On-site service sets Palo Alto Networks apart

Seiji Shintaku and Sreekanta Prasad know what it means to go all in on customer service.

Sreekanta, a principal professional services consultant, and Seiji, a senior extended expertise consultant, are both part of the on-site Palo Alto Networks team serving DISH Network Corp., where they demonstrate their dedication to service every day. They’ve spent the last two years helping DISH build a 5G nationwide network. 

“They are working 24/7 with the customer, living their pains and celebrating their successes while representing us as the partner of choice,” said Meir Cohen, senior business channel manager – service providers, 5G.  “After a significant security breach recently, the PANW team at DISH worked around the clock with Unit 42 and the customer to recover the situation.”

Sreekanta or Seiji wouldn’t have things any other way. Both say that they love what they do, where they do it and who they do it for.

“I get to work with diverse technologies (cloud, virtualization, 5G, networking, security) and with products from leading market vendors that all come together to solve unique customer problems,” Sreekanta said.

For Seiji, the job is a chance to help the customer to better understand their environment. Doing so with colleagues he describes as kind and positive, makes working for Palo Alto Networks a place to continue to learn, grow, and have some fun.

Seiji joined the team in 2021, bringing with him a background in development operations. “I have been in the cloud/infrastructure space for a while, so being in the Prisma Cloud space is a good fit,” he said. He enjoys writing custom reports that provide customers with the visibility that they need to get the most out of seeing just how detailed Prisma Cloud’s API output truly is. 

Thanks to his own determination and the support of Palo Alto Networks, Seiji has come a long way from being told during a job interview that he was a “good engineer,” but lacked programming skills.

“I took that as a challenge to grow and made it a point to learn how to program and have never looked back,” Seiji said. “I have grown so much by learning how to do object-oriented coding and using the best practice idea of ‘if I am rewriting code multiple times, I must be doing something wrong.’ I try to write code as reusable code as much as I possibly can.”

His colleague, Sreekanta, also joined the company in 2021. His background is in telecommunications and he felt there was a natural evolution for him to pursue wireless technologies; combining this with enterprise security created a compelling career path. 

Sreekanta said a typical workday involves a regular call with DISH to “discuss and deliver on overall project health,” along with an internal call with teammates “to discuss roadmap items for DISH to improve its security posture and the value add of our product offering.”

For Sreekanta, his growth at Palo Alto Networks reflects the lessons he’s learned along the way, including some sage advice he would share with his teenage self. “One can't be an expert in everything. Focus on your strengths and goals and strive towards achieving excellence in whatever you pursue.”

Working on-site can be hard to describe at times, so Sreekanta was asked which animal most closely reminds you of your role with DISH. His response: an eagle with razor sharp focus -- because there's very little room for error when it comes to security posture.”