Business Environment and Strategic Management of Palo Alto Networks

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Palo Alto Networks, examining its business environment and strategic management. It begins with an overview of the company and its competitors, including Cisco Systems, Check Point Software Technologies, and Juniper Networks. The report then delves into a detailed SWOT analysis, highlighting Palo Alto Network's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Following this, it applies Porter's Five Forces framework to assess the competitive intensity within the industry and analyzes the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, the threat of new entrants and substitutes, and the rivalry among existing competitors. A PESTLE analysis is also included, evaluating the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors impacting the company. Finally, the report touches upon project management aspects, including critical path analysis, float determination, and early/late start and finish calculations. References are provided at the end of the report.

BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENT AND
STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT

PALO ALTO NETWORKS
 Palo Alto Networks is based on the platform
of Network Security.
 Palo Alto Network was established in the
year 2005.
 Builds next generation identity.

Competitive analysis
 Competitors: Cisco System Inc, Check Point Software technology,
Jupiner Network Inc.
 Cisco System Inc gives the maximum threat to the Palo Alto
Networks. The infrastructure of Cisco Systems are alike with Palo Alto
Networks. The marketing strategies are weak considering that of Palo
Alto Networks.
 Check Point Software Technology also throws an immense amount of
threat to Palo Alto Networks. The infrastructure is not as well built as
that of Palo Alto Networks. Marketing strategy has been improving.
 Jupiner Network Inc do not possess much threat to Palo Alto Networks
as it only takes away only a small amount of clients away from Palo
Alto Networks.

SWOT Analysis of Palo Alto Network
Inc
 Strength –Strong Distribution, very high success rate
 Weakness- Limited compatibility, hike in attrition rate over the few
years.
 Opportunities- Availability of new client, decrease in cost of
communication.
 Threats- Stagnation of innovative ideas, being sued by public
authorities.

Strength of Palo Alta Network Inc.
 Single Pass Software
 Secured Processor
 Implements Next Generation firewalls
 Parallel Processing Hardware

Weaknesses in Palo Alta Networking
Inc.
 Lesser Compatibility
 Limited Connectivity
 High cost
 Higher Attrition rate

Opportunities of the Palo Alto
Network Inc.
 Availability of new client
 Lesser cost of communication
 Digital Marketing
 Brand Loyalty

Threats of the Palo Alto Networking
Inc.
 Malware
 Phishing attack
 Botnet
 Increase in competition

Porter’s Five Forces of Palo Alto
Network Inc
 Threat of new entrants
 Bargaining power of supplier
 Bargaining power of buyer
 Threat from substitute product
 Rivalry among existing competitors

Threats of new entrance
Palo Alto have managed to build a barrier between them
and the new comers to the business hence possessing
limited threat to the Palo Alta Network Inc. The
entrance of the new competitor in the market is very less
as the course of entering this platform is very expensive
and not many organization makes their way to the
marketing platform.

Bargaining power of the supplier
Palo Alto has build a strong bond with the suppliers over
the year and follow multiple supplier strategy which
helps the organization Palo Alto Network Inc. to the
have a self controlled business platform.

Bargaining power of buyers
Having a large base of customers, it does not affect Palo
Alto Network, Inc. Palo Alto Network Inc. has a huge
diversity of clients. This huge client heads decreases the
power of the clients to bargain against the organization.

Threats from substitute product
Palo Alto Network is customer oriented, hence do not face
the threat of substitution of the product that is being
manufactured by the Palo Alto Network Inc. the product
manufactured by the Palo Alto network Inc. has its own
unique characteristics ahead of the other firewalls
present in the market.

Rivalry among existing rivals
Cisco System Inc and Jupiner Network inc throw fierce
competition to the organization (Huemer, et al 2015).
Despite being one of the oldest member of the firewall
community Palo Alto has been facing the competition
but has been able to stay at par with the competitor and
still lead the race of being one of the most trusted
firewall manufacturer.

PESTLE analysis
 Political- Palo Alto is Politically sustainable.
 Economic- Palo Alto has a stable economic structure.
 Social- Income level of the organization is at a constant growth.
 Technological- Palo Alto has been using automation for a long time,
showing technological efficiency.
 Legal- Palo Alto has legalized all the actions which lead in complete
stability.
 Environment- Recycling of products are done in the organization.

CPM Analysis
 Critical Path Analysis- the total critical path analysis of products
manufactured is time consuming in case of Palo Alto Networks.
 Float determination- Palo Alto Network has very less float
determination time.
 Early start and Early finish- the calculation of early start and early
finish has been calculated very leniently in the organization.
 Late start and late finish- the calculation of late start and late finish is
calculated very strictly by the organization.

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