It is only in rare cases when a start-up manages to provide an IT solution better than the experienced providers and cause a real paradigm shift. When it happens, however, it can lead to a great success.
Security start-up Palo Alto Networks, which was founded by Nir Zuk along with two leaders in the global firewall industry and enjoys an investment by Checkpoint founder Shlomo Kramer, is attacking the field of enterprise network firewalls, a traditional IT field which is ruled by security giants such as Checkpoint, Juniper Networks, Cisco and McAfee, and offers its clients the “next generation of firewalls” (already termed NGWF).
The revolutionary agenda behind Palo Alto’s solution focuses on sorting and blocking the information streaming into the organization’s network and out of it through the internet. It does so by identifying the applications, processes and users responsible for the information flow, rather than blocking information based on the traditional port-based communication protocols (such as TCP) or IP address.
Through their new APP-ID techonology, Palo Alto are even capable of identifying the type of connection an organization’s user opens against a social network such as Facebook, and allow to use only those applications that the company’s security manager has approved.
Now, try and imagine the face of Checkpoint’s sales manager in San Francisco, when the security managers of several big clients ask him to analyze and secure, in real time, some of the dangerous scenarios involving their users against third-party applications on Facebook, MySpace or any other HTTP service.
According to the research firm Gartner, it seems the organizational firewall market is heading towards application recognition, along with the transition to cloud services and virtualization, which makes things very difficult for the old school firewalls.
The research firm has placed Palo Alto into its “magic matrix” of 2010 in the organizational firewall field, a rare move for an IT start in such a closed and traditional field, and will prove very beneficial to its sales representative when they offer their firewall application to big organization’s IT managers and security solution integrators around the world.
It seems that Palo Alto’s progress in the four years since it was founded is so impressive, and that Gartner received such positive feedback from the Palo Alto clients it interviewed, that the firm did not only slot Palo Alto in it’s “Leading Firewall Providers” report, but also deemed it the “most visionary Firewall company in the world”, and claimed it is causing the market leaders to change their offers and products to deal with Palo Alto’s product.
An interesting question is where does Palo Alto go from here? There is a reason why IT startups, even the best ones, to usually reach a real market share and Gartner’s matrix – they are usually acquired by one of the giants. Palo Alto’s founders, and its investors, are familiar with the merge and acquisition market in the security world, their respective companies have been bought by Juniper, and they are all experienced entrepreneurs, and this might be why they have turned down offers which no doubt have been made along the way. Barracuda bought a firewall company, HP purchased com3’s firewall services, Checkpoint bought a Nokia security service and McAfee purchased Secure Computing – it can’t be that none of these showed an interest in Palo Alto Networks.
According to the current road map, it seems that Palo Alto is headed to an IPO or a truly large exit. Until then, it will be interesting to see if the company succeeds in consolidating a winning team of integrators all around the world, or possibly even join with a strong Israeli partner and provide a colorful war against CheckPoint for the lucrative contracts in the Holy Land.
Translated by Itai Rosenbaum
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