Legacy infrastructure needed to keep up with business expansion and AI. Before unifying its security operations, Shutterstock faced complex challenges driven by growth and the explosive rise of SaaS and AI tools:
- Maximizing engineering bandwidth: As business demands evolved, optimizing network and security infrastructure management offered a key opportunity to free up additional bandwidth for long-term strategic initiatives.
- Streamlining security controls across web applications: Building on existing security protocols, the team identified an opportunity to simplify policy enforcement and data protection across SaaS and GenAI environments
- Exploring cost-efficient access models: Providing secure remote access for contractors, acquisitions, and BYOD environments relied on traditional VDI, prompting the team to evaluate lighter-weight, lower-cost alternatives.
- Streamlining data governance across AI workflows: With mature compliance frameworks already in place, the team looked to simplify inline data loss prevention for employees using approved web-based generative AI tools.
Transforming enterprise agility, trust, and AI enablement.
Shutterstock partnered with Palo Alto Networks to build a security foundation that could match its growing global scale without adding friction. By combining cloud-delivered access, browser-native protection, and centralized management with deep threat intelligence, the partnership replaced a patchwork of legacy tools with one cohesive framework spanning the network, the browser, and the data moving through both. This security posture safely accelerates user productivity and GenAI innovation across the business.
“If you can get the governance and security in place up front, you can allow your users to do more with the tools they have. Figure out how to enable your users, not block your users. I think that’s a key part of being a C-level leader in today’s technology landscape.”
— Courtney Totten
CIO, CISO, and Interim CTO, Shutterstock
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Prisma Access enables secure and high-performance connectivity for global workforce
To provide secure, reliable, and low-latency connectivity for its global hybrid workforce, Shutterstock deployed Prisma Access. This deployment ensures a seamless user experience for all employees, including teams that rely on fast, consistent access to business-critical applications and services. By combining consistent zero trust protection with comprehensive access logging, Prisma Access helps Shutterstock strengthen security for business-critical applications, improve workforce productivity, and enhance operational resilience across its hybrid environment.
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Modern endpoint and contractor security via Prisma Browser
Recognizing that work happens across SaaS, web, and AI applications, Shutterstock deployed Prisma Browser to secure its 1,500-person user base across managed laptops, personal devices, and contractor endpoints. The lightweight browser replaced legacy VDI environments, giving contractors instant, secure access to private applications and SaaS tools without hardware provisioning.
Employees can now securely access emerging AI tools, driving productivity and satisfaction while enabling Shutterstock to maintain a capable security posture. The IT team applies granular data protection policies such as enabling controls on clipboard actions, file downloads and uploads, restricted file uploads, and download limits to prevent sensitive media data from leaving corporate boundaries. This capability effectively eliminates shadow IT and shadow AI by providing complete visibility into trending applications, empowering IT to determine exactly which apps need to be sanctioned or blocked.
“Life is happening in the browser, and Palo Alto Networks gives us the visibility and control we need right where the work gets done.”
— Courtney Totten
CIO, CISO, and Interim CTO, Shutterstock
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Centralized management with Strata Cloud Manager
By consolidating network security operations into Strata Cloud Manager, Shutterstock gained a unified management experience for network configuration, security policy, and visibility across its environment. This centralized approach enables the security team to investigate activity across Prisma Access and Prisma Browser, manage policies from a common interface, and deploy changes more consistently across the enterprise. -
Strategic AI risk assessment with Unit 42
To complement the real-world visibility and controls delivered by Prisma Browser, Shutterstock brought in Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 for a specialized AI Security Assessment. Over a dedicated two-month engagement, Unit 42 evaluated overall data governance, threat models, and organizational security readiness around emerging AI and supplied strategic guidance. Supported by Palo Alto Networks Professional Services, Shutterstock translated these expert assessment recommendations into posture improvements, ensuring robust enterprise-wide policy alignment across its security infrastructure.
Staying agile, secure, and ready for what’s next.
As Shutterstock continues to grow and evaluates future expansion, its partnership with Palo Alto Networks remains foundational to its long-term technology strategy. The account team functions as a trusted extension of Shutterstock’s security organization, offering strategic recommendations, CIO-level access, and “crawl, walk, run” deployment guidance tailored to the company’s specific operating model. Looking ahead, Shutterstock plans to explore deeper platform capabilities, including Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation CASB and security innovations, ensuring that as the threat landscape and AI applications evolve, its workforce remains agile, secure, and empowered to innovate.
“Having the underlying infrastructure managed by Palo Alto Networks has given our team more opportunity to spend their time where it’s going to be most beneficial for us—focusing on specialized customizations rather than maintenance and operations.”
— Courtney Totten
CIO, CISO, and Interim CTO, Shutterstock
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