Choosing a Next Generation Firewall (ngfw) for Future
If you had a magic crystal ball that could see what attackers will do in the future and the techniques they may take, cybersecurity would be a lot simpler.
Obviously, this isn’t going to happen, but we do know that certain cybersecurity fundamentals aren’t going away either. You must be adaptable to compete in today’s ever-changing digital environment. In terms of security, this implies you’ll need technologies that can react to rapidly changing conditions.
Organizations need a next-generation firewall (NGFW) that can cope with today’s and tomorrow’s threats in complex business contexts. Make sure the NGFW, or Network Firewall as Gartner refers to it, supports these four critical areas when choosing one.
1. Any user, any device, any application, any location is protected.
The number of cybersecurity assaults is growing, and they’re getting more sophisticated. Malware as a Service, no matter how horrible it is in our opinion, is becoming more popular with bad actors. Data theft and network outages that ensue may harm your reputation as well as your bottom line. Users must be able to connect to any resource from any place using any device at the same time.
Many businesses have data centre that must serve private and public multi-cloud networks, and cloud-based SaaS services in a hybrid IT architecture.
Regrettably, most conventional security measures, such as outdate firewalls, were never built to deal with this kind of threat. They were created for static network checkpoints with highly predictable procedures and data that were constrained to conventional brick and mortar.
To secure each person, device, application, or network edge in any place, an NGFW must now be able to provide complete and high-fidelity visibility.
It should be able to safeguard the complete hybrid IT infrastructure with end-to-end threat detection and protection that is coordinate.
In addition to providing sophisticated security solutions to prevent unknown threats utilising an integrated intrusion prevention system and anti-malware. The NGFW must be aware of the full application life cycle.
To prevent the newest attacks, it must enable regularly shared threat-intelligence feeds from complementary solutions such as email security and sandboxes.
It must also work with other security systems, such as endpoint detection, web application firewalls, and other security solutions. The network is efficiently secure against all existing and new threats thanks to the combination of native threat prevention and interaction with other technologies.
2. Simplification and Consolidation
Using a bevvy of point products might cause sight to be shatter and control to be hamper. So that your security can continue to fulfil your business demands, today’s security products must be built to scale. NGFWs that use the same operating system may provide hyperscale security, lowering cost and complexity.
An NGFW that combines key services like intrusion prevention, anti-malware, and web and video filtering with networking features like SD-WAN may lower your total cost of ownership.
NGFWs should be able to give complete insight into sophisticated assaults that hide in secure HTTPS routes to install malware. They also combine critical networking and security tasks into a cohesive solution, whether it’s supply directly via an on-premises NGFW or through a cloud-based SASE.
3. Work from any location
As a result of the epidemic, several companies switched to a work-from-home approach almost immediately. They needed to migrate essential resources to the cloud, guarantee that workers could access business apps, and ensure that connections between the home office and corporate network were safe.
Many companies have begun to consider a work-from-anywhere (WFA) strategy rather than relocating everyone back to the main office. Others workers may work from home, others on-site, and some may spend time at each location under a WFA agreement.
To enable this hybrid workforce, a full security infrastructure is requiring, including NGFWs that natively incorporate a ZTNA access proxy without the need for extra licencing.
Remote users may access applications from anywhere, at any time, with continuous authentication, thanks to the ZTNA access proxy.
4. Consistency and Visibility via Automation
A NGFW must be rapid no matter where it is placing. Tomorrow, it will have to be even quicker. The NGFW must be able to defend the network against high-speed assaults with coordinate security while not being slow down by time-consuming manual setup.
Manual operations drag things down, and configuration mistakes may be exploit by ransomware and other attacks, and are one of the leading causes of cyber security breaches.
Manual operations result in inefficiencies and breaches, which network and security executives must overcome. Automation is essential for orchestrating a uniform security policy across workloads that span hybrid and multi-cloud architectures, which adds to the operational obligations of already overworked IT employees.
An NGFW must enforce the same policy across all environments for applications and processes that migrate across them. This unified orchestration and enforcement technique integrates with single-pane-of-glass administration to track applications, and other transactions from start to finish.
5.Make an informed decision.
Most conventional firewalls are already overburdened, and they lack the flexibility and scalability to keep up with changing business demands. However, by removing point products and unifying industry-leading security features, choosing the proper NGFW may cut cost and complexity. It can give threat prevention for every edge at any size, integrating security deep into a hybrid IT architecture.
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