September 2025 Spark User Summit: PAN-OS 12.1 - Orion

[CharlesBuege-Fuel]

On Thursday, September 18th, Fuel had another of our monthly Spark User Summits and we heard from two experts on the new offerings of PAN-OS 12.1, Orion.  Speakers Imran Bashir and John Harrison introduced us to some of the new functionality that's coming with Orion including Quantum security offerings, multicloud protection, and implementation of Precision AI® on this new platform.  Integrating tightly with Strata Cloud Manager (SCM), we now have a tool available to us that will not only help protect us against the AI-powered attacks of threat actors of today, but also what is going to be there for us in the future.  A new level of security is being set by Palo Alto Networks.  Come join the ride!

Part 1 - Background and SCM Demo

Part 2 - Multicloud security, Demo, and Precision AI® Discussion

Questions from the Event:

Question: Been told that Strata Cloud Manager doesn't support firewalls with multiple vsys or templates.  Will this support be available in the SCM in the future?

Answer: Yes, it is on the roadmap.

Question: Can SCM be used only for monitoring and Panorama for config management?  This would be useful for locally configured management where company management doesn't want to give that control to the cloud at this time.

Answer: Yes, it can.  You can get more information about this in part 2 of the video series at time index of 7:52.

Links shared in the Event:

Quantum Readiness - https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2025/08/securing-the-quantum-age/

CISO's Guide to Quantum (YouTube Video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ84XRtE2VE

PAN-OS 12.1 Features - https://live.paloaltonetworks.com/t5/community-blogs/palo-alto-networks-introduces-pan-os-12-1-orion...

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