Wellington College, the prestigious 150-year old educational institution founded by Queen Victoria in 1859, has selected Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls to strengthen the security of its network infrastructure, which supports more than 1,000 students, faculty, and staff members. The PA-2000 Series firewalls enable the college to realise visibility and control of high-risk, unauthorised applications on the network, which hereto were being overlooked by more outdated and cumbersome defence methods.
“We looked for a solution which would prevent students using anonymous proxies such as Tor to by-pass our security systems,” explains Tony Whelton, Director of IT development and services for Wellington College. “After investigating several technologies, the Palo Alto Networks firewall provided a much better fit for the needs of the college by combining application visibility and control with intrusion prevention in one solution.”
Since installation of the Palo Alto Networks firewall, Whelton stated. “Palo Alto with Synetix Solutions delivered a smooth implementation and we are already able to quickly block unauthorized traffic across our network without any additional management overhead or performance limitations – it is a very simple solution to a long standing and growing problem.”
Palo Alto Networks firewalls enable visibility and policy control of more than 800 applications running on enterprise networks by accurately identifying applications – regardless of port, protocol, evasive tactic or even SSL encryption – at 10Gbps with no performance degradation. The firewall can also integrate with Active Directory to identify specific users, and automatically scans applications to remove potential threats.
“We are seeing tremendous interest despite being fairly new in the UK, so it’s pleasing to get such a prestige customer in so short a time,” said Karl Driesen, Palo Alto Networks vice president of sales, EMEA. “The positive comments from Wellington are consistent with the feedback from our other customers because we are delivering a set of capabilities around application visibility, identity and content control that you simply cannot find in any other enterprise firewall.”
“Wellington is typical of a growing number of institutions and enterprise customers that realise that the new generation of users are utilising a new generation of applications and tools,” Driesen continued. “Current defences are either redundant or cumbersome. Palo Alto Networks 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.”
Palo Alto Networks announces Wellington College as a customer in partnership with Synetix Solutions Ltd, the Farnham-based IT Services and Security Integrator, and one of Palo Alto Networks’ first Value Added Resellers in the UK.
About Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks, based in Sunnyvale, California, is the leader in next-generation firewalls, enabling unprecedented visibility and granular policy control of applications and content – by user, not just IP address – at up to 10Gbps with no performance degradation. Based on patent-pending App-ID™ technology, Palo Alto Networks firewalls accurately identify and control applications – regardless of port, protocol, evasive tactic or SSL encryption – and scan content to stop threats and prevent data leakage. Enterprises can for the first time embrace Web 2.0 and maintain complete visibility and control, while significantly reducing total cost of ownership through device consolidation. For more information, visit www.paloaltonetworks.com.
About Wellington College
Wellington College was founded by by Queen Victoria and Prime Minister The Earl of Derby in 1859 as the national monument to Britain's greatest military figure, the Duke of Wellington, who also served the country with distinction twice as Prime Minister. Wellington College is a vibrant and popular co-educational boarding and day school where girls and boys learn to be leaders for life. For more information, please visit www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk.
About Synetix Solutions Ltd
Synetix Solutions Ltd is a specialist provider of storage, security and infrastructure services and solutions to enterprises. Founded by individuals with over a decades experience within the IT industry, Synetix deliver a proven and innovative portfolio of products and services to leading UK corporate customers within financial and professionals services, retail and education. For more information, visit www.synetixsolutions.com.
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Palo Alto Networks, the Palo Alto Networks Logo and App-ID are trademarks of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. in the United States. All other trademarks, trade names or service marks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.
