Appliance Deployment Featured Article

Palo Alto (News - Alert) Networks, a provider of network security solutions, has introduced its appliance for the deployment of a private cloud solution for the detection, analysis and prevention of advanced persistent threats (APTs).

The Palo Alto Networks WF-500 appliance is designed to address the needs of customers who wish to gain access to comprehensive sandbox detection and analysis capabilities of the Palo Alto Networks public cloud-based WildFire subscription offering on a customer-owned platform. When deployed with inline Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewall, the WF-500 also offers full prevention capabilities.

The WildFire service aggregates suspicious files flagged by Palo Alto Networks’ next-generation firewalls deployed at customer sites around the world. The files are then analyzed, and if they are determined to be malware or an APT (News - Alert), a signature is generated and automatically sent to subscribing WildFire customers' next-generation firewalls.

According to Securosis analyst and president Mike Rothman, the malware-analysis private cloud provides a central analysis device and interacts with enforcement points throughout the network.

Further, Palo Alto Networks provides a "closed loop" prevention solution that includes both private and public cloud deployment options, thorough detection, and analysis of all network traffic. It also has the ability to automatically block malware and APTs with the Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewall.

"Quickly identifying and eliminating previously unknown threats across all applications is key to protecting an organization from today's advanced threats; only Palo Alto Networks offers its customers a public or private cloud deployment choice and the closed loop capabilities to most efficiently and effectively stop APTs," said Lee Klarich, senior vice president of product management, Palo Alto Networks, in a statement.

The WF-500 appliance gives customers the freedom to detect, analyze, and eradicate suspected threats in a private cloud under their control as well. If required, they can even share confirmed findings with or receive updated malware signatures from the WildFire cloud service.