For a financial institution like Wellby Financial, resilience goes beyond IT priority. It is a business imperative, and a critical part of how the Houston-based credit union supports member trust, business continuity, and operations.
As Wellby expanded across locations, hybrid workers, cloud applications, and data centers, its leaders saw an opportunity to take a more integrated approach to security. The credit union needed an upgraded model that could help protect sensitive member data while supporting more resilient connectivity, especially in Houston where severe weather can disrupt operations. With multi-pathing and redundancy, the solution could help reduce single points of failure and keep critical access more reliable if a connection or data center was impacted.
The need for resiliency reflects a broader shift many businesses are navigating. Security has moved beyond protecting a physical perimeter. Employees are working across locations and in remote environments. Applications are running in the cloud, and data is moving between users and devices every day, creating more entry points for threats and more pressure on IT teams to maintain visibility and control.
To advance their cybersecurity and resilience strategy, Wellby turned to AT&T Dynamic Defense® with Palo Alto Networks – the first-and-only comprehensive network security solution with threat protection integrated directly into AT&T’s global network infrastructure, enhanced by best-in-class capabilities from Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access.
The goal was straightforward: stronger protection that was simple, consistent, and built for how Wellby operates today and how it plans to grow.
The challenge: modernizing security for a more distributed environment
Before using AT&T Dynamic Defense with Palo Alto Networks, Wellby was managing security across multiple vendors and tools. For financial institutions, a more unified security model can help simplify policy updates, improve visibility, and make it easier to maintain consistent protection. That matters for organizations like Wellby, where protecting member trust and keeping services available are central to the business.
The focus wasn't on adding another layer of technology. It was about building a more integrated, resilient foundation prepared for future growth.
“We didn’t need another security tool. We needed a model that could strengthen protection while also improving performance, simplifying management, and reducing single points of failure, said Wes Turner, Chief Technology Officer of Wellby Financial. “The value of AT&T Dynamic Defense with Palo Alto Networks is its defense-in-depth model, which provides multiple layers of protection across our environment. The combination of Palo Alto Networks’ advanced security capabilities and AT&T’s network expertise gives us a future-ready security foundation that allows us to continue supporting our members in their financial journeys and helping them prosper.”
The solution: integrated security from AT&T and Palo Alto Networks
AT&T Dynamic Defense with Palo Alto Networks combines the capabilities Wellby needed: AT&T’s network expertise and threat visibility with best-in-class security from Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access.
The solution is designed to help enterprises detect, block, and respond to threats in real time while maintaining performance and visibility across their environment. For Wellby, the combination of strong security, centralized management, and support from a trusted provider was invaluable.
According to Wellby, the key benefits they saw include:
- More granular access control: Wellby can move toward a Zero Trust model that determines access by user and application, rather than relying on broad network permissions. This gives Wellby a single view of user- and application-level access controls.
- Improved visibility: The solution brings network and security insights together, giving Wellby a clearer view of traffic, blocked threats, and application behavior across the environment.
- Greater resilience: Multi-pathing and redundancy helps Wellby maintain business continuity, keep access reliable for employees and members, and reduce operational risk through a more resilient architecture. This is especially important in a market like Houston where severe weather can disrupt a data center or connection.
- Simpler management: AT&T’s managed support helps Wellby adopt advanced security capabilities while reducing the operational burden on its internal team, allowing them to stay focused on other priorities. By reducing its security stack by three vendors and six tools, Wellby is moving toward a simpler operating model, and the team estimates AT&T Dynamic Defense with Palo Alto Networks saves them approximately 24 hours per month in administration and troubleshooting time.
- A stronger foundation for future growth: As Wellby continues advancing cloud-first initiatives and hybrid work, the platform gives the credit union a more scalable security model that can evolve with the business.
The impact: a simpler, more resilient security foundation and a stronger path forward
With AT&T Dynamic Defense with Palo Alto Networks, Wellby can modernize and strengthen its security posture while building a more resilient foundation for how the credit union operates, grows, and protects the trust its members place in it every day.
By bringing advanced security capabilities closer to the network, the solution helps Wellby reduce the complexity of managing multiple tools and vendors while improving visibility across its environment. That gives its teams a clearer view of activity across its environment and a more integrated model that can scale with future technology needs.
Across industries, the need is the same: security is easier to manage when it’s consistent across locations and built to support how the business runs. AT&T Dynamic Defense with Palo Alto Networks is designed for that reality.
For Wellby, the value is confidence: a resilient architecture that supports member trust and can scale with their future needs. For its members, that foundation supports what matters most: backing up the trust at the center of every financial relationship.
