Palo Alto Networks Named 'Best Solution' for 2010 by the Government Technology Research Alliance

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Dec. 10, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Palo Alto Networks™, the network security company, has earned the prestigious "Best Solution" award from the Government Technology Research Alliance (GTRA) during its 2010 annual security council.

The GTRA, comprised of more than 100 executive-level government technology leaders, establishes a collaborative platform and government-wide dialogue around critical technology initiatives such as cloud computing, virtualization, security, enterprise architecture, project management, health IT, green IT and leadership.

"We are very honored by this award, since it is chosen by popular vote among council attendees, and represents a high level of trust from government technology experts," said Ken Kartsen, director of federal sales and operations for Palo Alto Networks.

"Our solutions keep their networks safe by providing IT staff and management unparalleled policy-based visibility and control over applications, users and content to help minimize organizational risk."

Critical IT infrastructure and information face an unprecedented, constantly evolving threat landscape from both inside and outside vectors, making them attractive targets.

However, organizations cannot simply lock down their networks and information in today's Internet-centric world. Government agencies at the national, state and municipal level are embracing social media and enterprise 2.0 technologies for efficiencies and cost savings, and these technologies require a more sophisticated security measure than traditional network solutions. Organizations using legacy security technology increasingly lack visibility into and control of application traffic.

Palo Alto Networks' next-generation firewalls are unique in the industry in their ability to see and control applications, users and content – not just ports, IP addresses and packets. Palo Alto Networks' next-generation firewalls enable enterprises to create granular, business-relevant security policies and safely control applications instead of the block-or-nothing approach offered by traditional port-blocking firewalls.

"We take a tremendous amount of pride in offering the first solution for government agencies at this level of security," continued Kartsen.

Palo Alto Networks: Next-Generation Firewall

Palo Alto Networks' next-generation firewall provides policy-based visibility and control over applications, users and content. Using this technology, enterprises can accurately identify and control applications, scan content to stop threats, and prevent data leakage – all with a single network device. By reducing the number of security devices in their networks, companies can save both capital expenditures and operational costs.

Palo Alto Networks has fixed the problems associated with traditional firewalls by combining three identification technologies that provide visibility and control over applications, users and content.

• App-ID identifies exactly which applications are running on the network, as well as the associated risks, so administrators can deploy comprehensive application usage control policies for inbound and outbound traffic.
• User-ID integrates with enterprise directory services (e.g. Microsoft Active Directory and other LDAP directories) to link network activity to users and groups – not just IP addresses – for application visibility, policy creation, logging and reporting.
• Content-ID combines a real-time threat prevention engine with a comprehensive URL database to detect and block a wide range of threats, limit unauthorized transfer of files and data, and control non-work related Web surfing.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks™ 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 10Gbps with no performance degradation. Based on patent-pending App-ID™ 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. For more information, please visit http://www.paloaltonetworks.com.

Palo Alto Networks, "The Network Security Company," the Palo Alto Networks Logo, App-ID, and GlobalProtect are trademarks of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. in the United States. All other trademarks, trade names or service marks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.

SOURCE Palo Alto Networks