Why TAC Wins

Most access platforms force you into their cloud, their identity system, and their pricing model. TAC gives you freedom, control, and long-term flexibility — without cloud lock-in.

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Easier for Everyone

Powerful Access Control. Simply Delivered.

That’s not just a tagline — it’s the experience. Most access platforms make security stronger by making daily life harder: new logins, new clients, retraining every time something moves. TAC does the opposite. The same architecture that locks your environment down also makes it simpler to use and simpler to run.

For Your Users

One portal. Sign in once. Everything you’re allowed to reach.

After a single sign-on, every user lands on a personalized portal of tiles — one for each application and resource they’re authorized to use, scoped to their identity and device posture right now. They click a tile; they’re in. No password juggling, no VPN to connect, no bookmarks to manage.

And because TAC abstracts where things live, a resource can sit in your datacenter today and move to the cloud tomorrow — users click the same tile and it still works. Nobody has to know or care where anything runs.

✓True single sign-on across cloud, on-prem, and legacy apps alike
✓Tiles scoped automatically to what each user can access
✓Application location stays invisible — migrate freely, no user impact
✓Minimal-to-no end-user training required

For Your Admins

One console. One policy engine. One place to control it all.

Access is governed centrally — not scattered across every individual application. Grant a user the right permissions once, and the right tiles appear for them automatically. There’s no per-app configuration to chase and no separate consoles to reconcile.

When infrastructure changes, admins handle it at the TAC layer — migrate an app, move to a new cloud, re-platform a system — without touching a single user or pushing out new instructions. The back end can change all it wants; the front end never flinches.

✓Single admin console and single policy engine
✓Grant once — correct access appears for the user automatically
✓Backend migrations handled centrally, invisibly to users
✓No opaque AI — every policy is explicit and customer-controlled

The Offboarding Superpower

Cut off all access in moments — from one place.

Because every door runs through TAC and ties back to your user repository, revoking access is instant and total. Remove a user’s permissions at the repository, and every application, every resource, every session closes to them at once.

No chasing a departing employee’s access across a dozen separate systems hoping you found them all. No window where a compromised account still has a way in. One change, and they’re out — everywhere.

ONE

change revokes all access — for offboarding, compromised accounts, and contractor wrap-ups

Feature Comparison

TAC vs. The Alternatives

Capability	TAC	Zscaler	Okta	Cisco Duo	Microsoft Entra
One enforcement point for every app — modern, legacy, and web	Yes single proxy, single console	Yes most private apps via ZPA	Partial Access Gateway: separate product, legacy web apps	Partial Network Gateway add-on: web apps, SSH/RDP	Partial split across App Proxy and Private Access
Fully self-hosted — including air-gapped and sovereign environments	Yes deploy anywhere, no vendor cloud required	Partial on-prem service edge; control plane stays in Zscaler cloud	No cloud control plane	No cloud control plane	No cloud-native
Traffic never transits the vendor’s cloud	Yes your proxy, your jurisdiction	No brokered through Zscaler infrastructure by default	Partial	Partial	No routed via Microsoft’s service
Policy evaluated on every request — identity, device, posture, context	Yes inline, per request, incl. payload¹	Partial inline, connection-level	Partial evaluated at authentication	Partial evaluated at authentication	Partial CAE reacts to events, not per-request
Legacy app protection without code changes, agents, or a separate gateway	Yes same proxy, no add-ons	Partial requires app connectors	No requires Access Gateway	No requires Network Gateway	No requires App Proxy
Applications invisible to the internet — zero inbound exposure	Yes proxy is the only entry point	Yes inside-out connections	No	No	Partial
MFA, SSO, ZTNA, and DLP in one license	Yes no per-module pricing	No sold by module	No sold per product	No sold by edition	No tiered licensing + add-ons
Single inline enforcement point built for humans and AI agents	Yes by architecture²	Partial	Partial IdP-side	No	Partial IdP-side

Yes / Partial / No reflect PortSys assessment of publicly available vendor documentation as of August 2026. ¹ Full request inspection — method, URL, headers, and payload — with scriptable inspection policies for custom protocols. ² AI Agent Governance module: next on the TAC platform, built on the enforcement point already in production.

Total Cost of Ownership

The Hidden Cost of “Cheaper” Platforms

Competitors advertise low entry prices then layer on module fees, tier upgrades, and add-ons. TAC is all-inclusive from day one.

Zscaler

Adds up fast

▪ ZIA / ZPA base licence
+ + Sandbox module
+ + DLP module
+ + ZDX digital experience monitoring
+ + Premium data centre fees
+ + Bandwidth overage fees
+ A fee for every module, a module for every need

Okta

Every feature costs more

▪ Workforce Identity base
+ + Adaptive MFA (separate SKU)
+ + API Access Management
+ + Identity Governance
+ + Privileged Access
+ + Access Gateway for on-prem
+ Each add-on compounds per-user cost

Cisco Duo

Three products for full ZTA

▪ Duo Essentials or Advantage base
+ Premier tier required for device trust
+ Highest tier required for full features
+ + Duo Secure Access (separate)
+ + Cisco ISE for network policy
+ Multiple consoles, overlapping policies

Microsoft Entra

Four to six products

▪ Entra ID P1 or P2 base
+ + Intune for device trust (separate licence)
+ + Defender suite for endpoint
+ + Purview for data governance
+ + Global Secure Access
+ Full stack spans multiple paid tiers
+ 4–6 separate admin centers

TAC: One licence. Everything included.

MFA (FIDO2, SMS, OTP, SafeLogin, TOTP, push, hardware tokens), SSO, DLP, device posture, reverse-proxy enforcement, identity federation with any directory, and 24×7 support — no add-ons, no bandwidth fees, no tier upgrades, no redundancy surcharges.

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Key Differentiators

Eight Advantages Built Into the Architecture

Single-Tenant SVA Architecture

TAC deploys as a dedicated Secure Virtual Appliance — a true single-tenant architecture where every customer gets their own isolated instance. This scales from a single SVA to a high-availability array to a global array spanning worldwide locations for enterprise deployments.

Unlike multi-tenant SaaS platforms where all customers share infrastructure, TAC provides complete data isolation, no noisy-neighbour performance issues, and full customer control over updates, configuration, and data residency. Zscaler, Okta, Duo, and Microsoft all run on shared vendor-controlled clouds — your policies sit beside thousands of other customers, and a single incident can cascade across the entire platform.

Close All Inbound Ports — Every One

TAC’s reverse-proxy architecture requires only a single encrypted port (up to TLS 1.3) for all application traffic. Organisations can close every other inbound firewall port entirely, eliminating the whole category of unauthenticated remote exploitation. Applications like SharePoint, RDP, and VPN concentrators all require open ports — with TAC, they don’t.

No competitor offers this. Zscaler uses connector tunnels that still create network exposure. Okta’s enforcement lives at the IdP; Access Gateway is a separate product for legacy web apps and doesn’t close inbound exposure. Duo’s Network Gateway still requires its own exposed ports. Microsoft Application Proxy uses connectors with open ports. TAC can take an organisation from dozens of open inbound ports to one.

True Deployment Freedom — Any Environment

TAC deploys on-premises, in a private cloud, in a public cloud, or in any hybrid combination. The customer chooses where their security infrastructure lives — including air-gapped environments. A single SVA, a local HA array, or a globally distributed array for enterprise scale: the architecture adapts to the requirement.

Zscaler, Okta, Duo, and Microsoft are vendor-controlled cloud solutions running on the vendor’s multi-tenant infrastructure. Customers have no choice over data location, infrastructure control, or deployment model. For regulated industries, government environments, or organisations with data residency requirements, this is not acceptable — TAC is built for it.

Protects Every App — Legacy, Thick-Client, IoT

TAC’s reverse proxy provides full access control for thick-client applications, RDP, SSH, legacy web apps, forms-based authentication apps, and IoT devices — all without any application modifications. This is the biggest gap in the zero-trust market.

Zscaler ZPA handles TCP/UDP traffic but cannot inject authentication in front of applications. Okta requires SAML/OIDC-compatible apps and a separate Access Gateway. Duo’s VPN-less access is limited to web applications. Microsoft Application Proxy supports only web apps with no thick-client or forms-based auth support. Mission-critical legacy systems are simply unprotected by these platforms. TAC protects all of them.

SSO That Abstracts Application Location

TAC provides built-in SSO across every protected application — cloud, on-prem, legacy, anything — from a single portal. An application running in a datacenter today can be migrated to the cloud tomorrow and users won’t notice. Same menu. Same icon. Same login. This eliminates user disruption during cloud migrations entirely.

Competitors tie SSO to specific protocols (SAML/OIDC) and deployment locations. Moving an application means reconfiguring policies, updating URLs, and retraining users. TAC abstracts application location from the user experience entirely — giving you genuine application portability without user impact.

Continuous Real-Time Device Posture

TAC continuously validates device posture — checking certificates, OS version, patch level, antivirus status, firewall state, disk encryption, domain join, and geolocation — and enforces policy in real time. If a device falls out of compliance mid-session, access is revoked immediately, not at next login.

Zscaler checks posture only via its Client Connector agent (required on every device). Okta requires third-party MDM integration. Cisco Duo’s full device trust is locked behind its highest tier. Microsoft requires a separate Intune licence plus Conditional Access. TAC delivers this as standard — no client required for core posture signals, with an optional TAC client for the deepest checks.

Works With Your Identity — Any Directory

TAC integrates natively with Active Directory, LDAP, SQL databases, Azure AD, multiple directories simultaneously, and custom identity sources — with no migration required. You keep your existing identity infrastructure exactly as it is.

Competitors require you to adopt their identity model. Okta wants to become your identity provider. Microsoft requires Azure AD for full Entra functionality. Zscaler’s identity integrations are limited in scope. TAC adapts to your environment rather than forcing your environment to adapt to it — removing one of the largest barriers to zero-trust adoption.

All-Inclusive Licensing — No Add-On Fees

TAC bundles MFA (all seven methods: FIDO2, SMS, OTP, SafeLogin, TOTP, push, hardware tokens), SSO, DLP, device posture, reverse-proxy enforcement, identity federation, and 24×7 support into a single per-user licence. No add-on modules. No bandwidth fees. No redundancy surcharges.

Zscaler layers sandbox, DLP, and ZDX modules on top of the base licence. Okta charges separately for Adaptive MFA, Identity Governance, API Access Management, and Privileged Access. Cisco Duo gates full device trust behind its highest tier. Microsoft’s full zero-trust stack spans multiple products, licences, and admin centers. TAC eliminates the add-on game entirely.

Head-to-Head

TAC vs. Each Competitor

Zscaler

Zscaler ZIA / ZPA

Zscaler routes traffic through its multi-tenant cloud via lightweight connector agents that maintain persistent outbound tunnels. Zscaler ZPA handles TCP/UDP but cannot inject authentication in front of applications — it only tunnels traffic. Thick-client, legacy, and IoT applications fall entirely outside its scope. Sandbox, DLP, ZDX, and premium data-centre fees layer on top of the base licence.

✕No true port closure — connector tunnels remain
✕Cannot inject auth in front of applications
✕No thick-client, legacy, or IoT support
✕Shared multi-tenant cloud — no isolation