Case Study: Largest California County achieves VPN-free, zero-trust work-from-anywhere for 70,000 users with Zscaler

Largest Local Government Agency in the U.S. Enables Modern Workplace for 70,000 Users to Work-From-Anywhere with Zscaler

This California County—the largest local government agency in the U.S., with 110,000 employees serving 12 million residents—faced an urgent shift to work-from-anywhere during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its legacy VPN-based solution supported only about 1,000 remote users and could not scale or provide visibility into the many applications used across 36 autonomous departments, so the county needed a rapid, secure, and scalable zero-trust solution.

The county deployed Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange, using Zscaler Private Access and Zscaler Internet Access with lightweight Client and App Connectors, rapidly moving nearly 20,000 users to zero-trust access in weeks and expanding coverage to about 70,000 employees. The VPN-free approach improved Office 365 performance via Microsoft peering, gave the cybersecurity team unprecedented visibility into previously unknown applications, provided executives real-time insights, met a compressed deadline with Zscaler professional services, and enabled a secure hybrid-work model that supports productivity and sustainability goals.