Pat Host 
- Palo Alto Networks SVP Eric Trexler sits down with ExecutiveBiz for his latest Spotlight interview
- Trexler discusses secure AI, CMMC, cloud computing expansion and an understated federal cyber vulnerability
- A cybersecurity professional, Trexler helps federal, state and local government institutions, including schools, protect their networks from a wide variety of threats
Eric Trexler and Palo Alto Networks are taking the lead in providing secure artificial intelligence standards to the federal government. The duo saw an opportunity when the Trump administration embraced AI early in 2025 without defining security protocols.
Trexler, Palo Alto Networks senior vice president for U.S. public sector, and the company took a hard look at how it provides the government with leading edge technologies while ensuring it remains secure from its toughest adversaries. As a result, Palo Alto Networks became the first cybersecurity vendor to land a OneGov agreement with the General Services Administration. This vehicle simplifies and standardizes the process for agencies to access the company’s AI-powered security platform and makes security foundational to this crucial modernization effort.
We last spoke with Trexler almost three years ago for a Spotlight interview. He recently sat down with ExecutiveBiz for his latest Spotlight interview to discuss the applications he’s seeing drive demand for AI and machine learning from federal agencies, how the phased implementation of Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification impacts how Palo Alto Networks provides cloud services to the federal government and an understated federal cybersecurity vulnerability.
Hear directly from top industry experts like Trexler and leading federal officials at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Artificial Intelligence Summit on March 19! Get the latest business opportunities at intriguing panel discussions such as Does Your AI Play Well With Others and Effective, Excellent Enterprise AI Through Partnerships. Sign up today!
ExecutiveBiz: In which applications are you seeing the highest demand for AI and machine learning from your federal customers and what’s driving that demand?
Eric Trexler: We’re seeing demand for AI across the board from an information technology and application perspective, which is a very positive development. As a cybersecurity provider, we’ve been leveraging neural networks, deep learning and machine learning in our technology for well over a decade and a half. The goal is to operate at machine speed to counter adversaries.
Attackers can take as long as they want to plan how, when and where they strike. But when an attack happens, agencies must detect and respond quickly. At Palo Alto Networks, we focus heavily on two metrics: mean time to detect and mean time to respond or remediate.
Those timelines must continue to shrink. The sheer volume of attacks is increasing dramatically. We’re now seeing attacks go from initial breach to exploitation in 25 minutes or less. Just a few years ago, that process took weeks. That’s what we mean by machine speed. Our technologies must detect adversarial behavior long before a human can even get into the loop, while humans focus on understanding attack patterns and deploying defenses effectively. That’s where AI is having the biggest impact on the cybersecurity side.
EBiz: How has the rollout and phased implementation of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification affected your ability to bring cloud-enabled solutions to Pentagon customers?
Trexler: CMMC is really focused on industry, particularly the defense industrial base. The Department of War estimates that about 8,750 companies across the U.S. will need CMMC Level 2 compliance. These range from the largest federal systems integrators to very small contractors.
To accept government contracts, organizations will face CMMC flow-down requirements, which often means ingesting, holding and maintaining controlled unclassified information. To do that, they need systems that are at least FedRAMP Moderate compliant.
We’ve invested heavily in this area. We currently have 23 products authorized at FedRAMP High and 21 at FedRAMP Moderate. These cybersecurity products are available not only to federal and state governments, but also to defense industrial base vendors—large and small.
This ensures when contractors use Palo Alto Networks’ cloud services, they can confidently meet compliance requirements and accept government or prime contractor flow-downs. We’re targeting the DIB to ensure they’re ready from a cybersecurity perspective and we support our cloud products through the FedRAMP authorization process as quickly as possible.
Be the first to learn of new Pentagon AI requirements at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Artificial Intelligence Summit on March 19! Hear how AI is transforming warfare directly from top DOW officials like Dr. Delester Brown, Army National Guard chief data officer. Secure your seat now!
EBiz: What’s the next big technology driving further implementation and expansion of cloud computing?
Trexler: From a security perspective, the biggest driver is generative AI and agentic AI. As applications move to the cloud, everything accelerates—deployment, flexibility and scale.
We’re already seeing a massive increase in software agents. For example, we recently announced an agreement to acquire CyberArk, which focuses heavily on machine identity. In the next few years, we estimate there will be eight to 10 machine or agent identities for every single human identity on a network.
The challenge is understanding what those machines are doing, what they’re allowed to do and how to audit and secure them. Concepts like zero trust become critical here. Cloud infrastructure enables the speed and scale required for this, but cybersecurity must keep pace. Applications are rolling out faster than ever and security has to operate at machine speed to protect them.
EBiz: Where do you see opportunities for expansion in Palo Alto Networks’ portfolio and what new capabilities or markets are you targeting?
Trexler: Our most recent acquisitions all center on AI. Over the summer, we acquired Protect AI and rapidly integrated its capabilities into our platform. It’s now available globally, including to government customers, and supports runtime predictive modeling, red teaming, model scanning, posture management, and agent security.
Another key area is post-quantum cryptography. We’re seeing a rise in “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks, where adversaries collect encrypted data today with the expectation that future quantum capabilities will allow them to decrypt it.
The CyberArk acquisition will also be critical for machine identity, which we consider the crown jewel of modern cybersecurity. Understanding and securing what machines are doing in real time is essential.
Finally, we recently announced an acquisition agreement of Chronosphere, which focuses on observability. This allows us to distill massive amounts of data into actionable intelligence at machine speed. Cloud, AI, quantum computing and scale are all converging and we need new technologies to address that reality.
EBiz: What’s a federal cyber vulnerability that is understated and needs more attention from industry partners and integrators?
Trexler: Agentic AI security needs far more attention. We have a campaign called “Deploy Bravely,” which emphasizes securing AI as it’s rolled out, not after the fact. Or worse—not at all.
This is similar to the long-standing problem of shadow IT. In the past, teams spun up cloud resources without IT’s knowledge, leaving sensitive data unprotected. We’re seeing the same issue now with AI. Users may input sensitive government or IP data into public AI tools or deploy internal agents that make decisions without proper oversight.
When machines are making decisions at scale and speed and no one understands what they’re doing or how to secure them, that creates enormous risk. Shadow IT is even more dangerous in the age of AI because of machine speed.
To address this, we also need to simplify cybersecurity environments. Many organizations use 50 to 100 different security vendors and most cybersecurity spending goes toward integrating those tools. We call our approach “platformization”—bringing security together into a unified platform that works seamlessly. In today’s threat environment, “good enough” security is no longer sufficient. The platform is essential to keeping up with adversaries.
Who Is Eric Trexler?
Eric Trexler a cybersecurity professional at Palo Alto Networks.
What Does Eric Trexler Do at Palo Alto Networks?
Trexler helps protect federal, state and local government institutions, including schools, protect their networks from a wide variety of threats. These include ransomware attacks, intellectual property theft and data wiping. A GovCon veteran, Trexler previously spent almost five years at Forcepoint, now called Everfox, as vice president for global governments and critical infrastructure sales. He also spent almost eight years in positions of increasing responsibility at McAfee.
