Palo Alto Networks and managed service provider HCL Technologies on Tuesday announced an expansion of their partnership that aims to more effectively secure digital transformations for organizations.
Both Palo Alto and HCL are striving to bring organizations closer to becoming what Palo Alto calls a “Zero-Trust Enterprise” by adopting managed secure access service edge (SASE), cloud, and threat detection and response capabilities.
The companies said the partnership will combine HCL’s cloud service with Palo Alto’s Prisma Cloud, leveraging threat intelligence from Palo Alto’s Unit 42, and integrating HCL’s services platform with Palo Alto’s Cortex XDR platform.
Adoption of a zero-trust architecture and initiatives have picked up steam in recent years, said John Yun vice president, product strategy at ColorTokens. Yun said with different zero-trust starting points available to organizations such as identity, micro-segmentation and access, many are looking to managed service providers to accelerate their adoption.
“Since the path to zero trust consists of the right security solution coupled with the right business initiatives and processes, managed services are very well-positioned and will be very appealing to many,” Yun said. “We should expect this trend to continue with an increasing number of collaborations between security vendors and managed service providers in the near future.”
Melinda Marks, a senior analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group, added that while digital transformation has become a must for organizations across all industries to best serve their customers and remain competitive, security risks increase when enterprises bring more services online, or as they need to scale for faster releases.
“So this is a good partnership for a company like HCL — which helps companies digitally transform — to use the Palo Alto Networks security solutions to help their clients manage security risk and meet compliance regulations as they transform,” Marks said.
