Palo Alto Networks

Components and weights: switching costs 35% (score 90), intangible assets/brand 25% (85), network/data effects 20% (75), cost advantages/scale 10% (75), efficient scale 10% (60).

Weighted result ≈84. Switching costs are high because PANW’s platforms (Strata, Prisma, Cortex) are embedded in policy, logging, and workflows; multi‑year contracts and a $15.5B RPO underscore stickiness.

Intangible assets include trust, brand and a strong threat‑intel corpus (Unit 42) with repeated leadership recognition in Gartner MQs (SASE/Hybrid Mesh Firewalls). Network/data effects are moderate: while not a classic two‑sided network, telemetry flowing into WildFire/XSIAM and emerging AI agents improves efficacy with scale.

Cost advantage is moderate from scale R&D (~$2.0B in FY25) and distribution, though hardware BOMs and cloud hosting costs limit a pure low‑cost position. Efficient scale is mixed given large, well‑funded rivals (Microsoft, Cisco+Splunk) and focused peers (Zscaler, CrowdStrike).

Overall, the moat is real and likely to widen if identity (CyberArk) and observability (Chronosphere) integrate cleanly into a unified data/AI fabric.