Palo Alto Networks Extends Next-Generation Firewall Visibility And Control To Enterprise Branch Offices And Apple Devices

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Palo Alto Networks(TM), the network security company, today has made several product and technology announcements: the PA-200--a new, next-generation firewall model for enterprise branch offices; a new release of GlobalProtect(TM) that supports Apple iPads, Apple iPhones and Apple OS X devices; and WildFire(TM)--a new firewall service that uniquely addresses modern malware. These three major advancements further customers' ability to safely enable the use of applications--unrestricted by device type or location--while also protecting their networks specifically from targeted attacks.

To complete this wave of innovation, the company also released PAN-OS 4.1, a new version of its operating system, containing more than 40 new features to help organizations streamline workflow, simplify integration into existing network architectures and accelerate the standardization on Palo Alto Networks for highly distributed enterprises.

Next-Generation Firewall Capabilities to all Enterprise Office Locations

The new Palo Alto Networks PA-200 next-generation firewall model enables enterprises to have the same level of application-, user-, and content-based security at the branch office as they do at headquarters. The release of the PA-200 is largely in response to enterprises fully standardizing on Palo Alto Networks.

The PA-200 delivers full next-generation firewall capabilities at 100 Mbps of throughput in a centrally-managed small form factor.

"During these times of high-profile hack attacks, any enterprise dependent on small business network security products for the branch locations is likely reconsidering their risk posture," said Chris King, director of product marketing at Palo Alto Networks. "We're committed to arming our customers with the most efficient and effective approach to achieving consistent enterprise-class security and policy enforcement for their entire global footprint."

GlobalProtect Extends Protection to Apple Devices

Palo Alto Networks has also made significant advances within its new version of GlobalProtect--remote access technology that extends the same policies, visibility and control of the next-generation firewall to any and all user network connections regardless of their location. Palo Alto Networks now supports Apple products such as the iPad, iPhone, and Mac OS X devices, in addition to Microsoft Windows devices to provide customers with the industry's most comprehensive security and consistent visibility and control over all of their network traffic regardless of device or location.

Since the release of GlobalProtect, Palo Alto Networks has enabled customers to feasibly separate policy from physical restrictions. Palo Alto Networks proposes the concept of the logical perimeter, which it believes provides the necessary framework for integrating a standardized and consistent approach to security into every network connection regardless of location or device. Rules and policies remain consistent and the best intelligence and protections are universally applied.

"As a highly-regulated healthcare organization, the fact that our physicians are adopting Apple iPads at a very fast rate poses both security and compliance challenges," said Mike Wade, network system engineer at Summa Healthcare. "We're looking to Palo Alto Networks to possibly help us with this challenge as they can seamlessly extend our existing user-specific policies to the recent influx of Apple products on our networks."

WildFire- Controlling Modern Malware

With the introduction of WildFire, customers can extend the capabilities of all of their Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls to addresses the challenge of modern malware, which is often targeted, unknown, highly evasive and network enabled. This latest innovation to Palo Alto Networks' industry-acclaimed next-generation firewalls identifies unknown malicious files by directly and automatically executing them in a virtual cloud-based environment to expose malicious behavior even if the malware has never been seen in the wild before.

For malicious files, Palo Alto Networks automatically generates new signatures that are distributed with regular signature updates, and provides the user with actionable analysis of exactly how the malware behaves, who was targeted and the application that delivered the threat. By tightly integrating the firewall with the cloud-based analysis engine, WildFire significantly reduces the time-to-protection for all customers, and makes this critical new protection accessible to any enterprise.

"Our approach to modern malware is the latest example of how we question conventional network security approaches until we've developed a better way of addressing the problem," said Nir Zuk, founder and CTO of Palo Alto Networks. "Combining prior technical contributions such as sandboxing technology and cloud-based malware analysis with the unprecedented capabilities of a next-generation firewall has resulted in innovation that enterprises can feasibly deploy throughout their networks."

Availability

Palo Alto Networks PA-200, GlobalProtect, and WildFire are all available immediately. PAN-OS 4.1 is a free upgrade for customers on maintenance. For more information on pricing for Palo Alto Networks PA-200, WildFire, and GlobalProtect, contact your local reseller or visit http://www.paloaltonetworks.com.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks(TM) is the network security company. Its next-generation firewalls enable unprecedented visibility and granular policy control of applications and content - by user, not just IP address - at up to 20Gbps with no performance degradation. Based on patent-pending App-ID(TM) technology, Palo Alto Networks firewalls accurately identify and control applications - regardless of port, protocol, evasive tactic or SSL encryption - and scan content to stop threats and prevent data leakage. Enterprises can for the first time embrace Web 2.0 and maintain complete visibility and control, while significantly reducing total cost of ownership through device consolidation. Most recently, Palo Alto Networks has enabled enterprises to extend this same network security to remote users with the release of GlobalProtect(TM) and to combat targeted malware with its WildFire(TM) service. For more information, visit www.paloaltonetworks.com.