Stay Productive During Disruptions: Insights from the Red Sea Cable Cut with Zscaler Digital Experience

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Stay Productive During Disruptions: Insights from the Red Sea Cable Cut with Zscaler Digital Experience

When a global network event hits, visibility is everything. Here's how ZDX helps Network Operations teams cut through the noise, pinpoint the problem, and keep users productive.

When four major subsea cables - SMW-4, IMEWE, FALCON GCX, and EIG - were severed in the Red Sea on September 6, 2025, the effects rippled across the globe. Traffic patterns shifted, latency spiked, and packet loss appeared on previously healthy routes. For users, the experience was simple but frustrating: SaaS applications slowed to a crawl, video calls stuttered, and file transfers took far longer than usual.

Cloud providers rerouted traffic, but rerouting meant congestion - and congestion meant performance issues persisted for hours. For Network Operations teams, this was a classic blind-spot scenario. Internal dashboards showed "green," yet ticket queues filled and frustrated employees started calling the help desk.

What the World Saw

This wasn't just a localized issue - it made global headlines. AP News reported that commercial shipping likely severed the cables near Jeddah, taking out a significant portion of the region's connectivity. TechRadar confirmed that Microsoft Azure services were rerouting traffic, while Windows Central noted that as much as 17% of global internet traffic was impacted. Tom's Hardware described how the cuts forced longer network paths, adding latency and degrading cloud performance worldwide.

Those news articles provided a global perspective, but inside most organizations, IT teams still lacked real-time data. They needed a way to confirm what was happening and communicate clearly to executives and employees.

Turning a Blind Spot Into a Clear Picture

This is where Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) changes the game. Within minutes of the cable cuts, ZDX Scores for traffic traversing the affected routes dropped sharply, signaling a major experience issue.

AI-powered anomaly detection in ZDX Network Intelligenceflagged rising latency on SMW-4 and IMEWE, immediately identifying the external source of the disruption with precision.

Utilizing path visualization, ZDX Network Intelligence traced each hop between users and applications, pinpointing exactly where latency was being introduced - outside the enterprise network, across backbone routes in the Red Sea region.

Armed with this insight, Network Operations avoided wasting time on internal troubleshooting or unnecessary configuration changes. They briefed leadership with confidence, communicated that the problem was external, and monitored recovery as traffic was gradually rerouted.

Empowering Support Teams

The visibility provided by ZDX didn't just stay with Network Operations - it flowed to support teams as well. Level 1 agents, who are often left in the dark during global network events, could see the same ZDX Score drops and regional heatmaps that Network Operations relied on.

Instead of escalating every ticket, they reassured users that this was a known external event and that IT was actively monitoring the situation. Level 2 support focused efforts where they were most needed, reducing ticket escalations and keeping the organization aligned.

How ZDX Makes It Possible

ZDX ties together synthetic monitoring, endpoint telemetry, and hop-by-hop path analysis into a single AI-driven view. The ZDX Score acts as an early-warning signal, measuring experience against historical baselines and surfacing degradations quickly. Synthetic tests continuously measure DNS, HTTP, and TCP performance to catch latency, packet loss, or availability issues before they snowball into major incidents. Endpoint telemetry rules out device-side problems such as CPU saturation or weak Wi-Fi, ensuring teams don't chase the wrong root cause.

AI correlation models analyze all of this data and identify where issues originate - on the device, with the ISP, across a backbone segment, or in the application environment - so IT teams know exactly where to focus their response.

Could Your Team See This Coming?

Think back to how your organization handled the Red Sea cable cut - or the last time a critical SaaS app slowed to a crawl. Was your team confident about where the problem was coming from, or did you spend hours chasing false leads?

For many IT and network teams, the first sign of trouble was a spike in tickets. Hours were spent checking internal systems, reviewing change logs, and escalating issues across teams before someone confirmed it was an internet backbone problem. By the time leadership was briefed, productivity had already taken a hit.

Now imagine a different experience. Minutes after the event began, ZDX Scores drop and an alert appears with AI-generated insights pointing to the affected routes. Path visualization makes it clear where latency is being introduced. Network Operations immediately knows it's an external issue and communicates with stakeholders. L1 support sees the same information and is able to reassure employees that no action is needed on their side. Escalations slow down, ticket queues stay manageable, and everyone focuses on monitoring recovery instead of scrambling in the dark.

This is the difference ZDX makes - turning confusion into clarity and guesswork into data-backed action.

Be Prepared for Connectivity Disruptions and Join the ZDX Launch Event Today

The Red Sea cable cut is just the latest reminder that the public internet can fail at any time - and when it does, user experience suffers even if your infrastructure is healthy. These incidents don't wait for a convenient moment.

ZDX helps you get ahead of the next outage, giving Network Operations the insights they need to diagnose problems quickly and enabling support teams to keep users productive.

Now is the time to strengthen your digital experience strategy. Visit the ZDX virtual event pageto see how ZDX can give your team the visibility and confidence they need - and register for our upcoming session on how to stay ready.

Don't wait for the next cable cut, SaaS slowdown, or backbone event to impact your users. Be ready - and keep your business running smoothly when it matters most.

Disclaimer: This blog post has been created by Zscaler for informational purposes only and is provided "as is" without any guarantees of accuracy, completeness or reliability. Zscaler assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions or for any actions taken based on the information provided. Any third-party websites or resources linked in this blog post are provided for convenience only, and Zscaler is not responsible for their content or practices. All content is subject to change without notice. By accessing this blog, you agree to these terms and acknowledge your sole responsibility to verify and use the information as appropriate for your needs.

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