No software is perfect. While revered, 8.1 had its share of known issues.

: Added support for more granular multi-factor authentication (MFA) and improved integration with services like Okta , Duo , and SAML .

Introduced support for high-performance hardware, including the PA-5200 series and the PA-3200 series, optimizing management for large-scale enterprise environments. User-ID Improvements:

By the time 8.1 was standard, over 80% of web traffic was encrypted. This provided a massive blind spot for security teams. PAN-OS 8.1 enhanced SSL Forward Proxy capabilities, allowing the firewall to decrypt traffic, inspect it for threats, and re-encrypt it.

This version was the springboard for the Palo Alto Networks Application Framework, allowing customers to consume cloud-delivered security services rapidly.