What's Next for the Firewall?

admin | Nov 02, 2009 | Comments 0

The firewall is a cornerstone of most organization’s information security strategy. However, the effectiveness of this security stalwart is steadily diminishing as threats continue to migrate up the computing stack and as applications of all types are engineered to take advantage of web technologies and other services that are typically allowed by enterprise policies. Furthermore, attempts to counteract this trend by bolting capabilities such as deep packet inspection on to conventional firewall products are not sufficient. Too much unwanted traffic, some of it potentially laden with threats, is still able to get through. What organizations need instead is a next-generation firewall system – one that incorporates application awareness at the core of its design, has fully integrated threat protection, and also includes a customized hardware architecture to avoid the need to choose between security and performance.

Two of Applied Communications’ solution partners are tackling these new threats.

Lightening Fast UTM!

Long time partner, SonicWALL has introduced their “lightning-fast active/active UTM (unified threat management) approach. UTM firewalls enhance the completeness of threat blocking capabilities to include Anti-Virus, IP Security, and more. An Application Firewall extends that protection beyond threats to the management and control of data and applications which pass through the network security appliance. This extended capability provides bandwidth management and control, application level access controls, data leakage control functionality, restrictions on the transfer of specific files and documents, and much more. The Application Firewall is available as part of gateway anti-virus, anti-spyware and intrusion prevention on all SonicWALL E-Class NSA, NSA and TZ 210 solutions.

Sonicwall and Gartner on next generation firewalls

It’s time to reinvent the firewall!!!

We are excited to introduce Palo Alto to our line of solutions. Palo Alto Networks was founded by security visionary Nir Zuk, with a mission to re-invent the firewall so it can once again become the most strategically important security device in the network. Today, Palo Alto Networks offers real innovation in the firewall, enabling unprecedented visibility and control of applications and content – by user, not just IP address – at up to 10Gbps with no performance degradation. These next generation firewalls accurately identify applications – regardless of port, protocol, evasive tactic or SSL encryption – and scan content to stop threats and prevent data leakage. Enterprises can for the first time embrace Web 2.0 and maintain complete visibility and control, while significantly reducing total cost of ownership through device consolidation.

Palo Alto Networks delivers the only next-generation firewall that provides policy-based visibility and control over applications users and threats.