Palo Alto Networks announces AI-powered SASE solution

Palo Alto Networks has announced new AI-powered capabilities to boost its single-vendor SASE solution which it says will enable organisations to generate better security outcomes and unlock operational efficiencies.

According to the Gartner 2022 Roadmap for SASE Convergence report, by 2025, 80% of enterprises will have adopted a strategy to unify web, cloud services and private application access using a SASE/SSE architecture, up from 20% in 2021.

Organisations must move towards a single-vendor SASE approach

An emerging cybersecurity concept that Gartner first described in the August 2019 report The Future of Network Security in the Cloud and expanded upon in its 2021 Strategic Roadmap for SASE Convergence SASE is the convergence of wide area networking (WAN), and network security services like CASB, FWaaS and Zero Trust, into a single, cloud-delivered service model.

"With so many organisations adopting SASE, it is important to understand that in order to reap the full benefits, they need to move towards a single-vendor SASE approach. A mix-and-match approach increases complexity and makes it challenging to be proactive or isolate issues," said Kumar Ramachandran, Senior Vice President for Products, SASE. "With an integrated Prisma SASE, organisations can harness the power of AI across networking and security to enable a great user experience."

"We recently completed a Zero Trust implementation using Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE and we have already seen significant improvements in the strength of our security posture," said Kenneth Ogami, Senior Vice President and CIO, U.S., Westfield. "We simultaneously deployed SD-WAN from Palo Alto Networks and massively reduced the complexity and cost of our network management, which is critical in retail right now. With the new AI-powered capabilities, we expect to simplify our network management even further to reduce costs, not to mention strengthening our overall security posture even more."

Natively integrated AIOps to automate complex IT operations

Autonomous Digital Experience Management (ADEM) provides Prisma SASE customers end-to-end observability across their network to enable a great user experience. Now with the addition of AIOps, ADEM will help customers automate complex IT and NOC functions while increasing productivity and reducing mean time to resolution (MTTR). Since ADEM is integrated within Prisma SASE it does not require additional appliances or agents to be deployed.

SD-WAN innovations to extend Zero Trust to the branch of the future

Branch locations have never been as digitised and hyper-connected as they are today. The strength of SASE is that it converges SD-WAN with a cloud-delivered Secure Service Edge (SSE), helping organisations simplify management, get consistent visibility and leverage AI/ML for smarter decision-making.

Cloud SWG with Agent-Based Proxy Support and Industry-First Phishing Detections

Some organisations with proxy-based architectures that need to meet industry-specific requirements are looking to migrate to a SASE-based cloud secure web gateway (SWG). Palo Alto Networks is introducing agent-based explicit proxy support with Prisma Access to enable such customers to benefit from superior cloud-delivered security without the need for networking changes, even allowing the coexistence with third-party VPN agents.

Additionally, Prisma Access Cloud SWG uses Palo Alto Networks Advanced URL Filtering to provide the industry's only real-time prevention of unknown and highly evasive Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) phishing attacks. Advanced URL Filtering can also help prevent SaaS platform phishing attacks. With the rise in the sophistication and scale of modern web attacks, Prisma Access cloud SWG stays ahead of threat actors to secure customers with its AI/ML-powered detections.

''Organisations are rapidly adopting SASE frameworks, driving innovation for both SD-WAN and SSE,'' said Bob Laliberte, Principal Analyst of Enterprise Strategy Group.

“With today's announcements for Prisma SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks is demonstrating their commitment to innovation, not just in cloud-delivered security, but in a tightly integrated single-vendor SASE solution that includes industry-leading SD-WAN. 

“Enabling customers to secure IoT devices in branch offices and providing end-to-end visibility to determine branch health utilising the new SD-WAN Command Center will help them differentiate themselves in the mature SD-WAN market.”