Intelligence expertise, best-of-breed strategies, and automation were three key themes that quickly emerged right from Day One at Ignite ‘22, a two-day conference that kicked off Dec. 13.Ahead of the event it was expected that Palo Alto Networks Inc. would address the pain points around tightening budgets in a challenging economic environment. Palo Alto had also pointed to its recent acquisitions, such as the $195-million-valued cybersecurity startup Cider Security, as an example of its strategy to build its portfolio

Following executive leadership roles at Google LLC and SoftBank Group Corp., Nikesh Arora (pictured) joined Palo Alto Networks Inc. in 2018 as the firm’s chairman and CEO.For nearly five years, he has guided the security provider’s strategic direction toward consistency for customers in a cloud-based world.“You need consistency in data; you need consistency as you traverse through the enterprise,” Arora said. “The cloud guys are busy solving security for their cloud. Google is not doing anything about Amazon’s cloud or Microsoft Azure. Our job in providing cloud security is to be Switzerland, to make sure it works consistently across every cloud