Zscaler Hires Former Palo Alto Networks CEO as Chief Operating Officer

Cloud based security services provider Zscaler, today announced that Lane Bess has joined the company as Chief Operating Officer (COO). Bess was formerly CEO of nearby Palo Alto Networks, the company best known for its next generation firewalls.

Bess served as CEO of Palo Alto Networks from July 2008 to December 2010 when he agreed to resign due to differences in leadership philosophy. Prior to his role at Palo Alto Networks, Bess served as Executive Vice President of Global Sales at Trend Micro. Earlier in his career, he held global sales and marketing leadership positions at both NCR Corporation and AT&T, including launching AT&T’s business and consumer Internet services.

“Cloud security is becoming a fundamental necessity for enterprises, small and mid-sized businesses and service providers,” said Bess. “I have always been a strong proponent of the cloud. Enforcing security policy from the cloud eliminates infrastructure, and reduces the costs and complexities of traditional secure web gateways. Zscaler has done an extraordinary job executing on this vision, and in my estimation will continue to lead the way in cloud security innovation.”

“I am pleased to welcome Lane to the Zscaler team at this exciting time, to further build on the track record of growth and success we’ve had to date,” said Jay Chaudhry, CEO of Zscaler.