Cloud-based information security company Zscaler has wrapped up its fiscal year by topping expectations on earnings and revenue with its fourth-quarter results.

The company reported a profit before certain costs of five cents per share on revenue of $125.9 million, up 46% from a year ago. Wall Street had expected earnings of three cents per share on revenue of $118.5 million.

Zscaler, which sells cloud-based security tools, said it has achieved the growth by selling to companies forced to move quickly to cloud architectures to support people working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. It sells cloud-based web security gateways that inspect customer traffic for malware. It provides its services via 150 data centres located around the world.

Zscaler said its closest rivals, such as Fortinet, sell firewall products that aim to secure virtual private networks. The Zscaler Private Access service replaces VPNs altogether.

“In the new work-from-anywhere economy, where legacy network and security is an inhibitor, organizations are turning to our Zero Trust Exchange for the right architecture to enable success and create competitive advantage in this cloud and mobile world,” said Jay Chaudhry, Zscaler’s chairman and chief executive.

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