Case Study

Palo Alto Networks accelerates secure software development with Claude and Google Cloud

Palo Alto Networks and Anthropic lockup

Palo Alto Networks, the world's largest cybersecurity company, uses Claude on Google Cloud's Vertex AI to enhance developer productivity while maintaining their stringent security standards across their global engineering organization.

With Claude on Vertex AI, Palo Alto Networks achieved:

  • 20-30% increase in feature development velocity
  • Reduction in new developer onboarding time from months to weeks
  • Onboarded 2,500 developers, ramping up to 3,500 in the coming months

Meeting the opportunity for AI-accelerated cybersecurity

Palo Alto Networks saw a powerful opportunity: using generative AI to stay ahead of both competitors and bad actors in the rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape. As the world's largest cybersecurity company, they recognized that generative AI could help them deliver secure, high-quality software faster while maintaining their strict security standards.

Before evaluating AI solutions, the engineering team at Palo Alto Networks mapped the entire software delivery process to identify where developers spent most of their time and where errors were most likely to occur. Their analysis revealed that while developers spent 30-35% of their time in initial development, this phase was also where the most critical issues emerged. "If a bug is found later, that's what costs money and reputation and customers are not happy," said Gunjan Patel, Director of Engineering at Palo Alto Networks. This insight guided them to focus their AI implementation on early development stages for maximum impact.

Why Claude on Google Cloud's Vertex AI

After evaluating multiple AI solutions, Patel's team chose Claude on Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform for several key reasons. Claude consistently demonstrated superior performance in coding tasks while maintaining high accuracy and security standards. "Anthropic prioritized safety and security a lot more than other LLMs. They discuss security and safety implications in every meeting. As the largest cybersecurity company, that's a big deal for us," said Patel.

Using Google Cloud's Vertex AI provided significant advantages. Patel said, "Google has nailed the unit measurement with GSU (Generative Service Units). They're granular, usage-based, with flexible commitment periods and pricing structures." Combined with provisioned throughput capabilities, this enabled Palo Alto Networks to scale their AI implementation efficiently. The seamless SDK integration was crucial for deployment. "The SDK to integrate provision throughput was seamless. We just changed the endpoint and it just worked," said Patel.

Transforming the developer experience with specialized Claude models

Palo Alto Networks employs different Claude models for specific development tasks. They use Claude 3.5 Haiku for real-time code completion and Claude 3.5 Sonnet in IDE code chat for complex tasks like architectural explanation and complex code generation. Having development, explanation, and debugging tools integrated into an IDE helps maintain a developer's flow state and reduces context switching..

For new developers:

  • Reduces onboarding time from months to weeks
  • Enables understanding of complex codebases without extensive senior developer support
  • Facilitates faster contribution to production code

For experienced developers:

  • Acts as an always-available pair programmer
  • Assists with complex debugging and architectural decisions
  • Provides instant feedback on code quality and performance optimization

Measurable impact across the organization

Claude's implementation has transformed software development at Palo Alto Networks. New developers can now contribute meaningfully within weeks, instead of taking months to fully understand and contribute to complex codebases. In the pilot program, junior developers with no prior knowledge of a complex product completed integration tasks 70% faster with Claude's assistance.

Looking toward an AI-enhanced future

Palo Alto Networks envisions AI fundamentally transforming the software development lifecycle. Patel and his team are mapping out how AI will reshape development processes that have remained unchanged for decades. "Software development lifecycle was designed before the AI era, and our CEO's hypothesis is that it’s going to change. We probably won't have all these stages and complicated software development processes," said Patel.

The company is already pioneering innovative uses of Claude, including an AI post-processing system which improves the code quality and security in CI/CD. This system automatically improves variable names, adds code comments for readability, and generates unit tests—all while maintaining Palo Alto Networks' rigorous security standards.

Palo Alto Networks is creating a new paradigm for secure, efficient software development by combining Claude's advanced AI capabilities with Google Cloud's enterprise-grade infrastructure and unified AI development platform. Their implementation shows how enterprises can leverage AI to transform development practices while maintaining high security standards. As they scale to thousands more developers, Palo Alto Networks is showing how AI can enhance human capabilities rather than replace them—enabling teams to build better, more secure software that protects organizations worldwide.