Security firmPalo Alto
Networksaims to breathe new life into thefirewallwith the latest version of its appliance
operating system.
The PAN-OS 3.0 announced today has been developed to meet the
growing need for organisations to allow remote workers to use
web-based applications.
The challenge faced by IT departments is to widen remote access
without compromising security or quality of service for critical
applications.
"Organisations need to be able to identify applications and
assign bandwidth accordingly," said Lee Klarich, vice-president of
product management at Palo Alto.
Extending visibility and control of applications to remote
workers as well as users on the internal network requires intensive
computing power, he said.
The PAN-OS 3.0 is able to tap into the capacity it needs because
of increased efficiencies achieved through extremely tight
integration with the firewall appliance.
"Hardware and software development teams have worked together to
optimise each component to work with the other," said Klarich.
Palo Alto claims PAN-OS 3.0 will enable businesses to block,
allow and allocate bandwidth for specific web applications based on
the role of users.
The firm said remote working and quality of service
functionality is free of charge to existing customers with software
maintenance contracts.
The PAN-OS 3.0 software will be available for download later
this month.