Construction Management
- Infrastructure Inspection
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
The Challenge
Curalate, a digital commerce optimization platform, was facing challenges with its Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) instances housed on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The company was using OpenVPN, an open-source VPN product, to provide access to applications housed in the VPCs. However, this system had several drawbacks. Firstly, to access a specific application, the end user had to know which VPC hosted that application, requiring the user to have knowledge of the network. Secondly, OpenVPN had performance, usability, and redundancy challenges. Lastly, it lacked granular access based on policy, and policy management was difficult as each VPN instance needed to be updated every time an application access policy was changed. Despite having built its infrastructure on the latest cloud-based technology with AWS, Curalate's day-to-day operations were being impacted by the legacy 20-year-old VPN technology required to access that infrastructure.
About The Customer
Curalate is a digital commerce optimization platform based in Philadelphia, PA. The company's mission is to create an adaptive commerce experience that is visual, personal, and contextual to the consumer by adapting offsite touchpoints for commerce, and onsite experiences for discovery. This mission is built on the web’s promise of high performance, elastic scalability, and consistent uptime. The Curalate platform optimizes digital commerce for more than 800 brands, providing tools to help consumers discover their next purchase. The company runs its entire IT infrastructure on AWS, including software development and production.
The Solution
Curalate found a solution to these challenges with Zscaler Private Access (ZPA). ZPA abstracts the application from the network upon which it resides, making access seamless and identical whether the user is in the corporate office or on the road. The end user does not need to know where an application is housed, nor does a user have to choose between different locations. Redundancy and high availability are built in with ZPA, just as they are with AWS. ZPA also provides application-specific access, restricting access to authorized users only, making the applications themselves completely invisible to unauthorized users. This makes lateral movement within the VPC impossible, as access is specific to applications, not to IP addresses. ZPA was also easy to configure and deploy, with Curalate going from proof of concept to production deployment in only three weeks.
Operational Impact
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