Palo Alto Networks today announced that Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System has deployed the company’s PA-4000 Series next-generation firewalls to gain greater visibility and control over the applications flowing into and out of its network, reducing risk and Internet bandwidth consumption.
Ranked one of "America’s Best Hospitals" by US News and World Report, VCU Health System supports up to 10,000 users daily on its network. With nearly 200 specialty areas, including multi-disciplinary centers for cancer, cardiology, neurosurgery and transplantation, VCU must balance the critical needs for open and immediate information access with requirements for security and patient privacy.
Named to CIO magazine’s prestigious CIO 100 list for its IT innovation, VCU also faced the challenge of rapidly increasing Internet bandwidth usage – much of which was streaming audio/video that was unrelated to patient care. With rising concern that users could also be introducing risk via online activities, VCU’s IT group chose to use the PA-4000 Series to evaluate where improvements in security and network usage could be made.
"Our job is to minimize risk – while maximizing the ability of medical and administrative staffs to get their jobs done as efficiently and effectively as possible," said Bob DeVoy, network services manager, VCU Health System. "Like virtually all healthcare organizations, end user activities run the gamut from critical hospital business to personal use for work and non-work-related activities. Palo Alto’s products allow us to define and enforce appropriate user policies, so that the business of the hospital always comes first, risk is minimized and our medical professionals retain maximum flexibility."
"Hospitals are accustomed to living at the forefront of new technology development, from medical devices to productivity-enhancing software applications," said Steve Mullaney, vice president of marketing, Palo Alto Networks. "The PA-4000 Series ensures that their security infrastructures foster this adoption of innovation while safeguarding their staffs against threats to their network safety and productivity."
About Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks™ enables visibility and policy control of applications running on enterprise networks. Based on innovative App-ID™ application classification technology, the Palo Alto Networks PA-4000 Series next-generation firewall accurately identifies applications – regardless of port, protocol, evasive tactic or even SSL encryption – at 10Gbps with no performance degradation. Enterprises can now set and enforce application usage policies to meet compliance requirements, improve threat mitigation and lower operational costs. The Palo Alto Networks team includes security and networking industry veterans from Check Point, NetScreen, McAfee, Cisco, Juniper and Blue Coat. It is backed by investors Globespan Capital Partners, Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital. For more information, visit www.paloaltonetworks.com.
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