Palo Alto and Synetix bag UK deal

Wellington College has selected Palo Alto Networks' PA-2000 Series firewall

Firewall vendor Palo Alto Networks has announced a customer win in tandem with one of its first UK reseller partners - Farnham-based IT services and security integrator Synetix Solutions.

The ambitious California-based vendor burst into the UK in December after appointing distributor VADition.

Wellington College has selected a Palo Alto Networks firewall to strengthen the security of its infrastructure, which supports more than 1,000 students and staff.

The PA-2000 Series firewalls enable the college to gain visibility and control of high risk, unauthorised applications on the network, which were previously being overlooked by outdated defence methods.

Karl Driesen, vice president of sales EMEA at Palo Alto Networks, said: “We are seeing tremendous interest despite being fairly new in the UK, so it is pleasing to get such a prestige customer in so short a time.

“Current defences are either redundant or cumbersome. Palo Alto has anticipated this with a range of next-generation firewalls that use application visibility, user identity and content control in a high-performing platform to provide customers with the right balance of internet user freedom with corporate control – in effect loosening control without losing control.”

The vendor’s firewalls enable visibility and policy control of more than 800 applications running on enterprise networks. They identify applications regardless of port, protocol, evasive tactic or even SSL encryption.

The firewalls can also integrate with Active Directory to identify specific users, and automatically scans applications to remove potential threats.

Tony Whelton, director of IT development and services at Wellington College, said: “We looked at several technologies but the Palo Alto Networks firewall provided a much better fit for the needs of the college. From the outset we were immediately able to block unauthorised traffic across our network without any additional management overhead or performance limitations.”