I had a lot of fun writing this one. Palo Alto Networks is a company I’ve admired for a long time; it’s the world’s biggest standalone security company, has an arm in virtually every category of cyber, and is an active acquirer of dozens of pioneering startups. So I thought it was important to peer into the company’s history, understand how it’s managed to innovate over the last 18 years (an eternity, in cyber years!), and explore where it might go next.
I am a sucker for long reads and what a great read this was. Thanks Rak! I was part of the early journey of the company. Most folks don't know but PANW had laid off folks as the magic wasn't working until they figured out the unique GTM motion - don't sell firewall as a firewall but as an IPS... and the rest is well a $6B revenue story.
Thank you for writing a depth article. The Palo Alto strategy has parallel to Cisco conglomerates.
The big challenge is the ease of onboarding and user experience. Wiz got tremendous momentum by being super easy to adopt and use. Similarly, as Data Dog disrupts a lot of monitoring, security products are challenging to configure. So much focus should be on smooth integrations and creating excellent user experiences across their platform. That would unlock many synergies and increase upsell potential.
I disagree with the thesis that browser isolation is the primary expansion potential. This seems like a niche with many competitors needing more traction. Too crowded with too little TAM. A small acquisition or add-on would make sense, but there are better ways to grow.
Doubling down on SIEM and going into logging has much more significant potential. Palo Alto could eat Splunk lunch. Also, that would help expand security tooling to the DevOps audience, giving many upsell opportunities. Palo Alto Networks could have acquired Sumo Logic.
Awesome article, thanks for the deep and smart analysis.
I am a sucker for long reads and what a great read this was. Thanks Rak! I was part of the early journey of the company. Most folks don't know but PANW had laid off folks as the magic wasn't working until they figured out the unique GTM motion - don't sell firewall as a firewall but as an IPS... and the rest is well a $6B revenue story.
Thank you for writing a depth article. The Palo Alto strategy has parallel to Cisco conglomerates.
The big challenge is the ease of onboarding and user experience. Wiz got tremendous momentum by being super easy to adopt and use. Similarly, as Data Dog disrupts a lot of monitoring, security products are challenging to configure. So much focus should be on smooth integrations and creating excellent user experiences across their platform. That would unlock many synergies and increase upsell potential.
I disagree with the thesis that browser isolation is the primary expansion potential. This seems like a niche with many competitors needing more traction. Too crowded with too little TAM. A small acquisition or add-on would make sense, but there are better ways to grow.
Doubling down on SIEM and going into logging has much more significant potential. Palo Alto could eat Splunk lunch. Also, that would help expand security tooling to the DevOps audience, giving many upsell opportunities. Palo Alto Networks could have acquired Sumo Logic.
Brilliant article with in-depth details. Thanks