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SUNNYVALE, Calif., Mar. 14, 2011 – Palo Alto Networks™, the network security company, today announced that DDB Amsterdam, a key component of international marketing and advertising icon DDB Worldwide Group, has selected Palo Alto Networks to replace its legacy firewalls. The next-generation Palo Alto Networks firewalls will provide DDB Amsterdam with superior visibility into its network to control application usage, improve security and enable its business operations.

With 200 offices and over 13,000 employees in more than 90 countries, DDB Worldwide is a top five global advertising and marketing services network. The company's clients include major brands such as Exxon, Clorox, McDonald's, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis and many others. Under the DDB Worldwide rubric, DDB Amsterdam serves clients such as KLM and Philips.

DDB Amsterdam's creative team spends much of its time online, routinely accessing social media applications that can harbor threats, and sending large files back and forth via email and FTP. To be effective, its staff must be able to access any type of application or website instantly. To support the agency's 400 users, the agency's IT team must achieve two sometimes conflicting goals; to afford employees immediate access to any application, while also protecting them.

DDB Amsterdam's incumbent firewalls from Juniper Networks, and web filtering software from Web Marshall, we're too inflexible and time-consuming. They also could not provide visibility into specific network activity. The agency selected Palo Alto Networks' PA-500 and PA-4000 Series firewalls for the granular visibility and flexibility it needs to squash threats while securely -- and transparently -- controlling application usage and Internet access.

"Our goal is to let our staff to securely use any application they want to anytime," said Jeroen Buren, IT Manager for DDB Amsterdam. "Palo Alto Networks enables us to give users all the functionality they need without forcing us to compromise on security. The user-friendliness, control and visibility of the PA-4000 and PA-500 Series allow us to more quickly respond to our users, which helps them better serve our clients."

The Palo Alto Networks PA-4000 and PA-500 Firewalls identify and filter traffic by user, instead of just by computer IP address. These next-generation firewalls enable enterprises to create granular, business-relevant security policies and safely control applications, instead of the block-or-nothing approach offered by traditional port-blocking firewalls. Using Palo Alto Networks technology, enterprises can accurately identify and control applications by user, scan content to stop threats, and prevent data leakage – all with a single network device. By reducing the number of security devices in their networks, companies can save both capital expenditures and operational costs.

"Legacy security technology lacks visibility into and control of application traffic," said Nir Zuk, Founder and Board Director. "Palo Alto Networks' next-generation firewalls are unique in their ability to see and control applications, users and content – not just ports, IP addresses and packets. Instead of treating security as a monolithic dark cloud threat, DDB Amsterdam can focus on safely enabling application usage for its users."