Case Study: University of Adelaide achieves safe, high-performance access to applications with Palo Alto Networks PA-5000 Series

University of Adelaide provides safe access to applications while improving network performance

The University of Adelaide, a research-intensive institution with more than 25,000 students across four campuses and thousands of wireless and VPN connections, needed to preserve an open-access policy to applications (including social media and BYOD) without degrading network performance or security across some 8,000 simultaneous devices.

The university deployed two Palo Alto Networks PA-5000 next‑generation firewalls to gain user- and application-aware visibility (User‑ID), integrate with Active Directory/Radius, and enable granular, dynamic policy enforcement and threat inspection. The result was improved network performance and proactive monitoring, easier user‑based policy management, support for 900+ applications and BYOD, reduced administrative overhead, and a smooth cutover with no reported issues.

University of Adelaide

Peter Hughes

Team Leader,Networks Services