SAN JOSE, Calif., September 4, 2007–Palo Alto Networks today announced that nationally renowned Mercy Medical Center has deployed PA-4000 Series next-generation firewalls to gain greater visibility and control over the applications flowing into and out of its network.
Founded in 1874, Mercy Medical Center is an award-winning Catholic healthcare facility and teaching hospital for the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine. Like many hospitals, Mercy employs an open network that supports staff, contractors and wireless access for its 50,000+ patients.
With patient privacy and hospital security paramount, Mercy chose Palo Alto’s PA-4000 Series to provide granular visibility and control over application usage. From that, they can set and enforce stronger policies without hindering productivity. The platform proved its worth within minutes of deployment.
“At Mercy, we're always seeking ways to improve our systems – this makes things easier for our employees and reduces the workload on our IT staff, freeing them for other projects,” said Mark Rein, Senior Director of Information Technology, Mercy Medical Center. “Palo Alto’s next-generation firewall has provided a level of visibility that enables us to know exactly what is on the network at all times, define more informed usage policies and more effectively focus our staff on keeping our system functioning as it should.”
“Our medical and healthcare clients are under tremendous pressure to keep their IT infrastructures in-check while reaping the benefits of advanced technology,” said John Vanderzon, Managing Partner, Sun Management, a Palo Alto Networks reseller partner. “The level of application visibility and control Palo Alto Networks provides is especially critical in a hospital environment where both transparency and compliance must coexist, and we look forward to continuing to support Mercy in its roll out.”
“Advancements in web computing and access have been both a blessing and a curse for organizations such as hospitals, which typically have limited control over their end user population,” said Steve Mullaney, Vice President of Marketing, Palo Alto Networks. “Palo Alto’s PA-4000 Series puts the IT staff of organizations like Mercy back in the driver’s seat. They can maintain their open network approach while having total visibility into application use – including encrypted traffic. That enables them to exert responsible controls to protect their network, their organization and their patients.”
About Mercy Medical Center
Mercy Medical Center is a thriving hospital recognized nationally for its quality patient care, state-of-the-art facilities, and outstanding medical staff. Mercy has been named one of the nation’s Top 100 hospitals, based on quality and performance standards, and was also named one of America’s 10 Best Women’s Centers. Mercy Medical Center is a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and sponsored by The Sisters of Mercy.
About Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks™ enables visibility and policy control of applications running on enterprise networks. Based on innovative App-ID™ application classification technology, the Palo Alto Networks PA-4000 Series is a next-generation firewall that accurately identifies applications – regardless of port, protocol, evasive tactic or even SSL encryption – at 10Gbps with no performance degradation. Enterprises can now set and enforce application usage policies to meet compliance requirements, improve threat mitigation and lower operational costs. The Palo Alto Networks team includes security and networking industry veterans from Check Point, NetScreen, McAfee, Cisco, Juniper and Blue Coat. It is backed by investors Globespan Capital Partner, Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital. For more information, visit www.paloaltonetworks.com.
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