Platform Architecture
Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls are purpose-built platforms that are built to manage high speed traffic flows using dedicated processing and memory for networking, security, content inspection, and management.
To ensure that management access is always available, irrespective of the traffic or management load, the data plane and control plane are completely separated with their own processing, an industry first for the firewall market.
- Data plane processing: Multiple processing technologies are used to maximize throughput.
- A high-speed front-end network processor offloads security processors and delivers hardware accelerated route lookup, MAC lookup and NAT.
- A multi-core security processor with dedicated memory delivers high density processing and hardware-acceleration of standardized, complex security functions.
- Dedicated processing and multiple memory banks are used to deliver high performance content pattern matching.
- Control plane processing: A Dual-Core CPU and dedicated memory accelerates logging, route updates, and device management.
Smoothing the pathway between processors is a high speed backplane that helps to maximize performance with services enabled.
Processing power is only part of a high performance security solution. The remaining critical component is a consistent operating system, with equivalent features across all platforms. The controlling element for all Palo Alto Networks firewall platforms is PAN-OS, a security-specific operating system that tightly integrates networking, threat prevention, and management features with App-ID, a patent-pending traffic technology that identifies exactly which applications are flowing across the network, irrespective of port, protocol, SSL encryption or evasive characteristic.
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"Ensuring business applications are available, and that customer and operational data is protected, are sometimes competing demands we must meet. The PA-4000 Series helps us achieve this goal by enabling us to extend appropriate control over users and applications."
Jon Biskner
Chief Information Security Officer
Nicolet National Bank