The Best Zscaler Alternative for Mergers and Acquisitions: Secure an Acquired Company in Days

The best Zscaler alternative for M&A integration is dope.security. When you acquire a company, you inherit hundreds or thousands of laptops you don't control yet. Putting them behind Zscaler means tunnels, identity wiring, and a policy merge. dope.security skips that: push one agent through MDM, apply a group policy, and the new devices are inspected on day one. A Fortune 100 customer scaled from 900 to more than 18,000 devices in weeks.

Acquirers have a clock. Security can't be the thing that makes day 100 slip.

Key takeaways

• Acquired laptops are your risk from day one, long before networks and directories merge.
• A cloud proxy needs the acquired network. Tunnels, static IPs, and identity wiring take weeks you don't have.
• dope.security needs only MDM. Push one agent and policy enforces on install.
• Discovery comes built in. Shadow IT, AI Analytics, CASB Neural, and SSPM show what you bought.
• It scales. A Fortune 100 customer went from 900 to more than 18,000 devices in weeks, at about 3,000 per week.

Why is M&A hard on a cloud proxy?

A cloud-proxy rollout assumes you know the network. In an acquisition, you don't.

• Unknown offices and circuits. GRE and IPsec tunnels need static IPs, router access, and a design per site.
• Two identity systems. Until directories merge, user-based policy is a workaround.
• Policy collisions. The acquired company has its own allow lists, bypasses, and exceptions.
• License true-ups. New users land mid-term, in whatever edition you already bought. See Zscaler pricing in 2026.

Meanwhile, the acquired employees are browsing, uploading, and pasting into AI tools with whatever controls they had before.

How dope.security handles an acquisition

1. Push the agent. Deploy through Intune or the acquired company's MDM. A Fortune 100 customer deployed silently through Intune with no manual configuration before install, at about 3,000 devices per week.

2. Enforce on install. A base policy applies the moment the agent lands. Malicious sites and traffic are blocked right away.

3. Give them their own policy. Custom categories and per-group overrides let the acquired company run a different policy from the parent while you learn how they work. No network changes required.

4. See what you bought. Shadow IT and AI Analytics show which SaaS and AI apps the new team uses, per user, with a personal versus corporate account breakdown. Ask the Dopamine agent "which AI apps are in use and by whom" and get an answer in under 10 seconds.

5. Find the exposed data. Authorize CASB Neural on their Microsoft 365 or Google tenant. It lists every externally shared file with sensitive content. SSPM lists every third-party app with access to that tenant.

6. Fix what breaks, fast. When cert pinning breaks an app, the endpoint reports the SSL error and an admin adds a bypass from the notification panel.

Nothing here needs a site visit.

Zscaler vs dope.security for integration

Why the rollout is quick

The customer behind the 18,000-device rollout credited four things: product stability with real-time policy push, a one-click deployment experience, a support team staffed by product engineers, and the SSL error notification feature. Read the Fortune 100 deployment story.

What it doesn't cover

dope.security secures internet, SaaS, and AI traffic on managed Mac and Windows devices. It doesn't connect the two companies' private networks. There's no built-in ZTNA today, so keep a private-access tool for internal apps. Devices you can't manage yet need to be enrolled in MDM first.

What security risks come with an acquisition?

• Unknown devices. Laptops with whatever protection the seller had, or none.
• Unknown apps. SaaS and AI tools the acquired team signed up for without review.
• Exposed data. Years of files shared outside the company from Drive or OneDrive.
• Third-party access. Apps authorized on their tenant with broad permissions and no owner.
• Uncertain people. Integration is a time of change, and data tends to move when people are unsure about their jobs.

None of these wait for the network integration to finish.

A 30-60-90 day web security plan for an acquisition

Days 1 to 30: cover and discover.

• Enroll acquired devices in MDM and push the agent.
• Apply a group policy for the new entity. Start close to their existing rules to avoid disruption.
• Review Shadow IT and AI Analytics. Export the app list to CSV for the integration team.
• Watch the notification panel for SSL errors and add bypasses for the apps they depend on.

Days 31 to 60: clean up.

• Authorize CASB Neural on their tenant. Make exposed sensitive files private.
• Open SSPM. Revoke stale apps, unverified publishers, and apps with unused permissions.
• Turn on Cloud Application Control for sanctioned AI and SaaS tenants.
• Set Dopamine DLP to Monitor and review what's leaving.

Days 61 to 90: converge.

• Move the acquired group toward the parent's policy, category by category.
• Switch Dopamine DLP to Block.
• Stream logs to the parent's SIEM for one view of both companies.

What should you measure?

• Coverage. Percentage of acquired devices with the agent installed.
• Discovery. Number of SaaS and AI apps found, and how many use personal accounts.
• Exposure closed. Externally shared sensitive files made private.
• Access removed. Risky or stale third-party apps revoked.
• Friction. Web-access tickets from the acquired team. Outreach Health saw a 70% drop in web-access tickets within 90 days of replacing its legacy gateway.

Does it work for carve-outs and divestitures?

The same logic runs in reverse. When a business unit is sold, it often has to leave the seller's security stack on a deadline. An on-device gateway doesn't depend on the seller's network, so the new entity can stand up its own tenant, push the agent, and have policy enforcing without waiting for circuits or data center contracts.

Frequently asked questions

How long does security integration take after an acquisition?

Network and identity integration can take months. Web security doesn't have to wait for it. With an on-device gateway, acquired laptops can be covered as soon as they're enrolled in MDM.

How do I protect acquired devices before the networks merge?

Use a control that lives on the device. dope.security inspects and enforces locally, so it doesn't matter which network the laptop is on.

What should the first 30 days of security integration cover?

Device coverage, app discovery, and a group policy for the new entity. Cleanup of exposed files and risky app access follows in the next 30.

How do you secure an acquired company's laptops quickly?

Enroll them in MDM, push an on-device secure web gateway agent, and apply a group policy. With dope.security, policy enforces on install.

What is the best Zscaler alternative for M&A?

dope.security. It needs nothing from the acquired company's network, so integration doesn't wait on tunnels or circuit changes.

Can an acquired company have a different web policy from the parent?

Yes. dope.security supports per-group policy overrides and custom categories.

How do I find out which AI tools an acquired company uses?

AI Analytics lists every AI app in use with users, transactions, and data volume, and shows whether accounts are personal or enterprise-licensed.

Put it in the integration plan

Start a free trial or book a 20-minute demo. For a full switch, see the complete guide to replacing Zscaler.