Many organisations have relied on Panorama for years to centrally manage their Palo Alto Networks firewalls. It’s proven, familiar and fits well in on-premises or hybrid environments. But the way we secure networks is changing fast. With Strata Cloud Manager (SCM), Palo Alto Networks has introduced a cloud-native platform that brings management, automation, and visibility together. And now is the perfect time to make the move.
1. Migration is easier than ever
Palo Alto Networks has recently developed an integrated migration tool that lets you safely and transparently move your existing Panorama configurations to Strata Cloud Manager. It gives you full visibility and control throughout the process:
- Complete migration visibility and control: accept and validate Panorama configurations with pre-migration detection of unsupported elements.
- Flexible migration options: migrate partial or full configurations based on your requirements.
- Conflict prevention: automatically detect and display previously migrated elements to avoid duplication.
- Automated validation: minimise configuration errors that could affect network security.
- Configuration continuity: maintain your existing configurations during the migration process.
Learn more in the official Strata Cloud Manager documentation or read the detailed migration guide.
2. Smarter control of your rulebase and NGFW
Strata Cloud Manager includes built-in policy analysis and rulebase optimisation, similar to what tools like Tufin offer. It automatically identifies outdated, redundant or overlapping rules and helps you clean them up. This improves both security and performance, without needing extra software.
Thanks to the Best Practice Analysis (BPA) feature, you can check whether the firewall settings and rulebase are configured in the best possible way. This applies both to existing configurations (such as an import from Panorama) and to new rules that can be checked live before they are actually activated.
3. Data hosted in the EU
For European organisations, data privacy is often a strict requirement. In Strata Cloud Manager, you can choose where it’s activated (the management part) and where your data is stored (the storage part, also known as the Strata Logging Service or SLS). You can select where your data is hosted: Frankfurt, Dublin or Amsterdam. This makes compliance with local and European regulations much easier.
For all available locations for SCM and SLS, see this link.
4. Panorama vs. Strata Cloud Manager
| Functionality | Panorama | Strata Cloud Manager |
|---|---|---|
| Management | On-premises or private cloud | Cloud-native (SaaS) |
| Policy analysis | Limited | Built-in with automation |
| Updates & maintenance | Manual | Automatic |
| SASE integration | Limited | Seamless with Prisma Access |
| Data hosting | On-prem choice | EU region options for SCM en SLS |
| Scalability | Limited to local resources | Dynamic and global |
5. A step towards full SASE
Migrating to Strata Cloud Manager isn’t just an upgrade in management. It’s a strategic step towards a complete SASE architecture — unifying network and security management in a single, cloud-based platform.
Two tiers to suit your needs — Essentials and Pro
Strata Cloud Manager is available in two tiers to meet the diverse needs of organisations.
- Strata Cloud Manager Essentials: This free tier provides unified visibility, configuration and lifecycle management for your network security infrastructure across NGFW and SASE with support from Strata Copilot.
- Strata Cloud Manager Pro: Building on Essentials, this paid tier introduces advanced AI-driven capabilities for predictive insights and proactive issue resolution. Pro includes AI-powered policy analysis, real-time best practices and compliance recommendations with inline remediation, as well as predictive health monitoring and automated workflows for proactive issue resolution. Pro also includes the Strata Logging Service at no extra cost. Strata Copilot supports advanced questions related to Pro features. You can explore the full features list here.
Customers using Panorama can also choose to integrate with Strata Cloud Manager and use the Strata Cloud Manager Pro capabilities. With Strata Cloud Manager, you can simplify and elevate your network security management, reduce complexity and enhance efficiency.
Choose the tier that best fits your organisation’s needs to experience the benefits of unified, AI-driven network security management and operations today. Customers can also continue to use Panorama for management alongside Strata Cloud Manager to leverage the added capabilities it provides or completely migrate to Strata Cloud Manager. The choice is yours!
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