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Analyst
Gray Powell
Period: Reporting periods mapped to calendar 2024 Q4 – 2026 Q3 (8 quarters).
- Questions
- 13on tracked calls
- Challenge rate
- 8%1 of 13 questions
- Companies
- 5questioned at least once
- Reporting periods
- 8with questions
These figures cover the whole profile: every tracked question, all reporting periods.
How to read these numbers
Challenge rate is the share of questions that pushed back, pressed for specifics or questioned management’s assumptions. It describes how questions were asked on the calls tracked here; it does not measure whether any view turned out to be right.
Rounding. Rates are rounded to whole percentages, so a small share can show as 0% even when some questions were challenging. The count beside each rate is exact; “none of N questions” means no question was challenging.
No questions recorded. “—” means there is nothing to calculate: no questions were recorded for that period on the calls tracked here. It does not mean there was no activity.
Fewer than 3 questions. A company-level rate is withheld when fewer than 3 questions were recorded for that company; the questions are still counted everywhere else.
Small samples. Profiles with fewer than 10 questions are marked Limited sample.
Reporting periods. Questions are grouped by the calendar quarter each company’s fiscal reporting period maps to, not by the date of the call. Periods without a calendar mapping are listed separately under their fiscal label.
Questions asked
Grouped by company, most questions first. Open a company to read its questions, newest reporting period first.
Showing 13 of 13 questions from 5 companies
ZSZscaler6 questions · 6 reporting periods · 0 of 6 challenging
Calendar 2026 Q2
how are you staying ahead of the firewall vendors who are increasingly trying to upsell Secure Service Edge
Show response
Jay framed the differentiation as architectural rather than feature-based. Zero trust architecture hides applications and eliminates lateral movement, while firewall-based SASE connects users to the corporate network enabling attackers to roam freely.
Calendar 2026 Q1
how does the ARR ramp on a Z-Flex deal compare to customers under historical contracts?
Show response
Kevin said no ARR mechanics difference vs non-Flex deals. Average Z Flex deal is 8-figure TCV with ~4-year term. May include deployment ramps of 6-12 months. More and more customers expected to adopt Z Flex over time.
Calendar 2025 Q4
Where do you see that going longer term? And then as Flex becomes a bigger component of bookings, does that give you higher visibility on future period ARR
Show response
Kevin confirmed Z Flex drives larger commitments than a la carte, longer contracts, and greater long-term ARR visibility. No different impact to ARR mechanics but win-win for customer flexibility and Zscaler visibility.
Calendar 2025 Q3
how excited can we get on the potential there And then is that demand, is it being driven more by, like, SD WAN replacement? Is it the segmentation piece
Show response
Jay said branch demand exceeds expectations with no demand gen needed. Primary driver is SD-WAN replacement, customers finding SD-WAN hard to manage with lateral threat movement risk. Cloud growing from small deployments to larger deals.
Calendar 2025 Q2
we've also heard, particularly with other security vendors, that some companies have become really aggressive pushing ELAs
Show response
Jay said Zscaler avoids ELA approach, focusing on platform sales driven by customer journey and cost savings. Customers choosing bigger deals organically when shown more savings. Strong deployment rates, solutions are well deployed, not shelfware.
Calendar 2025 Q1
Can you talk about some of the targeted marketing you're doing with existing customers to get in front of the firewall refresh
Show response
Jay said branch firewalls are primary target, then campus next. Account-based teams using marketing campaigns, CXO summits, webinars. 57% Zero Trust Branch buyers are new logos.
FTNTFortinet3 questions · 3 reporting periods · 0 of 3 challenging
Calendar 2026 Q2
Is there any way to comment on what component within that category contributed the most to the acceleration?
Show response
Ken Xie identified FortiSASE as more than doubling and SD-WAN as strong, and added sovereign SASE as a distinct new driver, addressing both parts of the question.
Calendar 2026 Q1
are you starting to see more branch office firewall customers turn on SD-WAN components and then convert their firewall subscriptions to secure service edge
Show response
Ken confirmed the firewall-to-SD-WAN-to-SASE conversion trend and highlighted the new bundled service on Slide 14. Large enterprise SASE adoption grew from 16% to 18%.
Calendar 2025 Q3
Is the 10% to 15% -- is that what you really think you're going to do in 2026 as the year plays out?
Show response
Ken clarified 10-15% is the expected normal product revenue growth rate for the next 5-10 years, not specific to 2026. Consistent with Fortinet's 16-year track record since IPO, driven by ASIC advantage, OS integration, and market share gains.
PANWPalo Alto Networks2 questions · 2 reporting periods · 1 of 2 challenging
Calendar 2026 Q3
last quarter you called out 200 million in competitive SASE displacements for the last nine months
Show response
Nikesh attributed the acceleration in displacements to the early integration of SASE with SD-WAN (via the CloudGenix acquisition) and to customers already using Palo Alto firewalls and consoles gravitating to a single consolidated platform.
Calendar 2024 Q4
If I look at the numbers, and back out the QRadar deal, you added around $230 million in net new ARR this quarter versus $270 million a year ago
Show response
Dipak explained the YoY decline was expected due to lapping cloud subscription reclassifications from a year ago, already baked into guidance. Nikesh confirmed peak inorganic QRadar ARR at $74M with no additional inorganic expected.
DDOGDatadog1 question · 1 reporting period · 0 of 1 challenging
Calendar 2025 Q3
what surprised you the most this year? And then just how do you feel about the sustainability of those drivers
Show response
Pomel cited AI adoption growing faster than expected and go-to-market changes clicking earlier than anticipated. Obstler added good demand environment and investment payoffs across products and sales capacity.
NETCloudflare, Inc.1 question · 1 reporting period · 0 of 1 challenging
Calendar 2025 Q4
could you talk about can you just talk more about what you're seeing there, particularly as customers look to deploy AI? How do you see the material pickup in act one relative to prior quarters?
Show response
Prince explained AI companies drove initial Act 1 demand for fraud/bot protection on expensive AI queries. Q4 saw takeoff from traditional companies (media, e-commerce) experiencing enormous uptick in agent interactions with their systems. Zero Trust also seeing self-service uptick as people realize AI agents have access to everything.
Challenge rate by company
Every company this analyst questioned, most questions first. A company-level rate is shown from 3 questions; below that it is withheld.
| Company | Questions | Challenge rate |
|---|---|---|
| ZS Zscaler | 6 | 0%none of 6 questions |
| FTNT Fortinet | 3 | 0%none of 3 questions |
| PANW Palo Alto Networks | 2 | —Rate withheld: fewer than 3 questions |
| DDOG Datadog | 1 | —Rate withheld: fewer than 3 questions |
| NET Cloudflare, Inc. | 1 | —Rate withheld: fewer than 3 questions |
Activity by reporting period
Questions recorded for each calendar quarter that companies’ reporting periods map to (not the call date), with the challenge rate for that period. Periods inside the range with no questions are shown as “No questions recorded”.
| Calendar period | Questions | Challenge rate | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 Q4 | 1 | 100%1 of 1 question | 1 |
| 2025 Q1 | 1 | 0%none of 1 question | 1 |
| 2025 Q2 | 1 | 0%none of 1 question | 1 |
| 2025 Q3 | 3 | 0%none of 3 questions | 3 |
| 2025 Q4 | 2 | 0%none of 2 questions | 2 |
| 2026 Q1 | 2 | 0%none of 2 questions | 2 |
| 2026 Q2 | 2 | 0%none of 2 questions | 2 |
| 2026 Q3 | 1 | 0%none of 1 question | 1 |
- 2024 Q41 question · challenge rate 100% (1 of 1 question) · 1 company
- 2025 Q11 question · challenge rate 0% (none of 1 question) · 1 company
- 2025 Q21 question · challenge rate 0% (none of 1 question) · 1 company
- 2025 Q33 questions · challenge rate 0% (none of 3 questions) · 3 companies
- 2025 Q42 questions · challenge rate 0% (none of 2 questions) · 2 companies
- 2026 Q12 questions · challenge rate 0% (none of 2 questions) · 2 companies
- 2026 Q22 questions · challenge rate 0% (none of 2 questions) · 2 companies
- 2026 Q31 question · challenge rate 0% (none of 1 question) · 1 company
Topics
Topics tagged on this analyst’s questions.
- Demand7
- Competitive Dynamics6
- Revenue Growth6
- Guidance Reliability2
- Innovation & R&D1
- Subscriber Growth1
- Cloud & AI1
- Product Launch1
- M&A1