An intelligent, connected Palo Alto Networks portfolio provides this top three South African university with trusted, innovative cybersecurity. Security efficiency has increased by 80%, and the university is on track to achieve a Zero Trust architecture.
Challenges.
One of South Africa’s largest universities North-West University (NWU) offers more than just an education: it offers people a place in the world. It is one of the largest universities in South Africa, with three integrated campuses serving more than 68,000 students and almost 7,000 administrative and academic professionals.
NWU resembles a mini-metropolis, with an extensive IT infrastructure supporting large volumes of network traffic across multiple campuses and tens of thousands of people. Previously, the university relied on legacy port-based firewalls in its three data centres.
However, these firewalls lacked the security, visibility, performance, and scalability needed to control the growing volumes of data entering and leaving the network. In response, the university standardized four Palo Alto Networks ML-Powered Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) in a high-availability configuration to prevent cyberthreats and enable secure, high-performance access to private network services and the internet.
The solution unites Palo Alto Networks WildFire® malware analysis and Threat Prevention—all managed via the centralized Panorama management console—to continuously and reliably secure the university’s users, devices, and applications.