Palo Alto Networks Debuts Cloud Security Suite

Prisma wraps cloud access, application, and data protections in comprehensive solution set with special features for MSPs

Palo Alto Networks this week formally launched Prisma, a suite of cloud security tools that aims to simplify the often thorny issues of access, data, and application controls in public and hybrid cloud environments.

The Lowdown:  Though Prisma is billed as new, the suite already has 9,000 enterprise customers in various stages of early adoption, company officials said. The offering includes Prisma Access, which delivers access management capabilities specifically designed for MSPs to help them provision secure outbound Internet connectivity for customers, officials said.

The Details:  The Prisma suite includes four components, described by the company as:

Prisma Access – Secures access to the cloud for branch offices and mobile users with a cloud-native architecture that blends enterprise-grade security with a globally scalable network. Prisma Access will ultimately be run on the Google Cloud Platform. Customers will also have access to a cloud management user interface for onboarding branches and users.

Prisma Public Cloud – Provides visibility, security, and compliance monitoring across public multi-cloud deployments. Prisma Public Cloud correlates data and assesses risk across the cloud environment. With the ability to detect vulnerabilities and fix improper configurations in customers’ infrastructure-as-code templates, developers can reduce risk without sacrificing agility.

Prisma SaaS – Eases SaaS application adoption. This multi-mode cloud access security broker (CASB) service provides risk discovery, adaptive access control, data loss prevention, compliance assurance, data governance, user behavior monitoring, and threat prevention. Upcoming integrations will add improved administration experience across both sanctioned and unsanctioned SaaS applications.

VM-Series – Can be deployed in private and public cloud computing environments, including Amazon Web Services, GCP, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, and VMware NSX. The virtualized variation of Palo Alto’s NGFW is also enhanced through infrastructure-as-code automation for deployment and configuration, for reduced complexity.

Prisma Access, Prisma Public Cloud, Prisma SaaS, and the VM-Series are all available now.

The Buzz:  “Our approach to cloud security is aimed at delivering the best security while embracing the unique needs of the cloud. We provide customers with complete visibility, as well as recommended configurations, across their entire cloud environment to ensure a strong security posture from the start and consistently prevent attacks,” said Lee Klarich, chief product officer at Palo Alto. “With Prisma, organizations can securely connect office branches and mobile users to the cloud, confidently embrace the use of SaaS applications, and rapidly develop and deploy cloud applications.”