I'm writing to confirm that your Zscaler deployment has officially entered Phase 1 – Planning & Design.
This phase is where we, your SecureDynamics Zscaler Delivery Services Team, establish the technical foundation for your deployment. The goal is to ensure that the design accurately reflects your environment, aligns with your security objectives, and sets up a smooth implementation in the phases that follow.
Best regards, TBD |TBD
Where You Are in the Deployment Timeline
You’ll see a deployment timeline included with this communication (top banner) showing your current position within Phase 1 and what comes next. Planning & Design is a critical step—decisions made here directly drive the speed and success of deployment later.
What Happens During Phase 1
During Planning & Design, our engineering team focuses on:
Initial Architecture & Design Documentation: Development of a working design document covering your licensed Zscaler products and related components based on the agreed scope.
Identity & Authentication Alignment: Validation of your identity provider, authentication methods, and user/admin access models, including SAML and SCIM assumptions.
Traffic Forwarding & Client Connector Design: Definition of how user traffic will be forwarded to Zscaler, including Client Connector behavior, trusted network considerations, and inspection expectations.
Application & Access Modeling: Identification of target applications, access paths, and App Connector placement, including any platform or hypervisor considerations.
Environment & Network Review: Confirmation of datacenter locations, cloud workloads, existing connectivity, branch offices, and any special considerations such as printers or other headless devices.
Baseline Security Policy Assumptions: Application of Zscaler-recommended baseline policies, with future tuning identified as needed.
What to Expect Right Now
At this stage, much of the work is design-focused and collaborative. You can expect:
Review and feedback cycles on the design document
Targeted clarification questions from our engineers
Occasional periods where progress is less visible but actively moving forward
This is normal and intentional during Phase 1.
What Comes Next
Once Phase 1 is completed and the design is finalized, we’ll move into implementation and controlled rollout, using the approved design as the blueprint for configuration and testing.
If questions come up along the way, your SecureDynamics delivery team is available to help.
We appreciate your continued partnership and look forward to the next phase of your deployment.
Important: During active deployment projects, SecureDynamics does not provide a formal SLA for support tickets. However, our Zero Trust Success Managers (ZTSMs) will make every reasonable effort to respond quickly and, if needed, coordinate a short working session to assist.
Helpful Resources
Zscaler Deployment Advisor GPT – your interactive GPT guide for deployment sequencing, readiness validation, and early configuration insights.
If you want deeper guidance on any deployment topic—such as connector design, policy structure, or advanced configuration—enter #zboost followed by your most questions directly in our custom GPT.
For example:
#zboost how do I configure SCIM for ZPA with Entra ID?
ZBoost instantly connects you to validated technical content, deployment playbooks, and design templates to help you go even further.
