New security features are constantly being developed by the industry with the aim of protecting corporate environments and assets. However, the firewall remains one of the fundamental controls for any effective network security strategy.
If you’re in the process of re-evaluating your firewall product, you may be wondering why you would need to invest in a next-generation modality. The answer lies between the lines. Next Generation Firewall can see beyond the packet format, i.e., more details of the traffic request.
What is a Next Generation Firewall?
To be considered a next-generation firewall, the security product needs to perform deep inspections on the packets it traffics. This means adding the ability to prevent intruders and detect/block cyberattacks to the functions already expected of a standard firewall (security at the level of traffic protocols and application inspection). To meet the growing security and productivity challenges within enterprises, NGFW is designed to offer traffic management based on more layers of the OSI model. Regarding application-focused control, NGFW seeks to prevent application attacks that occur at layers 4-7 of the network stack.
With increasingly advanced threats, security controls also need to be more sophisticated. And to address the evolving digital risk landscape, NGFW needs to be comprehensive, flexible, and easy to manage.
Check out the following 4 advantages of using a Next Generation Firewall in your company.
1) More visibility
With the diversity of communication requests, mobile devices, data traffic, and remote users, companies inherit multiple points that need to be managed. When there is no visibility into what resources, users, and types of information are, the network manager is not able to create comprehensive security strategies, define what needs to be protected, determine priorities and action plans, and, finally, indicate what technologies are needed to meet these objectives.
Read also: Improve visibility into your network
2) More security
While all types and sizes of businesses are susceptible to cyberattacks, not all of them pay enough attention to this point. However, with the growth in the volume of cyber threats and incidents, the number of companies in a state of alert has also increased. Security incidents – such as the loss or theft of data, or the unavailability of systems – can represent high costs.
With a focus on cyber threat management, NGFW explores preventive features of different technologies, being able to protect networks, devices, and users.
3) More productivity
This is a consequential factor of visibility. When there is information about which network resources are used and how they are used, it is possible to: correct inappropriate behaviors; direct resources to more relevant demands; control suspicious services and applications or those that directly interfere with productivity.
4) Lower cost and complexity
By unifying several features that contribute to diversifying the layers of security and productivity controls, NGFW reduces the complexity of managing different software. This aspect should be considered an advantage by the technology team, as an integrated solution capable of executing rules autonomously relieves management and support time, allowing the use of human resources in events of greater relevance. Another advantage is its scalability, with no loss of efficiency.
Or Blockbit NGFW It has the best cost-benefit ratio in the cybersecurity market and combines in a single solution advanced access controls and protection of network segments, such as: Web Content Filter, Deep Packet Inspection (DPI),Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)andintrusion prevention system (IPS).
Download our eBook: The Types of Firewalls and Why Your Business Needs an NGFW
With more than 5,000 clients, Blockbit is one of the leading manufacturers of cybersecurity solutions, empowering businesses to protect themselves against a wide range of threats, vulnerabilities, and cyberattacks, whether internal or external, generic or specific.