SANTA CLARA, Calif.,
March 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/
-- Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW), the global cybersecurity
leader, and Alkira® Inc., the network cloud pioneer,
announced today that Koch Industries, one of the largest private
companies in America with an estimated annual revenue of
$115 billion, according to Forbes,
has initially deployed the combined offering of Alkira's Cloud
Services Exchange™ (CSX) and Palo Alto Networks VM-Series Virtual
Next-Generation Firewalls to securely extend its enterprise
infrastructure into the cloud. Alkira is a Palo Alto Networks
Emerging Technology Partner.
Koch Industries' global business required greater agility from
its complex network infrastructure to respond quickly to its
business needs across the globe. This became even more critical
during operational challenges over the last year, which accelerated
the company's shift to a secure network cloud. Adding regional
support was slow on provisioning and setup of network security, so
Koch sought a simpler, comprehensive and faster network and
security solution delivered from the cloud.
Matt Hoag, chief technology
officer of Koch Business Solutions, shared:
"Alkira's Network Cloud integrated with Palo Alto Networks'
virtual firewall has enabled Koch to simply, quickly and securely
expand our enterprise infrastructure to multi-cloud with an
end-to-end, on-demand security offering. Alkira enables us to draw
our entire end-to-end network on a digital design canvas, and
provision it in one click, so it's ready for use. With Alkira CSX
there is no hardware to procure, no software to download, and no
cloud to learn. The Alkira integration with Palo Alto
Networks has resulted in a flexible and elastic firewall deployment
with policy creation, auto-scaling of firewalls and overall reduced
complexity at Koch."
The company has deployed Alkira to rebuild parts of its cloud
network backbone and transform its network infrastructure into a
multi-cloud service on demand, fully integrated with Palo Alto
Networks VM-Series virtual firewalls for protection against
advanced network-based threats. Palo Alto Networks Panorama™
further provides consistent security policy and firewall management
across all Alkira deployed VM-Series instances.
Koch's extremely large and sophisticated network infrastructure
included seven global networks supporting thousands of
applications, with tens of thousands of access points, hundreds of
thousands of switch ports, and thousands of routers and switches,
at over 700 sites.
It takes the Koch team only minutes to configure Alkira's
network cloud and Palo Alto Networks VM-Series firewalls, and less
than an hour to provision the solutions. The entire security
network was set up in a few hours. The solution can serve
approximately 120,000 Koch employees doing business in more than 70
countries:
- Through Alkira's solutions, Koch can take advantage of
high-speed, low-latency global network connectivity for remote
users, remote sites, data centers and one or more multiple public
cloud environments with end-to-end network visibility, governance
and security provided by Palo Alto Networks VM-Series virtual
firewalls. This enables Koch to securely make changes in the cloud
network in minutes or hours vs. weeks or months.
- The solution provides end-to-end policy enforcement with
microsegmentation, auto scaling and intelligent symmetric
routing, and it is so intuitive to use that Koch can
manage deployments with no assistance from the Alkira and Palo Alto
Networks teams. Koch has been especially pleased with the autonomy
from vendors, the speed at which they can now conduct IT business,
and their ability to redeploy Koch cloud, network and security
resources to quickly address business priorities.
Muninder Singh Sambi, senior vice president, Product
Management, Palo Alto Networks, offered:
"Koch Industries is a great example of our approach to
technology partnerships that enable our customers' digital
transformation. By integrating our best-in-class VM-Series virtual
firewalls into the Alkira platform, we provide Koch Industries with
a simpler, optimal solution to manage automated network security at
scale and enforce consistent threat prevention policies across
their complex cloud environment. This expands Koch's ability and
confidence to securely grow their cloud footprint while maintaining
regulatory compliance around the world. We couldn't be more excited
about partnering with Alkira to provide these advanced capabilities
within Koch Industries."
Atif Khan, chief technology
officer and founder of Alkira, had this to say:
"Alkira runs Palo Alto Networks VM-Series as a service embedded
in the Alkira CSX and fully manages the VM-Series lifecycle
delivering the industry's first CNaaS with integrated VM-Series
security for stateful firewall security to and between cloud
application workloads. Customers can deploy and configure VM-Series
with a few clicks using the Alkira CSX Portal and have full
end-to-end visibility into network segments and the attendant
security policies. Alkira's patent-pending, consistent hashing
maintains traffic flow symmetry and customers benefit from auto
scaling VM-Series instances up and down based on traffic load."
For more information
- Join us for a live event with Koch, Palo Alto Networks
and Alkira on March 11,
2021, at 11:00 a.m. PST.
- Read the blog Palo Alto Networks a Nine-Time Gartner Magic
Quadrant Leader.
- Read about the joint Palo Alto Networks and Alkira cloud
networking security solution
About Alkira
Alkira® developed the Network Cloud, an
end-to-end global unified Cloud Network infrastructure
as-a-service. Alkira Cloud Services Exchange™ (CSX) offers a
consistent, secure, and dramatically simplified cloud networking
experience for on-premises, cloud and multi-cloud environments with
integrated network and security services, and full operational
visibility and governance. Alkira was founded by CEO Amir Khan, founder and former CEO of Viptela,
and Atif Khan, CTO, who was VP of
Integrated Solutions and on the Viptela founding team. Alkira has
raised $76M from Sequoia Capital,
Kleiner Perkins, Koch Disruptive
Technologies, LLC, and GV Capital (formerly Google Ventures). Learn
more at www.Alkira.com or follow us @AlkiraNet.
About Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks, the
global cybersecurity leader, is shaping the cloud-centric future
with technology that is transforming the way people and
organizations operate. Our mission is to be the cybersecurity
partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life. We help
address the world's greatest security challenges with continuous
innovation that seizes the latest breakthroughs in artificial
intelligence, analytics, automation, and orchestration. By
delivering an integrated platform and empowering a growing
ecosystem of partners, we are at the forefront of protecting tens
of thousands of organizations across clouds, networks, and mobile
devices. Our vision is a world where each day is safer and more
secure than the one before. For more information, visit
www.paloaltonetworks.com.
Palo Alto Networks and the Palo Alto Networks logo are
trademarks of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. in the United States and jurisdictions throughout
the world. Alkira® is a registered trademark and Alkira Cloud
Services Exchange™ is a trademark of Alkira, Inc. All other
trademarks, trade names, or service marks used or mentioned herein
belong to their respective owners.
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SOURCE Palo Alto Networks, Inc.