PCNSC questions - Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Consultant Updated: 2024

Palo Alto's latest citizen survey doesn't contain any bombshell findings, but it does point to a welcome shift in residents' opinions about their local government and a troubling one when it comes to municipal utilities.

Like in year's past, an overwhelming majority of the more than 600 residents who responded indicated that they love their parks and neighborhoods and they still believe housing affordability is a massive problem.

But the results of the Annual Citizens Survey, which was conducted by Polco/National Resource Center, also include one finding that should provide city officials a reason to smile and another that may provide them pause. Compared to last year, a greater share of residents indicated that they believe their local government is doing a good job and that their city is moving in the right direction. It also, however, showed that more residents are anxious about the city's municipal utilities, an attitude shift that follows a year of sharp fluctuations in gas bills.

The survey, which was conducted in August and September, is intended to be statistically significant, with a margin of error rate of 4%, according to Polco. It's intended to be both an annual vibe check and a precursor to the council's priority-setting process, which takes place in January.

Most findings remained relatively unchanged from prior years. Like in past surveys, about nine in 10 respondents gave the city rave reviews (a "good" or "excellent" rating) when asked about parks, open spaces, libraries, firefighters and recreational activities. About 85% gave Palo Alto high ranks as a place to work (up from 79% in 2022). And while just 53% gave it good ratings as a place to retire (up from 46% in 2022).

Utilities, however, stood out as an area of concern after a year marked by the sharp spike in gas prices last December and January, storm-related power outages and concerns that the city's electrical grid is sufficient. Just 51% of the respondents gave the city Excellent Marks this year when asked about affordability of utility services, down from 58% in 2022. When it comes to getting a speedy response back from utilities, 75% of the respondents gave Palo Alto high ratings, down from 85% in 2022.

And even though 79% still gave the city high ratings when asked to rate the community value received from owning and operating utilities, this is a drop from 86% in 2022.

The natural gas price spike a year ago forced some bills to double or triple between December and February, but on Dec. 5, council members argued that the results in the Polco poll reflect perceptions more than reality.

They also pointed out repeatedly that the city's utility rates, despite last winter's surge, remain well below those charged by PG&E, the utility company in surrounding communities.

"I was expecting an even worse response on utilities based on those real severe impacts that happened to our ratepayers, and fortunately we are getting back to normal," Council member Pat Burt said during the Dec. 5 hearing.

While both the city utility and PG&E have both raised utility rates over the past year, Burt said the PG&E hikes to electricity rates are about twice as big as Palo Alto's. The gap between the municipal utility and PG&E continues to grow, he said.

Burt and other council members agreed that City of Palo Alto Utilities should do a better job communicating its relatively low rates through inserts in the monthly bill. Council member Julie Lythcott-Haims suggested that doing would enhance residents' appreciation for living in a city with its own utilities.

"When people don't realize how good they've got it, they're more likely to complain about the circumstances," Lythcott-Haims said.

On the bright side, residents were by and large satisfied with the overall performance of their local government. When asked to rate the honesty of the Palo Alto government, 62% gave the city the top two ratings, up from 53% last year and 55% in 2021.

Furthermore, 62% lauded the city for "treating all residents fairly," up from 50% in 2022 and 57% in 2021. And when asked if the city is overall going in the right direction, 54% gave the top two ratings, up from 42% last year and 40% in 2021.

Mayor Lydia Kou said she was pleased to see the city's ratings rise when it comes to "confidence in government," a syllabu that she said was a high priority for her.

She cited the council's latest efforts to gain more citizen engagement, including the various town halls that council members and senior staff hosted in neighborhoods throughout the city.

"It's really delightful and commendable that we have kind of come up on that bar," Kou said.

Council member Ed Lauing agreed and said that having more than 50% of the population giving high ratings to their government is "fantastic."

Housing, meanwhile, remains an obvious trouble spot, with 11% of survey respondents giving the city Excellent Marks when asked about "availability of affordable quality housing" and 26% doing so when asked about "variety of housing options." The rating has been consistently low for the 20 years that the survey has been in existence and has never been higher than 15%.

Lauing summarized the common sentiment as: "It costs way too much to live here but we love it here." Many of the open-ended responses to survey's questions about city performance backed up this assessment. When the survey asked residents to name the one change that the city could make that would make them happier, 23% of the respondents asked for more affordable housing.

"Make it a place that people who aren't millionaires would be able to live," wrote one respondent.

"Stop assuming we all own houses," wrote another.

Housing, however, wasn't the only issue on residents' minds. Many requested that the city do a better job maintaining streets and fixing up El Camino Real (issues related to streets and traffic comprised 15% of the responses, second only to housing).

Others focused on utilities and encouraged the city to either ban gas appliances or to avoid banning gas appliances.

Council member Vicki Veenker also noted that despite a slight dip in public sentiments about Palo Alto as a place to raise children (the percentage giving the city good ratings dropped from 87% in 2022 to 83% in 2023). More troubling is the relatively low percentage of people who called Palo Alto as a place to retire, which went up from 46% to 53% over the past year but which Veenker argued remains too low.

"I think caring for our oldest and youngest residents is something that we really want to keep a close eye on," Veenker said.

Palo Alto Networks' (NASDAQ:PANW) Q1 FY2024 results were somewhat soft, with NGS growth beginning to moderate and hardware sales normalizing. The company remains well positioned though, due to its large customer base and broad portfolio of solutions. In particular, XSIAM and SASE should drive growth going forward. The stock is starting to look fully valued though, meaning investors should not rely on further multiple expansion to drive returns.

Market

There are a number of cybersecurity trends that should prove favorable to Palo Alto over time. The SEC now requires companies to disclose breaches within four days, increasing the need for tools that enable companies to rapidly identify and remediate issues. This should help drive demand for security operations tools like Palo Alto's XSIAM.

Adversarial cybersecurity activity also continues to increase, both in terms of the volume and scale of attacks. In particular, ransomware attacks are increasing in frequency and severity. This should see cybersecurity spending continue to increase as a percentage of IT budgets.

Consolidation is also an emerging trend that is likely to prove beneficial to Palo Alto. Some of this is being driven by customers, with 75% of companies pursuing a vendor consolidation strategy. There are thousands of cybersecurity companies and the largest only has 1.5% market share. This indicates that cybersecurity is structurally different from many other software categories, although this could be set to change. The growing importance of data and cloud infrastructure provides economies of scale, and synergies between tools are making an integrated portfolio of solutions the preferred approach.

While the long-term outlook is favorable, Palo Alto's business continues to face near-term headwinds due to the macro environment. Scrutiny remains elevated and sales cycles are longer than usual. Businesses are adjusting to the higher interest rate environment though, with a number of cybersecurity vendors suggesting that market conditions were stabilizing.

Palo Alto recently stated that the pricing environment has stabilized, coming after pricing pressure in the previous fiscal year. Pricing pressure has been attributed to competitors trying to dislodge Palo Alto. This presumably refers to Palo Alto’s next-gen security offerings, which is interesting given that CrowdStrike’s (CRWD) pricing has been fairly stable. This could then be a reference to SASE, where Cloudflare (NET) likely has a significantly lower-priced product.

Data

The rising complexity and sophistication of attacks means that data is now central to cybersecurity. Palo Alto believes that for most companies, 45% of security data comes from the firewall and another 40% comes from the endpoint. Palo Alto’s large customer base (~62,000 firewall customers) and solid position within the firewall market therefore gives it a strong competitive position from a data perspective. Palo Alto analyzes around 76 terabytes of data per day and believes that it is the largest user of BigQuery in the world. This access to data is behind Palo Alto's XSIAM solution and is difficult for most companies to replicate.

As a counterpoint, CrowdStrike has stated that around 85% of the valuable data comes from the endpoint as data gets filtered as it is transferred across the network, causing a loss of fidelity.

Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto recently suggested that it is focused on integrating its solutions. This could suggest that the company is now approaching a full suite of solutions and that the pace of acquisitions may decline going forward. Palo Alto is still pursuing acquisition for the time being though, recently acquiring Dig Security and Talon Cyber Security for 232 million USD and 435 million USD respectively.

Companies like CrowdStrike have been touting their unified solutions, which is clearly a shot at Palo Alto’s strategy. There are pros and cons to internal development though. For example, it could be argued that Fortinet's focus on internal development has left it on the back foot in SASE.

With costs front of mind for customers, along with the interest rates, Palo Alto has implemented a number of strategies to help attract and retain customers. The company recently made the Unit 42 Rapid Incident Response Retainer available at no cost to all of its strategic customers. Other actions include annual billing plans, financing through PANFS, and partner financing.

SOC

Palo Alto believes that current security operations center approaches are outdated and that the market is about to undergo a paradigm shift. SOCs monitor, detect, and respond to threats but this is becoming difficult due to the volume and complexity of attacks. SIEM is used post-breach or post-event to figure out what happened, but enforcement and remediation capabilities are needed. Automating the security operations center is also important, as there is a labor shortage within cybersecurity. SOC presents a 30 billion USD opportunity, which Palo Alto believes could grow to 80-90 billion USD over the next decade, driven by AI.

Palo Alto’s XSIAM product was launched close to 12 months ago and did around 200 million USD of bookings in the first 9 months. XSIAM combines an endpoint agent with a data lake and AI, allowing mean response times to decline dramatically.

Palo Alto’s Cortex customer count increased by 25% YoY in Q1 FY2024 to over 5,300 customers. While this is impressive, Palo Alto appears to view Cortex largely as a customer acquisition tool for XSIAM. The company’s XSIAM pipeline is now over 1 billion USD, of which 500 million USD was created in the last quarter alone.

SASE

Palo Alto estimates that SASE will be a 20-30 billion USD market, and so far only around 15% of the market has adopted this architecture. Palo Alto continues to suggest that there are only two and a half players in the market. Presumably referring to Palo Alto, Zscaler, and one of Fortinet, Cato, or Cloudflare.

Palo Alto recently acquired Talon Cyber Security to support its SASE business. Talon provides remote browser isolation technology. The combination of Talon and Prisma SASE will enable users to securely access business applications from any device. Palo Alto has suggested that this is not currently addressed by any SASE vendor but both Cloudflare and Zscaler have browser isolation solutions.

SASE is an important growth driver for Palo Alto at the moment, with its SASE ARR increasing approximately 60% YoY in Q1.

Cloud Security

Palo Alto’s cloud security business will be bolstered by the planned acquisition of Dig Security, which will provide Data Security posture management capabilities. Around 70% of organizations have data stored in the public cloud, and the security of that data is threatened by generative AI and a proliferation of cloud services. Palo Alto plans on integrating Dig's capabilities into its Prisma Cloud platform.

Hardware

There continues to be an industry-wide normalization on the hardware side of Palo Alto's business. As supply chain pressures have eased, backlogs have been reduced, and for some companies, this is now impacting sales. Palo Alto has stated that it never had a large backlog, which may be contributing to the relative strength of its product business. Going forward Palo Alto expects mid- to low-single digit industry product growth.

Financial Analysis

Palo Alto’s revenue increased 20% YoY in Q1 FY2024 driven by growth in next-gen security solutions. NGS ARR grew 53% YoY and is now in excess of 3 billion USD. Product revenue grew 3% and total service revenue grew 25%, with subscription revenue growing 29% and support revenue growing 17%. Growth was fairly consistent across regions, with Palo Alto’s Americas business growing 20%, EMEA up 19%, and JPAC increasing 23%.

Second quarter revenue is expected to be 1.955-1.985 billion USD, an increase of 18%-20% YoY. For the full fiscal year, revenue is expected to increase 18-19%, with NGS ARR expected to grow 34-35% YoY. The expected decline in NGS growth should be concerning for Palo Alto investors, as it is this part of the business that has been Palo Alto's growth engine over the past few years.

Palo Alto continues to win new customers, particularly larger organizations, and is driving adoption of its platform within that customer base. As of Q1, 56% of the Global 2000 has transacted with Palo Alto. 34% of Palo Alto's customer base has deployed all three form factors. Within Palo Alto's top 100 network security customers, 60% have purchased all three form factors, and on average these customers spend over 15 times more than Palo Alto's other network security customers.

Palo Alto's product gross profit margins are trending higher because of growth in the contribution from high-margin software revenue. The easing of supply chain pressures also likely contributed to the rebound in product gross profit margins. The growth of Palo Alto’s XSIAM and SASE solutions should also be supportive of gross profit margins. Given Palo Alto’s reliance on the hyperscalers for infrastructure, SASE margins may not be that high though.

Depending on how competition evolves and the scale that is reached, cybersecurity leaders like Palo Alto appear to be heading towards operating profit margins well in excess of 30%. With Palo Alto demonstrating strong operating leverage over the past 2 years, this is now being reflected in the stock price.

Conclusion

The market is currently placing a premium on profitability, and this situation is likely to persist while interest rates are elevated and economic uncertainty is high. This is favorable for Palo Alto, as it is one of the few cybersecurity companies offering both solid growth at scale and profitability.

The company is now facing headwinds on the hardware side of its business, although, given its current revenue mix, this is not a significant concern. Growth is being driven by cross-selling next-gen security solutions to its existing customer base and leveraging its large sales force to rapidly grow the revenue of acquired businesses.

There is a risk of growth deceleration as Palo Alto begins to saturate its existing customer base though. Given the value of solutions like SASE and XSIAM per customer, and relatively low adoption rates, this may not occur for some time yet. Palo Alto’s stock likely continues to do ok going forward, provided the macro environment remains stable, but there may not be much more room for multiple expansion.

Maintaining independence and editorial freedom is essential to our mission of empowering investor success. We provide a platform for our authors to report on investments fairly, accurately, and from the investor’s point of view. We also respect individual opinions––they represent the unvarnished thinking of our people and exacting analysis of our research processes. Our authors can publish views that we may or may not agree with, but they show their work, distinguish facts from opinions, and make sure their analysis is clear and in no way misleading or deceptive.

To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research.

Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process.

With the second generation of the AI-driven security operations platform, Palo Alto Networks has improved visibility and added support for custom machine learning models, an executive tells CRN.

Just over a year after its release, Palo Alto Networks’ AI-driven security operations offering, XSIAM, is on track to be its fastest-growing product to date. Now, the cybersecurity giant is looking to keep up the momentum with the unveiling of the second generation of XSIAM (extended security intelligence and automation management).

With XSIAM 2.0, Palo Alto Networks is not delivering a major overhaul because it doesn’t need to, given the success of the product since its debut in October 2022, according to Gonen Fink, senior vice president of Cortex products. But the company does have a number of major improvements that partners and customers should benefit from, including around the user experience and support for custom machine learning (ML) models.

“We did not rewrite the product,” Fink said in an interview with CRN. “It was working very well, but we put in additional visibility to [show] what it’s doing for you.”

[Related: Cisco-Splunk Will Face Huge Challenge Vs. Palo Alto Networks: Analysis]

The updates come as Palo Alto Networks reports strong traction around displacing existing providers of SIEM (security information and event management) technologies, and with Cisco planning to acquire SIEM stalwart Splunk for $28 billion.

Since the launch of XSIAM, the “autonomous SOC” (Security Operations Center) platform had more than doubled Palo Alto Networks’ goal for its first year — surpassing $200 million in bookings — in just three quarters, the company said in August.

“We really feel we hit a very, very important problem with a very strong technology that combines AI and automation to really shift the way security operations are done,” Fink said.

XSIAM leverages Palo Alto Networks’ deep expertise in AI and machine learning for security — as well as its massive trove of cybersecurity data — which put together are unmatched by other vendors, said Shailesh Rao, president of Palo Alto Networks’ Cortex business, in a recent interview. The results are dramatically improved outcomes for cybersecurity and a compelling replacement for SIEM, he said.

“We have seen customers transition from their existing SIEM over to XSIAM,” Rao said. “We’re starting to see that already.”

And while the initial target customers for XSIAM are large organizations with mature SOC and data science teams, the product does have the potential to meet the needs of a wider range of customers over time, according to Fink. This includes midmarket companies, where service providers might utilize XSIAM to develop customized solutions for the customers, he said.

What follows are the key updates to know about with Palo Alto Networks’ launch of XSIAM 2.0.

XSIAM Command Center

From the start with XSIAM, one of the things customers have appreciated is how the product improves their understanding of what’s actually going on in the SOC environment, Fink said.

“Traditional tools in the SOC were very complicated — you had multiple monitors and screens,” he said. “And the reality is that none of them actually provide you a comprehensive view of what the system is doing.”

With the debut of XSIAM 2.0, Palo Alto Networks is introducing further improvements to this visibility for partners and customers through the launch of the new XSIAM Command Center.

The Command Center provides a single view of all activities within an organization’s SOC — from the data ingestion and analytics to rule creation and alert detection, according to Fink.

XSIAM Command Center also shows how detections are being grouped into incidents, as well as the automated response and remediation that is taking place to address those incidents, he said.

“This is becoming the one screen that you’re using to understand what’s going on in your environment,” Fink said.

MITRE ATT&CK Coverage Dashboard

Another enhancement to visibility that’s arriving as part of XSIAM 2.0 is the new MITRE ATT&CK Coverage Dashboard, Palo Alto Networks said.

MITRE ATT&CK has become the standard framework used to describe the stages of typical cyberattacks, as well as many of the common tactics and techniques utilized by threat actors. The framework is used widely within the cybersecurity industry, since it allows vendors to show how their products can be used to address specific stages or techniques of an attack.

“Today, customers are measuring their protection against that,” Fink said. “You need to actually know how well you’re protected, based on the different data sources that you’re ingesting.”

From its inception, XSIAM has already come with numerous out-of-the-box detections, so that customers don’t have to write their own rules, he noted. From there, the offering uses machine learning to adapt to the evolving techniques of adversaries, Fink said.

With the new MITRE ATT&CK Coverage Dashboard in XSIAM 2.0, Palo Alto Networks is providing visibility around how well a customer is covered against each of the different elements of the framework, he said.

“That’s very powerful,” Fink said. In addition to showing how real-world protections are aligning to the ATT&CK framework, the new dashboard also helps customers to “for the first time understand what is in XSIAM,” he said.

“The fact that XSIAM comes with built-in detection and machine learning models — thousands of AI-based detections for the various aspects of the MITRE framework — it’s part of what customers buy this for,” Fink said. But now with the new ATT&CK Coverage Dashboard, “customers are actually seeing them,” he said.

Bring Your Own ML

XSIAM 2.0 also introduces the new capability to “Bring Your Own ML” to the platform, Palo Alto Networks announced.

That means that partners and customers are now longer required to replicate their data into another data lake in order to utilize their own custom ML models, the company said.

Bring Your Own ML is primarily aimed at large customers that have unique needs as well as data science capabilities, Fink said. Additionally, third-party service providers can now use XSIAM to deliver specialized tools or services to their clients — particularly in areas that aren’t directly covered by XSIAM, such as fraud detection for instance, he said.

Other Updates

XSIAM 2.0 includes a number of additional improvements, as well, such as a new in-product assistant that provides easier access to product help and documentation.

The new release also delivers enhanced protection and detection through the introduction of several modules — including for early detection of macOS ransomware, Kubernetes and master boot record threats, according to the company.

Other updates include NDR (network detection and response) coverage, “advanced” local analysis for macOS and Linux, a simplified text search system and additional attack surface management policies.

Availability

XSIAM 2.0 is generally available now for partners and customers, according to Palo Alto Networks.

Ultimately, Fink noted that XSIAM’s AI-driven approach is not intended to replace human intervention or expertise, but instead to automatically resolve the vast majority of incidents and enable analysts to focus on the most-critical threats.

“Cyber analysts and cyber experts can actually focus on and quickly respond to those things that require human intervention,” he said. “The results have been simply amazing.”

Collaboration drives end-to-end enterprise security, advancing AI security operations and accelerating cloud transformation 

ARMONK, N.Y. and SANTA CLARA, Calif., Dec. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) Consulting and Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) today announced that they will expand their strategic partnership to better enable clients to strengthen their end-to-end security postures and navigate evolving security threats. Palo Alto Networks, a global cybersecurity leader, will be in a select group of strategic IBM Consulting partners and IBM Consulting will be a premier security services partner for Palo Alto Networks.

"With cloud, data, and technology serving as the lifeblood of most businesses today, cybersecurity threats now represent an existential risk to organizations' core operating models - making it crucial for security leaders to work together for the good of our mutual clients," said Mohamad Ali, Chief Operating Officer of IBM Consulting. "Our relationship with Palo Alto Networks as a select strategic partner is a testament to IBM's open and collaborative approach to cybersecurity. By bringing together best-of-breed AI, security technology, and consulting expertise from both companies, we can help clients create a strong security program that can adapt and scale with future threats."

"The speed and scale of threats are accelerating, with many attackers exfiltrating data in less than 24 hours from the initial compromise of an organization," said BJ Jenkins, President of Palo Alto Networks. "Organizations today need the right cybersecurity partners to keep up with the pace of the ever-changing threat landscape. We are thrilled to expand our longstanding partnership with IBM to help our joint clients mitigate risk and protect critical data assets with industry-leading, AI-powered solutions, cloud security, and services."

As part of this relationship, the companies will jointly offer enhanced security solutions delivered by IBM Consulting Cybersecurity Services, integrating Palo Alto Networks security technologies. The expanded partnership will initially focus on two key areas: helping companies modernize their security operations and securing cloud transformations.

Transforming and Managing Next Generation Security Operations Centers
The first new offering will combine IBM Consulting Cybersecurity Services expertise with Palo Alto Networks Cortex platform to provide clients with autonomous and advanced managed security operations.

The offering will leverage multiple layers of advanced AI and automation from both IBM Consulting and Palo Alto Networks technologies. Specifically, IBM Consulting's Threat Detection and Response Services - which support a wide range of security technologies - will be jointly offered with Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSIAM, an AI-driven security operations platform for the modern SOC designed to simplify security operations, help stop threats at scale, and accelerate incident remediation. Notably, Cortex XSIAM's latest capability allows customers to add their own custom AI models on the Cortex data lake in addition to the existing 1,300+ models.

As part of this service, IBM Consulting will provide 24x7 monitoring, investigation, and automated remediation of security alerts along with resources to drive continuous improvement around cyber threat intelligence, threat hunting capabilities and cyber risk reduction. IBM will also help clients design, build and modernize their security operations centers.

To further accelerate client success, IBM Consulting has already trained its sales, technical support, and delivery teams on Cortex XSIAM, and will continue with additional trainings over the coming months.

Securing Hybrid Cloud Transformation
The two companies will further accelerate clients' journey to the cloud by leveraging Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks together with IBM Consulting services - providing a range of customized services that include holistic security posture assessment, developing secure applications, implementation, and ongoing protection and investigation services. Prisma Cloud protects the entire cloud-native application lifecycle – from Code to Cloud™– helping to identify risks and remediate before they reach production environments. Prisma Cloud fosters engineering and security team collaboration with a shared understanding of securing applications and maximizing their performance. This new joint offering will build on IBM Consulting's strong ecosystem approach, working closely with industry leading partners to help companies secure their hybrid cloud transformation.

Organizations will have access to IBM Consulting's wide breadth and depth of expertise across cloud and enterprise application security and the option for tailored education and training programs.

Today's news builds on the recent announcement that IBM X-Force partnered with Palo Alto Networks to complement its existing, industry leading capabilities with the Cortex product portfolio.

About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs, and gain the competitive edge in their industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

About Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks is the world's cybersecurity leader. We innovate to outpace cyberthreats, so organizations can embrace technology with confidence. We provide next-gen cybersecurity to thousands of customers globally, across all sectors. Our best-in-class cybersecurity platforms and services are backed by industry-leading threat intelligence and strengthened by state-of-the-art automation. Whether deploying our products to enable the Zero Trust Enterprise, responding to a security incident, or partnering to deliver better security outcomes through a world-class partner ecosystem, we're committed to helping ensure each day is safer than the one before. It's what makes us the cybersecurity partner of choice.

At Palo Alto Networks, we're committed to bringing together the very best people in service of our mission, so we're also proud to be the cybersecurity workplace of choice, recognized among Newsweek's Most Loved Workplaces (2023, 2022, 2021), with a score of 100 on the Disability Equality Index (2023, 2022), and HRC Best Places for LGBTQ Equality (2022). For more information, visit www.paloaltonetworks.com.

Palo Alto Networks, Cortex, Cortex XSIAM, and the Palo Alto Networks logo are registered trademarks of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. in the United States and in jurisdictions throughout the world. All other trademarks, trade names, or service marks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners. Any unreleased services or features (and any services or features not generally available to customers) referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available (or are not yet generally available to customers) and may not be delivered when expected or at all. Customers who purchase Palo Alto Networks applications should make their purchase decisions based on services and features currently generally available.

Media Contacts:
Cassy Lalan
Communications, IBM
cllalan@us.ibm.com

Taryn Dawson
Corporate Communications, Palo Alto Networks
tdawson@paloaltonetworks.com 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ibm-consulting-and-palo-alto-networks-announce-expansion-of-key-strategic-cybersecurity-partnership-302004797.html

SOURCE IBM

Collaboration drives end-to-end enterprise security, advancing AI security operations and accelerating cloud transformation

ARMONK, N.Y. and SANTA CLARA, Calif., Dec. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) Consulting and Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) today announced that they will expand their strategic partnership to better enable clients to strengthen their end-to-end security postures and navigate evolving security threats. Palo Alto Networks, a global cybersecurity leader, will be in a select group of strategic IBM Consulting partners and IBM Consulting will be a premier security services partner for Palo Alto Networks.

"With cloud, data, and technology serving as the lifeblood of most businesses today, cybersecurity threats now represent an existential risk to organizations' core operating models - making it crucial for security leaders to work together for the good of our mutual clients," said Mohamad Ali, Chief Operating Officer of IBM Consulting. "Our relationship with Palo Alto Networks as a select strategic partner is a testament to IBM's open and collaborative approach to cybersecurity. By bringing together best-of-breed AI, security technology, and consulting expertise from both companies, we can help clients create a strong security program that can adapt and scale with future threats."

"The speed and scale of threats are accelerating, with many attackers exfiltrating data in less than 24 hours from the initial compromise of an organization," said BJ Jenkins, President of Palo Alto Networks. "Organizations today need the right cybersecurity partners to keep up with the pace of the ever-changing threat landscape. We are thrilled to expand our longstanding partnership with IBM to help our joint clients mitigate risk and protect critical data assets with industry-leading, AI-powered solutions, cloud security, and services."

As part of this relationship, the companies will jointly offer enhanced security solutions delivered by IBM Consulting Cybersecurity Services, integrating Palo Alto Networks security technologies. The expanded partnership will initially focus on two key areas: helping companies modernize their security operations and securing cloud transformations.

Transforming and Managing Next Generation Security Operations Centers
The first new offering will combine IBM Consulting Cybersecurity Services expertise with Palo Alto Networks Cortex platform to provide clients with autonomous and advanced managed security operations.

The offering will leverage multiple layers of advanced AI and automation from both IBM Consulting and Palo Alto Networks technologies. Specifically, IBM Consulting's Threat Detection and Response Services - which support a wide range of security technologies - will be jointly offered with Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSIAM, an AI-driven security operations platform for the modern SOC designed to simplify security operations, help stop threats at scale, and accelerate incident remediation. Notably, Cortex XSIAM's latest capability allows customers to add their own custom AI models on the Cortex data lake in addition to the existing 1,300+ models.

As part of this service, IBM Consulting will provide 24x7 monitoring, investigation, and automated remediation of security alerts along with resources to drive continuous improvement around cyber threat intelligence, threat hunting capabilities and cyber risk reduction. IBM will also help clients design, build and modernize their security operations centers.

To further accelerate client success, IBM Consulting has already trained its sales, technical support, and delivery teams on Cortex XSIAM, and will continue with additional trainings over the coming months.

Securing Hybrid Cloud Transformation
The two companies will further accelerate clients' journey to the cloud by leveraging Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks together with IBM Consulting services - providing a range of customized services that include holistic security posture assessment, developing secure applications, implementation, and ongoing protection and investigation services. Prisma Cloud protects the entire cloud-native application lifecycle – from Code to Cloud™– helping to identify risks and remediate before they reach production environments. Prisma Cloud fosters engineering and security team collaboration with a shared understanding of securing applications and maximizing their performance. This new joint offering will build on IBM Consulting's strong ecosystem approach, working closely with industry leading partners to help companies secure their hybrid cloud transformation.

Organizations will have access to IBM Consulting's wide breadth and depth of expertise across cloud and enterprise application security and the option for tailored education and training programs.

Today's news builds on the recent announcement that IBM X-Force partnered with Palo Alto Networks to complement its existing, industry leading capabilities with the Cortex product portfolio.

About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs, and gain the competitive edge in their industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

About Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks is the world's cybersecurity leader. We innovate to outpace cyberthreats, so organizations can embrace technology with confidence. We provide next-gen cybersecurity to thousands of customers globally, across all sectors. Our best-in-class cybersecurity platforms and services are backed by industry-leading threat intelligence and strengthened by state-of-the-art automation. Whether deploying our products to enable the Zero Trust Enterprise, responding to a security incident, or partnering to deliver better security outcomes through a world-class partner ecosystem, we're committed to helping ensure each day is safer than the one before. It's what makes us the cybersecurity partner of choice.

At Palo Alto Networks, we're committed to bringing together the very best people in service of our mission, so we're also proud to be the cybersecurity workplace of choice, recognized among Newsweek's Most Loved Workplaces (2023, 2022, 2021), with a score of 100 on the Disability Equality Index (2023, 2022), and HRC Best Places for LGBTQ Equality (2022). For more information, visit www.paloaltonetworks.com.

Palo Alto Networks, Cortex, Cortex XSIAM, and the Palo Alto Networks logo are registered trademarks of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. in the United States and in jurisdictions throughout the world. All other trademarks, trade names, or service marks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners. Any unreleased services or features (and any services or features not generally available to customers) referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available (or are not yet generally available to customers) and may not be delivered when expected or at all. Customers who purchase Palo Alto Networks applications should make their purchase decisions based on services and features currently generally available.

Media Contacts:
Cassy Lalan
Communications, IBM
cllalan@us.ibm.com

Taryn Dawson
Corporate Communications, Palo Alto Networks
tdawson@paloaltonetworks.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ibm-consulting-and-palo-alto-networks-announce-expansion-of-key-strategic-cybersecurity-partnership-302004797.html

SOURCE IBM