IntroductionA late-night server outage or remote plant malfunction shouldn’t paralyze critical workflows—yet for many organizations, sluggish VPN logins, cumbersome credential management, and complex access approvals routinely disrupt IT and OT teams alike. These inefficiencies aren’t just productivity hurdles—they expose enterprises with expanded attack surfaces, lateral threat movement, and mounting operational complexity. Legacy tools like VPNs, jump servers, and shared credentials make auditing and governance nearly impossible, leaving sensitive environments vulnerable to ransomware and compliance failures. As IT and OT environments converge and cyber risks escalate, organizations are looking for solutions that offer agility, robust security, and frictionless workflows to address these ever-growing complexities.Recognizing these pressing challenges, the conversation at Zenith Live 2025 shifted towards solutions that truly redefine secure privileged access. Zscaler PRA emerged as the highlight of the event, sparking enthusiasm and optimism among industry leaders. Attendees from a leading US-based paper manufacturer at the AMS event and a prominent Belgian insurance provider at the Prague gathering shared their challenges with slow access, credential sprawl, and operational inefficiencies when managing legacy access tools. Their stories reflected a common need: secure, streamlined workflows that empower both IT and OT teams, while providing uncompromising governance controls. The unveiling of Zscaler PRA showcased a bold vision, with capabilities designed to deliver agility, control, and resilience in privileged access. At Zenith Live, the message was clear—outdated access models are no longer acceptable, and forward-thinking businesses are ready to embrace a more seamless and secure solution.A new era of Innovation At the heart of Zscaler PRA is a suite of capabilities designed to simplify privileged access while fortifying security. Each feature directly addresses the pain points voiced by customers and paves the way for more efficient workflows across IT and OT environments:Session Recording and Ushered Access: Comprehensive governance controls ensure third-party access is fully auditable, protecting sensitive systems and OT devices from misuse.Privileged Credential Management: Guards access credentials with robust policies and seamless attribution for secure governance and compliance.Credential Pooling: Simplifies shared credential management, offering dynamic check-out/check-in workflows to streamline configuration and ensure secure attribution during concurrent use.End-User Initiated Approvals: A user-driven approval workflow enables just-in-time access directly through the PRA portal, removing the need for costly ITSM integrations.Web Link Publishing: Consolidates workflows by providing end-users with single-pane access to privileged resources, reducing access complexitySandboxed file transfer: Protect against zero-day threats and Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) through Sandbox analysis.Managed Portal Certificates & DNS: Automates portal configurations and certificate renewals, eliminating administrative overhead while ensuring secure access.Disposable Jump Boxes: Creates ephemeral, isolated environments for sensitive tasks, eliminating persistent risks tied to system-level operations on IT and OT targets.Each of these capabilities brings transformative benefits, empowering organizations to enable secure, frictionless access at scale. In upcoming blogs, we’ll take a closer look at each feature to uncover how they fundamentally reshape privileged access for the modern enterprise.The Ripple Effect: Transformation Beyond TechnologyZscaler PRA’s innovations go beyond solving technical challenges—they reshape how organizations operate securely. By combating threats like lateral movement and credential sprawl, PRA strengthens security postures while simplifying compliance and optimizing operational workflows. In today’s interconnected IT and OT environments, Zscaler PRA empowers enterprises to navigate complexity with agility and confidence.Ready to Modernize Access?The shift from legacy Privileged Access Management tools to Zscaler PRA marks a new era of agile, cloud-native, zero trust access. Discover how Zscaler can strengthen your security, simplify compliance, and boost efficiency. Stay tuned for deeper dives into each capability over the next few weeks!
