New Functionality in PAN-OS Version 7.1 Delivers Universal Protection Across Multi-Cloud Environments and SaaS Applications

Hong Kong, April 13, 2016 – Palo Alto Networks® (NYSE: PANW), the next-generation security company, has announced advancements to its Next-Generation Security Platform that are designed to extend the breach prevention capabililties of the platform and address the security needs of businesses working with cloud-based environments and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications.

The demand for organizations to become ever more agile and competitive is driving a change in the way business applications are developed, deployed, and adopted. Workloads and data are increasingly distributed across physical and cloud computing environments. This changes the threat landscape and increases the risk of exposure to cyberattacks, which is compounded by the limitations of legacy security products that were not designed for this distributed, cloud-based infrastructure.

Palo Alto Networks has addressed these challenges, and many more, in PAN-OS® 7.1. This version of the operating system extends the breach prevention capabilities of the security platform to all major clouds and provides visibility, control, and threat prevention designed to protect customer data regardless of where it resides. Additionally, among the new features are certificate and two-factor authentication advancements that help protect user credentials or neutralize them if they are stolen.

QUOTES
“As organizations continue to embrace the cloud and SaaS for workloads and data, it’s crucial that security solutions keep pace. The capabilities introduced in this new release of PAN-OS provide scalable visibility, control, and threat prevention and offers the deployment flexibility required by today’s distributed organizations and their employees.” – Jeff Wilson, senior research director and advisor, cybersecurity, IHS Technology

“Enterprises require consistent security regardless of where their applications reside. The latest release of PAN-OS addresses new challenges presented by the cloud, enabling organizations to take advantage of agile cloud-based infrastructure and applications while maintaining a consistent security posture.” – Lee Klarich, EVP, product management at Palo Alto Networks

Many of the more than 50 features delivered in PAN-OS 7.1 will help customers:

• Secure Any Cloud – By adding Microsoft® Azure™ and Hyper-V support for the Palo Alto Networks VM-Series and by enhancing VM-Series auto-scaling support in AWS, organizations can achieve a scalable security architecture that enables consistent prevention measures to be deployed from the network, to the public and private cloud, and to the remote user.

• Embrace SaaS – With the release of PAN-OS 7.1 and the newest update to Aperture, Palo Alto Networks adds to its extensive SaaS application capabilities to safely enable Office 365™ deployments.

• Accelerate Preventative Action With Threat Intelligence – With new capabilities supported in the WildFire™ threat prevention and AutoFocus™ threat intelligence services, and PAN-OS, organizations can discover zero-day malware targeting the Mac® OS X® platform and prevent attacks with the global WildFire feed, now published every five minutes. PAN-OS 7.1 now fully supports Mac OS X signatures and the ability to send Mac OS X files to the cloud. AutoFocus now can add context to every attack and make threat intelligence actionable across the organization.
• Prevent Breaches With Secure User Credentials – By streamlining the user experience associated with two-factor authentication in GlobalProtect™ mobile security, organizations can neutralize stolen user credentials. Additionally, enhancements to WildFire and PAN-DB help prevent identity theft from happening in the first place by stopping known and unknown attacks and preventing phishing attempts.

Availability

• PAN-OS and Panorama 7.1 are now available to Palo Alto Networks customers with a current support contract.
• VM-series availability in Microsoft’s Azure cloud is expected in late April.
• Mac OS X support in the WildFire cloud is available now for early access.

To learn more about the Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Security Platform, visit:
https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/products/platforms.html.

 

Find out more about the new features in PAN-OS 7.1:

• What’s new in PAN-OS 7.1
• Register for the PAN-OS 7.1 webinar to learn about the new capabilities of the Next-Generation Security Platform.
• Read the PAN-OS 7.1 blog post

 

About Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks is the next-generation security company, leading a new era in cybersecurity by safely enabling applications and preventing cyber breaches for tens of thousands of organizations worldwide.  Built with an innovative approach and highly differentiated cyberthreat prevention capabilities, our game-changing security platform delivers security far superior to legacy or point products, safely enables daily business operations, and protects an organization’s most valuable assets.  Find out more at www.paloaltonetworks.com.