Case Study: Melbourne and Olympic Parks achieves secure, high-speed access and stronger network security with Palo Alto Networks

Melbourne and Olympic Parks makes sure events rock on utilising Palo Alto Networks®

Melbourne and Olympic Parks is a 40‑hectare multi-venue precinct in central Melbourne that hosts major sports, entertainment and conference events for thousands of external users and about 100 corporate staff. Rapid growth in IP‑based services — from concert production and tenant VLANs to SCADA‑controlled irrigation and surveillance — increased the network from a few hundred to several thousand nodes and created a need for a scalable, user- and application‑aware security solution that would protect tenants, corporate systems and mission‑critical services while ensuring zero‑downtime events.

To meet that need the IT team deployed two Palo Alto Networks PA‑5000 series next‑generation firewalls across its two data centres, using single‑pass processing plus malware, application and device awareness to enforce VLAN segregation and scan traffic at high speeds. The deployment delivered low‑latency security at scale, safely enabled high‑speed internet for clients while reducing malware risk, strengthened access controls, and improved monitoring and reporting of internet usage.

Melbourne and Olympic Parks

Kay Stock

IT Manager