Palo Alto already has a foothold inside CDT — $13,858,206 across 22 POs since 2016, most recently 2026-07-21 — sold almost entirely through one reseller, NWN Corporation. The category itself is small, but the incumbent it competes against, F5 Networks, shows up in the record as a legacy renewal-only relationship (VIPRION, Premium Plus support) with several renewal dates that have gone dark for more than four years. That's the wedge: expand an existing, working reseller relationship against an incumbent whose paper trail looks like it's aging out, not renewing.
This is the strongest ground: an existing Palo Alto purchase history, a live reseller relationship (NWN, last active 2026-07-21), and a named rival whose visible activity is aging support renewals rather than new buys. The F5 Premium Plus renewals with no listed renewal date going back to 2019–2021 are either still running through a vehicle this record doesn't capture, or have genuinely lapsed — either way, it's the right question to open with, not a claim to make.
Two large FedRAMP Moderate cloud contracts just started this fiscal year: AWS via Rackspace ($221,407,758) and Azure via Dell Marketing ($136,411,548), both 2026-07-03 to 2028-05-31. July starts mean these were decided in the prior budget cycle — the deal is done for this term, but a cloud-security attach (segmentation, cloud NGFW) conversation for the next cycle needs to start now, not at renewal.
American Dark Fiber ($483,614,667) and CVIN LLC ($464,671,488) both signed multi-decade IRUs in 2025 running to 2043–2044. The record doesn't show whether a security layer is being procured for that new infrastructure at all — that's a genuine open question, not a finding, but worth raising given the scale of the buildout.
Crayon and SHI's combined 26.6% of department spend is enterprise publisher licensing at a scale and shape (subscription, not appliance) that doesn't map to this line. Skip it.
Situation
Across the whole department, $7,471,563,201 has moved through 5,490 POs and 545 suppliers since 2014. Most of that dollar volume has nothing to do with this seat's fight:
- Software & Licensing ($3,023,412,793, 2,434 POs) is the largest category by far, run through Crayon Software Experts ($1,044,377,862) and SHI International ($944,212,268) — enterprise publisher licensing at a scale this line doesn't touch.
- Network Infrastructure ($1,809,933,549, 383 POs) is dominated by long-dated fiber IRUs — American Dark Fiber ($483,614,667, running to 2044), CVIN LLC ($464,671,488, to 2043), Level 3 ($434,514,090 combined across two POs, both running past 2043) — a telecom/middle-mile play, not a security or platform fight.
- Cloud & Hosting ($920,546,318, 135 POs) is two hyperscaler production contracts: AWS via Rackspace ($221,407,758, 2026-07-03 to 2028-05-31) and Azure via Dell Marketing ($136,411,548, same start/end window). Both just started this fiscal year.
- Servers & Compute ($274,877,547) runs through Dell Marketing LP ($404,127,452 department-wide, though that total spans categories).
- Security & Identity is the smallest major category — $43,624,254 across 195 POs — but it's the one where this line already has a purchase history and a working reseller relationship.
Inside Security & Identity, the record shows a recognizable rival OEM pattern: F5 Networks, sold through CDW Government LLC and Patriot IT Corporation, recurring across years as small, renewal-only line items — VIPRION Premium Plus support ($326,172 in 2021, $326,172 again in 2020, $305,750 in 2019, $182,170 in 2021) and a VIPRION Premium (Level 1-3) service through Patriot IT Corporation ending 2026-08-01 ($96,000). None of these are new-platform buys; they read as sustaining an installed base, not growing one. A second appliance renewal sits adjacent to it — Trend Micro TippingPoint 8400TX through Team One Networking, ending 2026-08-02 ($876,546) — the IPS layer that a consolidated NGFW platform would normally absorb.
Palo Alto's own line in this account: 22 POs, $13,858,206, spanning 2016-06-15 to 2026-07-21, sold in almost entirely by NWN Solutions Corporation (3 POs, $11,815,390, last 2026-07-21) with smaller legacy volume through Enterprise Networking Sols Inc, OPTM West, ENS-Inc, and HSB Solutions Inc — none of which show recent activity past 2024. NWN is not just the biggest reseller of this line here — it also holds the DGS statewide award for it (contract 1-24-70-19-22), tied for the top ETC bid score (918.00 pts, alongside Ahead/Kovarus) against ePlus Technology at 899.74 pts. That's a narrow-enough gap that ePlus is a credible backup route, but the record shows NWN is already the one transacting.
Questions to ask
1. Is the F5 VIPRION/Premium Plus support renewal still active — the last visible service term we can see runs to 2026-08-01 through Patriot IT Corporation. Is that being renewed again, and through whom?
2. Several F5 support renewals in your own procurement history (2019–2022) show no listed renewal after roughly four years — is that estate still running, or has it been retired/replaced?
3. Is the TippingPoint IPS renewal ending 2026-08-02 ($876,546, Team One Networking) locked for another term, or is that layer up for re-evaluation?
4. For the AWS contract that started 2026-07-03 ($221,407,758) and the Azure contract on the same start date ($136,411,548) — was network/cloud security scoped into those awards, or procured separately?
5. Is NWN Corporation still your preferred channel for this OEM, or has something changed since your last PO with them (2026-07-21)?
6. Are there statewide or interagency vehicles CDT uses for security appliances that wouldn't appear in your own PO history — is any of your Palo Alto or F5 volume actually transacted that way?
7. For the new middle-mile fiber builds (American Dark Fiber, CVIN), is a security architecture being scoped separately, and who owns that decision?
Who to talk to
- Doug Novak — State CISO (Acting) — owns security architecture direction; the most direct owner of an F5-vs-Palo Alto conversation.
- Vitaliy Panych — California CISO — statewide security policy; relevant if the pitch extends beyond CDT itself.
- Jason Perez — Deputy Director, Data Center Services — owns the infrastructure the appliances sit in, relevant to both the security wedge and any cloud-attach conversation.
- Richard Rogers / Jared Johnson — Deputy State CIO roles — relevant if the conversation needs to move from a single-category ask to a broader infrastructure modernization narrative.
- Jamie Wong — 159 POs, $1,043,234,762, most recent 2026-09-29 — highest recent-activity buyer in the account; worth confirming whether security/network category POs route through this desk.
- Sindy Cesarini — 164 POs, $513,240,676, most recent 2026-03-23 — second-highest PO count, also recently active.
- Eric Truong — 96 POs, $466,880,021, most recent 2026-06-12 — active late in the fiscal year, worth checking against the June volume-surge pattern.
The record doesn't map any of these buyers to Security & Identity specifically — that mapping is a question to confirm with the reseller or in an early call, not an assumption to carry into the room.
Route to market
NWN Corporation is the reseller to carry this deal. It's the only Palo Alto reseller with recent activity in this account (3 POs, $11,815,390, last 2026-07-21), it holds DGS statewide contract 1-24-70-19-22 for the line, and it tied for the top ETC evaluation score (918.00 pts) in the current, still-active Tier 1 contract family. Ahead, Inc. dba Kovarus tied that same score and holds contract 1-24-70-19-19 — a viable co-primary if NWN capacity or relationship becomes an issue. ePlus Technology (899.74 pts, contract 1-24-70-19-12) is a credible but secondary alternate given the modest point gap. All three sit on the Enterprise Technology statewide contract family awarded 2024-10-15 (K-40-24), so the paper is current, not legacy.
Do not route through Crayon or SHI — their volume here is Software & Licensing, not appliance/security hardware, and there's no evidence either firm carries this line in this account.
Action items
| What | Who | By when |
|---|---|---|
| Confirm live status of F5 VIPRION/Premium Plus support (last visible term ends 2026-08-01) | Rep + NWN Corporation account team | Before 2026-08-01 |
| Confirm TippingPoint IPS renewal decision (ends 2026-08-02, $876,546) | Rep, via CDT security contact | Before 2026-08-02 |
| Joint call with NWN Corporation to plan CDT-specific security pitch | Rep + NWN | Next 2–3 weeks |
| Open cloud-security attach conversation for the AWS/Azure FedRAMP contracts (both started 2026-07-03, run to 2028-05-31) | Rep + Doug Novak / Jason Perez contact | Before end of current fiscal year — next real decision window is the prior-summer-to-January cycle ahead of any 2028 renewal |
| Ask CDT directly whether Security & Identity POs route through Jamie Wong, Sindy Cesarini, or Eric Truong | Rep | First discovery call |
What this rests on
- The purchase record shows what was bought, not what's still installed — the F5 renewal gaps (some over four years with no listed renewal) may reflect real churn, or may simply be purchased through a statewide vehicle that never surfaces in this dataset. That distinction has to be confirmed in conversation, not assumed.
- No category label in this record ties specific buyers of record (Wong, Cesarini, Truong) to Security & Identity purchases specifically — the buyer list is department-wide, not category-mapped.
- The ETC bid scores show who is authorized to sell Palo Alto and by how much they won, not how much revenue any of the three resellers actually transacted — NWN's dominance here is a real finding but rests on only 3 POs.
- Job-posting evidence in this account (CrowdStrike, SolarWinds, Tivoli, Splunk, Tenable) speaks to endpoint/monitoring tooling, not to firewall or ADC architecture — it neither confirms nor contradicts the F5/Palo Alto contest and shouldn't be leaned on for this specific pitch.