Case Study

Palo Alto Networks uses its own products to keep its customers secure

SUMMARY

Palo Alto Networks has experienced rapid growth as it introduces advanced security innovations. The company uses a public cloud to host its Precision AI^® capabilities, including threat intelligence data, analytics, and AI models. Precision AI relies on a cloud-based data lake that interacts with customer-submitted samples and other company products, making security a top priority due to the strategic importance of the data lake and customer information. The IT team is empowered to choose the best security tools, usually opting for Palo Alto Networks products and providing feedback based on real-world deployment to improve products for their needs and customers.

RESULTS

108 to 1.1 hours

Time saved by managing
policies in a unified
manner.

107.6M

Threats blocked in two months
with Next-Generation Firewalls
for campus/VPN.

25%

Reduction in manual
management tasks with
Strata Cloud Manager.

challenges

Palo Alto Networks IT needed an approach to security that could keep up with the company’s rapid growth. Specifically, the team wanted to:

Extend the same level of security established on-prem to new Precision AI-related cloud apps and infrastructure.
Enable greater automation across network security operations, reducing reliance on manual tasks.
Gain greater visibility across all its apps and environments, on-prem and cloud.

"Our mission is to ensure that all our applications and infrastructure deliver delightful–and secure–experiences for our customers, both internal and external."

Shivneet Singh

Vice President, Infrastructure and First Customer Experience, Palo Alto Networks

SOLUTION

When it comes to security, Palo Alto Networks empowers its IT to choose the best tools for the task, regardless of vendor. IT can opt to deploy Palo Alto Networks products but also look to third parties. More often than not, IT concludes that Palo Alto Networks indeed builds the most effective solution.

For security of its Precision AI, data lake and other cloud-delivered offerings, Palo Alto Networks IT looked to its VM-Series Next-Generation firewalls to secure network traffic into and within the cloud. The virtual firewalls were especially attractive for how they provided equally robust security as the Next-Generation hardware firewalls the IT team already used for its on-premises infrastructure, bringing superior security outcomes to the cloud environment.

In fact, by taking a platform approach to on-prem and cloud security, the IT team could better scale and simplify its operations through functionality like unified policy management, auto-scaling and other automated capabilities. Palo Alto Networks now has over 2,500 active hardware and software Next-Generation Firewalls protecting its environments.

To maximize the protection for Precision AI, the IT team leveraged Precision AI itself. It powers Palo Alto Networks Cloud-Delivered Security Services, which counter every step of the attack cycle with advanced network security protections, from Advanced Threat Prevention to block obfuscated and zero-day exploits to URL filtering and DNS protection to prevent phishing, and more. Palo Alto Networks IT team then adopted Strata Cloud Manager to enable unified policy management and visibility across its entire network. The solution has further simplified security operations while also providing context on the overall health of the network, helping the IT team pinpoint areas for improvement. Singh notes, “Strata Cloud Manager is that single pane of glass that brings everything together and makes it easier to monitor and manage our firewalls.” With Strata Cloud Manager, the IT team has reduced manual management tasks by 25%.

If the IT team selects a Palo Alto Networks product, they frequently consider themselves the first customer and evaluator. The product team welcomes feedback and insights from the IT team, as it’s based on real-world deployment in demanding conditions. This cycle makes the products even better suited for the IT team’s needs and, ultimately, for customers. Shivneet Singh, VP of Infrastructure and First Customer Experience at Palo Alto Networks, notes, “Being the first customer of our products lets us make sure they yield the value we promise to our customers.”