Best of Interop 2008 Grand Prize Winner Palo Alto Networks Selected to Present at Interop Las Vegas 2009

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - (BUSINESS WIRE) - Palo Alto Networks , the leader in next-generation firewalls, today announced that it has been selected to present at Interop Las Vegas 2009, to be held May 17-21 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

Lee Klarich, network security expert and Palo Alto Networks vice president of Product Management, will speak on "What's Wrong with the WAN Firewall?" in the conference's Networking Track chaired by Jim Metzler on May 20 at 11:30 am PDT. More information can be found at http://www.interop.com/lasvegas/conference/networking.php

Demonstrating its latest next-generation firewalls in Booth #427, Palo Alto Networks returns to Interop after winning the coveted Best of Interop 2008 Grand Prize Award with significant customer and industry traction and growth over the past year. Despite the economic downturn, the company has continued to accelerate customer acquisition, beating the annual revenue plan.

"Palo Alto Networks has had a great year since being chosen as the Best of Interop Grand Prize winner last year," said Lenny Heymann, Interop General Manager. "We are glad to have the company back active in the event this year, demonstrating its latest advancements in firewall technology and speaking on the troubles of today's legacy firewalls. We look forward to hearing some of Lee's insights on the panel."

Over the past year, Palo Alto Networks has seen significant traction and growth on the customer front, adding new customers such as Greenhill & Co., Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System, ThedaCare, the Museum of Modern Art and Cricket Wireless, and continues to expand in major regions internationally, as well. In addition, since last year's Interop, the company has named Lane Bess, former EVP and GM of Trend Micro, as CEO to lead the company through this critical expansion; and has raised an additional $37M in funding to fuel its rapid growth. The industry has also validated the company's achievements and innovations with significant award recognition, including ZDNet's Most Influential BizTech Product Award, CRN's Top Executive Award for CEO Bess, InformationWeek's Innovators & Influencers Award for CTO Nir Zuk, and InformationWeek's Start Up 50 Award. Palo Alto Networks also earned Interop 2008's Best of Interop Award in the Security Category.

"The industry has had its eye on Palo Alto Networks since our recognition at last year's Interop, and over the past year the company has not disappointed," said CEO Bess. "We are very proud of the achievements of the company, and the validation we have received from the industry and customers for our unique approach to innovative firewall technology. It's fair to say that Interop 2008's Grand Prize Award was a landmark event for the company, and we are excited by our trajectory as we power through a difficult economy and are exceeding the milestones we previously set."

Participating on this year's panel, Klarich is responsible for the product direction and strategy of Palo Alto Networks' leading next-generation firewalls. Prior to his current role, Klarich was the Director of Product Management for Juniper Networks, where was he responsible for firewall/VPN platforms and software. He joined Juniper Networks through the NetScreen Technologies acquisition, where he managed the same product line. Prior to NetScreen Technologies, Lee held various positions at Excite@Home and Packard Bell-NEC.

About Interop

Interop drives the adoption of technology, providing knowledge and insight to help IT and corporate decision-makers achieve business success. Part of TechWeb's family of global brands, Interop is the leading business technology event series. Through in-depth educational programs, workshops, real-world demonstrations and live technology implementations in its unique Interop Net program, Interop provides the forum for the most powerful innovations and solutions the industry has to offer. For more information about these events visit www.interop.com.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks is the leader in next-generation firewalls, enabling unprecedented visibility and granular policy control of applications and content - by user, not just IP address - at up to 10Gbps with no performance degradation. Based on patent-pending App-ID technology, Palo Alto Networks firewalls accurately identify and control applications - regardless of port, protocol, evasive tactic or SSL encryption - and scan content to stop threats and prevent data leakage. Enterprises can for the first time embrace Web 2.0 and maintain complete visibility and control, while significantly reducing total cost of ownership through device consolidation. For more information, please visit www.paloaltonetworks.com.

Palo Alto Networks, the Palo Alto Networks Logo and App-ID are trademarks of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. in the United States. All other trademarks, trade names or service marks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.

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