Vodafone

Vodafone becomes Ireland’s first Palo Alto Networks MSSP

Partnership will help to address the skills gap in cyber security
Trade
Image: Vodafone

23 January 2020

Vodafone Ireland has become the first managed security service provider (MSSP) in the country for Palo Alto Networks.

The move will allow Vodafone to offer customers what has been termed “unprecedented visibility and control of the network,” while also “removing barriers to new and differentiated security offerings” that will protect against a variety of threats. Palo Alto Networks will provide Vodafone Ireland customers with an active 24/7 security operations centre (SOC) service, with threat analysis and intelligence.

According to Palo Alto Networks, MSSP partnerships are more necessary than ever, as they help businesses prevent cyberattacks and develop strong cybersecurity offerings for themselves and their customers. Outsourcing cybersecurity assures MSSPs that they can keep pace with the complexities involved with a rapidly evolving threat landscape. It also provides access to skilled security personnel, whilst helping to manage costs by consolidating provisioning, management, policy enforcement and training.

“Vodafone is committed to providing world-class security,” said Regina Moran, business director, Vodafone Ireland, “and we have a proven record for delivering trusted, mission-critical services to a wide range of customers. Widespread connectivity and higher speeds through 5G mean businesses and their workforces will enjoy increased mobility, with more devices requiring enhanced security. Alongside Palo Alto Networks, we have developed an embedded security culture with cybersecurity at the heart of our network, products and services. This offering allows us to continue enabling Irish businesses to increase their mobility in a secure way.”

Speaking to TechPro, Paul Donegan, country manager, Ireland, Palo Alto Networks, said that Vodafone Ireland had invested significantly in upskilling personnel, as well as in the technologies to allow them to deliver the managed security service.

“Vodafone have made heavy investments in skills, taking their engineers and solution architects through training and certification, over the last many months. They are now able to offer a secure services wrap around their key pillars that will give their customers more visibility and more control around their data on site, but also the applications and the content that is traversing those networks,” said Donegan.  

Paul Donegan, Palo Alto Networks (Image: Palo Alto Networks)

Palo Alto said that through its Networks Security Operating Platform, MSSPs can reach new markets with “profitable, agile and differentiated services for various industries, organisational sizes and security requirements”.  They can “accelerate demand for next-generation security services by providing customers with granular visibility into their applications, users and content.” It will enable service providers to remove barriers to service expansion with a flexible, software-defined platform for gateway, data centre and cloud security services. There is also a reduced the burden on security operations centres, or SOCs, by automating the threat response for known and new threats as well as providing them with greater visibility into threats that affect their customers.

Managed security services are important for organisations to address the growing skills shortages in cyber security, said Donegan. Organisations are finding it difficult to find people with the right security skills and can have difficulty in getting personnel up to the required standards. Managed security services, said Donegan, “can give organisations peace of mind around their investments from a security perspective.”

Vodafone’s “investment in people will help plug the gap in the current skills shortage in the cybersecurity industry, giving them further reach and the ability to protect an even wider customer base,” said Donegan. “It is encouraging to see organisations turning to managed security service providers to secure their assets, creating agile and differentiated services to further protect their customer networks. We welcome these best-of-breed partnerships and look forward to growing this relationship into the future.”

Palo Alto Networks, he said, is working with customers to secure the data anywhere model, and organisations are pushing us to come in and work with them and their partners to explore options now available for them. 

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