Palo Alto Networks announced several new products that extend its lead in next-generation network security by addressing today's mixed virtualized and physical enterprise networks and, enabling enterprises to not only detect but also prevent modern malware.


The new products are:

• VM-Series – a virtualized next-generation firewall platform that brings next-generation network security into the virtualized data center environment
• WildFire modern malware prevention subscription which sets the bar for the market which until now has only been focused on detection
• PA-3000 Series – a new, midrange next-generation firewall hardware platform
• M-100 appliance – a dedicated high-performance management appliance.

The new Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is a component in a comprehensive approach to network security in the virtualized data center.

Using application-, user-, and content-based next-generation firewall technology, it offers intra-host safe enablement of data center applications regardless of port or protocol. PAN-OS 5.0 adds significant management capabilities to the virtualized data center solution, such as allowing enterprises to tie user and app-based policies to virtual machine or server deployments via cloud automation or orchestration tools.

Furthermore, a new feature, dynamic objects, allows security policies to follow virtual machines even when live-migration technologies move those VMs between hosts. PAN-OS 5.0 and the VM-Series enable IT to efficiently secure the infrastructure, both physical and virtual with a common policy and management approach.

Safe enablement of applications in the virtualized data center, combined with the ability to secure intra-host traffic, integration with migration technologies and orchestration and automation tools, all under one policy and management approach gives Palo Alto Networks customers a comprehensive and flexible solution to securing their virtualized data centers and private cloud infrastructures.

New threat prevention updates

Palo Alto Networks begins offering a subscription service for WildFire, the company's cloud-based modern malware prevention service. The new service gives subscribers one-hour response times for the delivery of modern malware signatures, and integrated, on-box logging and reporting. The enhanced response time will ensure that the damage caused by "zero-day" malware and targeted attacks are mitigated for Palo Alto Networks customers.

The analysis and notification portion of WildFire will continue to be offered as a free service to all Palo Alto Networks customers. WildFire uses the inherent advantages of Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls to find modern, never-before-seen malware across all applications, not just web and email. To date, WildFire has discovered more than 70,000 new malware files that had not been identified by existing anti-malware solutions.

New midrange next-generation firewall

The new PA-3000 Series Next-Generation Firewall expands the options for enterprise customers looking for a mid-range next-generation firewall that has the same level of application-, user-, and content-based control as existing data center and remote office solutions from Palo Alto Networks. The PA-3000 Series is comprised of the PA-3020 and PA-3050 Next-Generation Firewalls, and delivers full next-generation firewall capabilities at up to 4 Gbps of App-ID throughput.

New High-Performance Management Appliance

On the management front, the new M-100 management appliance offers an easy to deploy, high-performance, dedicated appliance for the Palo Alto Networks Panorama management system, which offers global, centralized control over a network of Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls. The M-100 also introduces distributed log collection capability for large-scale enterprise deployments.