Companies looking to implement AI technologies — and let’s be clear, it’s no longer a question of if, but when — are increasingly searching for capabilities that go beyond sheer power. While the power and capacity of an AI solution remain a major priority — especially considering the long list of outcomes that are possible — organizations are also focusing on security. As companies integrate more proprietary data into these systems, as dictated by the enterprise model, security becomes equally important.
To address these needs, Google Cloud is strengthening its security offerings by expanding its existing strategic partnership with cybersecurity powerhouse Palo Alto Networks. The aim is to better support secure AI development and deployment built on a solid, secure foundation.
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Combined Technologies
The crux of this expanded partnership involves integrating Google Cloud’s AI infrastructure with Palo Alto Networks’ AI security platform, Prisma AIRS. Last October, Palo Alto Networks upgraded this platform to Prisma AIRS 2.0, incorporating the recently acquired enterprise AI ecosystem security platform, Protect AI.
By combining the capabilities of Prisma AIRS with Google Cloud’s AI toolkit, customers can leverage a unified platform for securing a wide range of AI workloads, including agents, applications, and data. “Enterprises are increasingly turning to Google Cloud and Palo Alto Networks to secure their applications and data — together and in a seamless way,” said Matt Renner, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Google Cloud.
“This latest expansion of our partnership will ensure that our joint customers have access to the right solutions to secure their most critical AI infrastructure and develop new AI agents with security built in from the start.”
AI + Cloud
In light of increased use of cloud infrastructure to support AI development and implementation, the expanded strategic partnerships focuses on four key areas:
End-to-end AI security: Integrating Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma AIRS will allow customers to protect their live AI workloads and data within Google Cloud AI systems, such as Vertex AI. The goal is to ensure the secure development of AI applications built on Google Cloud, providing a solid security foundation.
Software firewall (SWFW): Google Cloud customers can enhance their adoption of cloud services and support robust security policies by utilizing Palo Alto Networks VM-Series firewalls. Unlike physical hardware firewalls, software firewalls protect a system by monitoring both incoming and outgoing network connections.
Secure access service edge (SASE) platform: The expanded relationship integrates Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma SASE, the company’s cloud security platform for remote access, with Google Cloud’s native AI services, running on the Google network. Consistent security policies are maintained across multi-cloud and multi-application environments through Google Cloud Interconnect.
Unified security: Ultimately, unifying these security and AI cloud solutions, without integration hurdles, makes it easier for companies to create inherently secure AI innovations more quickly and simply.
Regarding the other side of integration, Palo Alto Networks is expanding the operation of its security platforms on Google Cloud infrastructure and leveraging Vertex AI and Gemini LLMs to enhance its copilot infrastructure.
Closing Thoughts
AI is reshaping business operations at lightning speed. Organizations have, and if they haven’t, they certainly should have, learned from the errors of the past when cybersecurity was an afterthought in digital transformation. Now, AI security must be built-in; it must serve as a foundation for AI adoption and implementation.
This expanded partnership between Google Cloud and Palo Alto Networks represents a significant step in that direction, combining the world-class AI capabilities of Google Cloud with the security expertise of Palo Alto Networks, a leader in cybersecurity. While this is not the first partnership in the Cloud Wars Top Ten to merge AI security with AI infrastructure, emerging as it did at the close of 2025, it is certainly setting a profound benchmark for the year ahead.
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