The agreement to purchase IBM's software-as-a-service security intelligence technology QRadar has been finalized by Palo Alto Networks. 

With the completion of the transaction, current Palo Alto Cortex Extended Security Intelligence and Automation (XSIAM) customers—the vendor's primary extended detection and response (XDR) platform—will be transferred, free of charge, to their former QRadar accounts.

IBM Consulting will conduct the migration for qualified QRadar clients, allowing them to keep their current workflows and expertise. IBM is a preferred Palo Alto partner for Cortex XSIAM migrations.

According to IBM, any company that chooses to stick with QRadar on-premises would still get IBM features and support, such as security, usability, and important bug fixes, in addition to upgrades to current connections and the capacity to increase consumption. Client assistance and support are provided to QRadar SaaS users until they are prepared to switch to Cortex XSIAM.

One facet of the two vendors' extensive collaboration to expand security solutions for enterprise clients and internally is the acquisition of QRadar.

A number of integrations, such as those between Palo Alto's XSIAM and IBM's Watsonx AI and data platform, are part of the agreement. In order to enable more automation possibilities, Palo Alto stated that it plans to include Watsonx LLMs into Cortex. Additionally, Watsonx will assist Palo Alto in resolving known technical problems, developing customized self-service solutions, and increasing agent efficiency across the board for Palo Alto's customer support operations.

Palo Alto Networks' Cortex XSIAM package can be used by IBM's managed security services teams and security operations center (SOC) consulting groups to assist customers in developing next-generation SOC solutions, lowering security risks, enhancing visibility, and achieving quicker reaction times, according to IBM.

In order to protect more than 250,000 of its employees worldwide, IBM also stated that it plans to increase the internal usage of Palo Alto's AI-powered security platforms. Cortex will be used for next-generation security operations, and Prisma SASE 3.0 for zero-trust network security.