Mirantis, the pure-play OpenStack company, and Palo Alto Networks, the next-generation security company, today announced a joint partnership and availability of Palo Alto Networks next-generation security as a virtual network function (VNF) within Mirantis OpenStack, a production-grade OpenStack distribution. The combination protects applications from cyberthreats while taking advantage of the agility, cost savings, and innovation of the OpenStack cloud ecosystem.

"OpenStack cloud environments are an attractive choice for many organizations because it gives them flexibility to accelerate innovation by rapidly deploying emerging technologies such as network function virtualization (NFV). We have teamed with Mirantis to give organizations next-generation security as a virtual network function (VNF) needed to operationalize OpenStack and effectively prevent successful cyber breaches."
-- Marc Benoit, vice president of technical business development, Palo Alto Networks

 "As enterprises transition to a cloud infrastructure model, they migrate from hardware-based network services to a software-based, virtualized approach. Integrating Mirantis OpenStack with Palo Alto Networks VM-Series next-generation firewall is a good example of helping accelerate and secure this transition. Our Unlocked partner ecosystem makes it easy for companies to build an OpenStack cloud infrastructure with best-of-breed components."
-- Kamesh Pemmaraju, vice president of product marketing, Mirantis

As part of the collaborative efforts, Palo Alto Networks has joined Mirantis' Unlocked Technology Partner Program. Through this effort, organizations will be able to easily and confidently deploy and manage Palo Alto Networks VM-Series next-generation firewalls on Mirantis OpenStack using Fuel, an OpenStack project for deploying and managing OpenStack.