Palo Alto Networks Inc. and IBM Corp. today announced a new partnership in which Palo Alto Networks will acquire IBM’s QRadar software-as-a-service assets and become IBM’s preferred cybersecurity partner across network, cloud and security operation centers.

The partnership, described as a broad-reaching partnership to deliver artificial intelligence-power security outcomes to customers, seeks to address the rapid growth of AI and the significant cybersecurity challenges. To address increasingly sophisticated threats, Palo Alto Networks and IBM are aiming to streamline and transform security operations to stop threats at large scale and accelerate incident remediation for customers.

The partnership starts with the headline acquisition of IBM QRadar SaaS assets, including QRadar intellectual property rights. QRadar is a security information and event management solution that helps organizations detect, understand and respond to cybersecurity threats by collecting and analyzing log data from various sources.

Once the deal is complete, Palo Alto Networks and IBM will facilitate the migration of QRadar SaaS clients to Cortex XSIAM, Palo Alto’s AI-driven security operations platform. On-premise QRadar clients who wish to remain on Q-Radar on-prem will continue to receive support from IBM, including security, usability and critical bug fixes.

The partnership will also see IBM and Palo Alto Networks establish a joint security operation center that will offer managed SOC and IBM Consulting will become a preferred managed security service provider for current and future Palo Alto Networks customers. The two companies also plan to establish a joint Cyber Range that will offer immersive security training experiences for their customers.

Other aspects of the partnership include Palo Alto Networks’ cybersecurity solutions being accessible in IBM’s Consulting Advance AI service platform. Palo Alto Networks and IBM will also accelerate consultant training,  allowing more than 1,000 IBM experts to provide optimal migration, deployment and adoption services across Palo Alto Networks platforms.

IBM also plans to expand its deployment of Palo Alto Networks AI-powered security platforms internally, adopting Cortex XSIAM for next-gen security operations and Prisma SASE 3.0 for zero-trust network security to safeguard more than 250,000 of its global workforce.

In return, Palo Alto Networks intends to integrate watsonx large language models into Cortex XSIAM to drive additional automation capabilities and to leverage IBM’s watsonx to accelerate its customer support outcomes. watsonx will also be used to help Palo Alto Networks proactively address known technical issues, create tailored self-service solutions and boost overall agent productivity within Palo Alto Networks customer support operations.

“Strategic partnerships like the one we’re announcing today with Palo Alto Networks bring with them significant benefits across the industry,” Arvind Krishna, chairman and chief executive of IBM, said in a statement. “Advanced threat protection and automation, underpinned by Cortex XSIAM and watsonx, and coupled with IBM Consulting, will speed client and partner adoption of next-generation security operations.”

The price of the acquisition of IBM QRadar SaaS was not disclosed, but in an interview with CNBC, Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora didn’t hold back in sharing the motivation behind the deal, saying that his company needs to be better prepared to go up against Splunk Inc. Splunk was acquired by Cisco Systems Inc. in March for $28 billion.

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