Traffic Shaper
Traffic Shaping is just one of the many features in a Palo Alto security appliance but no other traffic shaper scans and cleans for threats as it shapes traffic.
Why purchase a standalone box when a Palo Alto Security Appliance combines traffic shaping with web filtering, threat prevention, IPS, VPN and is a next generation firewall that sees every application, user and threat on your network.
“In addition to upgrading our threat protection infrastructure, we needed to regulate the bandwidth that the residence halls were using to ensure that bandwidth is available for our learning and business needs. Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls are multi-function devices that do more than the other products combined, and give us everything we need.” John Kovacevich, Systems Analyst at Texas A & M at Galveston
QoS and Real-time Bandwidth Monitoring: Apply traffic shaping policies and monitor bandwidth and session consumption in real-time for applications, users, and more
Application Command Center provides administrators with immediate visibility into which applications are traversing the network, who is using them, and the potential security risk which in turn, enables a more informed policy control response.
Armed with these data points, administrators can apply QoS policies that ensure business-critical applications are not starved of bandwidth by non-work related applications.
Guaranteed, maximum and priority bandwidth can be applied across 8 traffic queues.
Policies can be applied to applications, users, source, destination, physical interface, IPSec VPN tunnel and more
Diffserv marking is also supported, enabling application traffic to be controlled by a downstream or upstream device.
The real-time bandwidth monitor provides a graphical view of bandwidth and session consumption for applications and users within a selected QoS class.
The application browser enables dynamic access to a wealth of information on applications, including category, purpose, its underlying technology and behavioral characteristic
The identity of the application is one of several pieces of the application visibility and control puzzle. The remaining pieces required to make a business decision on how to treat the application include more data on what the application is, its risk characteristics, and what technology it uses.
To enable an informed decision on how to treat an application, Palo Alto Networks presents additional background on every application identified in an application browser, providing fingertip access to a wealth of information. The application browser is a powerful research tool, accessible via the Palo Alto Networks website and as an integral piece of the policy management interface.
In either case, administrators can dynamically filter applications based on category, subcategory, underlying technology, and characteristic – including their file transfer capabilities, known vulnerabilities, ability to evade detection, propensity to consume bandwidth, and malware transmission/propagation. Additional application details include a description of the application, the commonly used ports and a summary of the individual application characteristics. Using the application browser, administrators can quickly research an application and immediately translate the results into a security policy.

