Digital Transformation Gets Easier When Security Just Works

When I ask customers what they like about Palo Alto Networks, their answer is consistent: it just works. They can operate efficiently and prevent successful cyberattacks. Our Security Operating Platform is built for automation – it has to be easy to operate if we’re going to help our customers achieve digital transformation.

You may not recognize the name “Security Operating Platform” because we have recently changed it from “Next-Generation Security Platform.” We feel this new name better reflects its unique value. The components of the platform are integrated, making it easy to operate and automate manual tasks.

In my last blog post, I noted that the hardest part of digital transformation isn’t deciding on vendors or deploying new technologies, but instead getting people to think differently and change how they work. One of the recommendations shared, based on what I’ve been hearing for months now in my time spent with our customers and partners, is that organizations should bring stakeholders together and out of their silos to create cross-functional teams.

Whether we call these teams “agile” or something else, this mode of working requires support from a platform that can automate workflows, meet compliance and provide consistent enforcement across network, cloud and endpoints. If the technology is not designed to support workflow across the environment, it is not going to support these cross-functional teams.

We continue to expand the platform and add automation. A decade ago, we invented the Next-Generation Firewall, enabling organizations to adopt security best practices using app-, user- and content-based policies and applying a Zero Trust approach throughout. We added cloud-based security services for threat detection and prevention in what we call our first evolution. These services use the next-generation firewalls as sensors and for automated enforcement. In our second evolution, we extended the platform to include endpoint and cloud security. The security services integrate with the cloud and endpoint security to share intelligence and automate enforcement.

Now, in our third evolution, we have further extended our automated approach to ecosystem partners. Innovative apps developed by us, by third parties, or by your own teams, can access a security data set that is specific to your environment, as well as access shared threat intelligence. The apps can monitor, detect and report on threats, automate workflows, and meet compliance. As threats evolve, we believe automation and analytics that work across cloud, network and mobile devices are required to detect and stop sophisticated attacks.

We’ll see you at RSA Conference this week and hopefully at our Ignite ’18 Security Conference next month, where we’ll be celebrating disruption and digital transformation. I look forward to hearing from you – come experience our Security Operating Platform for yourself.