One of the cool things I like about my job is hearing about what our customers do as a business and how they are using our products to improve their security posture. Unfortunately, due to the nature of corporate network security, these stories rarely get told publicly, and even when they are, it’s rare we get to hear from the actual end user. That’s why I am excited about several of the sessions happening next week at VMworld that involve Palo Alto Networks and our partners and customers. I want to draw your attention to two in particular.
In the first session, Novamedia, the Dutch Postcode Lottery, will talk about how they are securing financial transactions measured in the millions of Euros using our VM-Series and VMware NSX. Now the cool thing here is what Novamedia does for a business, which is to generate and distribute funds to charities around the world.
From their CEO, Boudewijn Poelmann, “The opportunities for development are distributed unevenly throughout the world. Many people are threatened by hunger and disease and nature and the environment are hit hard by human activity. Fortunately, there are many non-profit organizations and people throughout the world who work to change this. They are worthy of our support and in need of funding and publicity for their work. It was from this perspective that the Nationale Postcode Loterij was launched in 1989.” (You can read more about Novamedia’s mission here.)
To attend the Novamedia session, look for the session titled How Novamedia protects their software Defined Datacenter with Palo Alto Networks (#SEC5452) on Tuesday from 3:30-4:30.
In the second session, Novamedia will compete with Telstra, Tribune Media and California Department of Water Resources for the title of Best Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) Project. In this case, the cool factor lies not only in the customer use cases but also the fact that the winner will be one of our customers. How can I say that with such confidence? All four of the Best SDDC competitors use our products to protect their network in one way or another. The Best SDDC Project session happens on Monday from 4:30-5:30 (#SDDC6254-S).
Roughly two years ago when we first released virtualized version of our next-generation firewall, Lee Klarich, our SVP of Product Management, made the statement that our customers were embracing virtualization at a rapid pace and the VM-Series was going to help them solve their cloud security challenges. Next week, at VMworld you can hear how this is happening first hand. And that is wicked cool.