Case Study: Barrett Steel Limited achieves Zero Trust security, business continuity during the pandemic, and simplified security management with Palo Alto Networks

Barrett Steel turns information security into a business enabler, assuring business continuity during a global pandemic and strengthening long-term competitive position

Barrett Steel, the UK’s largest independent steel stockholder with about 1,200 employees, needed to maintain strong information security across on-premises and cloud assets to prevent operational disruption, meet security expectations for new markets, and simplify administration for a lean IT team. The company faced legacy performance limits, a rising phishing threat, and the need to rapidly scale secure remote access during the COVID-19 pandemic.

By deploying Palo Alto Networks Strata and Prisma Cloud to implement a Zero Trust posture—managed centrally with Panorama and extended to endpoints via GlobalProtect—Barrett gained granular traffic control, real‑time threat prevention, and cloud visibility in AWS. The solution blocked phishing attacks, supported a tenfold rise in remote workers with no major service disruption, simplified security management, and helped Barrett protect operations and pursue security‑conscious business opportunities.

Barrett Steel Limited

Sam Ainscow

Head of IT Operations and Chief Information Security Officer