Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is an American multinational cybersecurity company with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The core product is a platform that includes advanced firewalls and cloud-based offerings that extend those firewalls to cover other aspects of security. The company serves over 70,000 organizations in over 150 countries, including 85 of the Fortune 100. It is home to the Unit 42 threat research team and hosts the Ignite cybersecurity conference. It is a partner organization of the World Economic Forum. In 2018, Palo Alto Networks was listed 8th in the Forbes Digital 100. In June 2018, former Google and SoftBank executive Nikesh Arora joined the company as Chairman and CEO. History Palo Alto Networks was founded in 2005 by Israeli-American Nir Zuk, a former engineer from Check Point and NetScreen Technologies, and was the principal developer of the first stateful inspection firewall and the first intrusion prevention system. Zuk created Palo Alto Networks with the intention of solving problems enterprises faced with existing network security solutions, namely: the inability to allow employees to use modern applications safely, which entailed developing a firewall capable of identifying and providing fine-grained control of applications. In 2007, the company produced and shipped its first product, an enterprise firewall. In 2009, Gartner released a publication defining a next-generation firewall. In contrast to traditional firewalls, which at the time relied on simple rules such as port numbers and protocol to block traffic, the authors stated that next-generation firewalls should operate on and inspect all layers of the network stack and be intelligent enough to block threats independently of port numbers or protocols used. In particular, the publication defined this next-generation firewall as containing (in addition to the full capabilities of both traditional firewalls and intrusion prevention systems): Support for in-line deployment without disrupting network operations, application awareness, and full stack visibility allowing for fine-grained detection and control of applications, extra-firewall intelligence, and upgrade paths.