Palo Alto Networks Completes Acquisition of IBM QRadar Assets

Palo Alto Networks has completed its acquisition of IBM's QRadar SaaS assets, including QRadar intellectual property rights.

The acquisition is part of a new partnership between the companies to deliver AI-powered security offerings. Palo Alto Networks and IBM will facilitate the migration of QRadar SaaS clients to Cortex XSIAM, a next-generation security operations center (SOC) platform with advanced AI-powered threat protection supported by 3,000 out-of-the-box detectors.

Kristy Friedrichs, Palo Alto Networks’ chief partnerships officer, said the acquisition represents an opportunity, together with the vendor’s NextWave partners, to “transform the SOC and disrupt the traditional security information and event management (SIEM) market as we accelerate customer adoption of our innovative Cortex XSIAM solution.”

Palo Alto Networks' Kristy Friedrichs

“Palo Alto Networks is leading the market for SOC transformation by offering QRadar customers and MSSP partners the ability to seamlessly upgrade to Cortex XSIAM, an innovative, AI-driven security platform that is designed to be the center of SOC activity,” she said. “It centralizes data and security operations capabilities, including SIEM, security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR), attack surface management (ASM) and extended detection and response (XDR), into a single platform to drastically streamline security operations and prevent threats at scale.”

Related:Palo Alto Networks Buying IBM QRadar Assets

Palo Alto Networks Partners to Benefit from ‘Market Transformation’

Existing Cortex XSIAM customers have “significantly” reduced their median time to resolution (MTTR) from days to minutes, a critical capability in a threat landscape where attacks are happening faster than ever, Friedrichs said.

“Our partner ecosystem will benefit from this market transformation,” she said. “We rely on our partners to identify opportunities, execute complex transactions, and also to implement and manage our systems. XSIAM in particular is intended to be primarily deployed by our partners, and XSIAM’s multi-tenancy architecture streamlines tenant management and the delivery of managed services. The migrations from QRadar to XSIAM will require our distributors and VARs to support each deal. As XSIAM gains more traction in the market, we will need our partners to identify additional opportunities for SOC transformation, and with that will come resell, deployment and managed services opportunities.”

The acquisition is yet another example of how Palo Alto Networks is investing in, growing with and optimizing for NextWave partners to “break away from the competition,” Friedrichs said.

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“While many vital components of today’s security infrastructure have undergone modernization, SOCs continue to operate on a SIEM model conceived two decades ago,” she said. “Together with our partners, we will pave the way for customers to benefit from XSIAM, the next-generation SOC innovation, powered by AI.”

For more than 10 years, the NextWave Partner Program has been the “catalyst for change, guiding our partners to success by enabling them to capitalize on market transitions,” Friedrichs said.

“For the remainder of our fiscal year 2025 (ending July 31, 2025) we will be focused on accelerating the customer adoption of XSIAM by building and strengthening our XSIAM partner expertise,” she said. “To achieve this goal, we recently unveiled an XSIAM product specialization designed to provide our NextWave partners with the pre-sales and sales training needed to develop an XSIAM expertise to fuel success. I'd like to personally extend an invitation to the QRadar SaaS partners to join our award-winning NextWave Partner Program and to achieve our new XSIAM product specialization.”