IT Security

12 Reasons to Choose Firewall as a Service for your Business

What is Firewall as a Service?

Firewall as a Service (FWaaS) is a technology that offers firewall and other network security as a cloud service. Why do organizations need FWaaS? The migration to cloud-based firewall platforms and the rise of mobile devices have led to a lack of a clear perimeter in networks where users and applications can be safeguarded against cyber threats. Additionally, research shows 59 percent of businesses stated that handling and monitoring security incidents have become a great concern. FWaaS resolve all these challenges.

Here are twelve reasons to choose Firewall as a Service for your business.

1. Better Disaster Recovery

2. No Need to Offer IT Security Training

Numerous layers of security usually mean high costs of training your IT staff regarding sophisticated configurations and security functions. The use of a managed firewall service ensures the management of firewall transitions, migration of policies between platforms, security protection consolidations, and other time-intensive tasks is done by professionals who possess specialized skills in security services.

This security team can also offer you affordable security advice and consultations. This service analyzes your current firewall configuration, including policies and rules. After this analysis, the security professionals will aid you in fine-tuning policies and rules that are better specialized to meet the requirements of your business.

3. Comprehensive Protection Services

Providers of Firewall as a Service help in managing and monitoring every security device utilized by your network. This usually includes managed firewalls, anti-malware and anti-virus protection, customized security services, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), vulnerability scanning, and intrusion detection that help to meet industry compliance standards.

All these services are offered from a high-availability data center that possesses its security safeguards in place. Also, each center consists of built-in redundancy technologies that ensure your network’s security is guaranteed in case of failure.

4. Simplified Management

Management of secure networking can consume plenty of time and use most of your IT resources. Utilizing a firewall as a service ensures that your IT team focuses on initiatives related to the company’s core business. In this manner, security management does not restrict your business but instead enables it. Use of these services offers you access to updates, threat definitions, and the latest firmware.

This translates to improved safeguards against the security threats that you face daily as new forms of attacks are invented. There is a more efficient running of your system when critical policies and rules are implemented, monitoring is done around the clock throughout the year, and necessary patch management is done.

5. Reduced Costs and Improved TCO

To provide your company with a lot of safeguards against sophisticated security threats, you need to deploy multiple firewall appliances, like an Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), content filtering systems, and threat prevention applications. These network security capabilities can be costly when it comes to monitoring, management, and maintenance in addition to equipment purchase and setting up. Every component needs its type of maintenance updates that can restrict visibility regarding end-to-end protection.

A firewall as a service aids in minimizing these sophistications and unifying security management at a great expense reduction. Your firm obtains next-generation firewall technology managed by IT professionals on a monthly subscription basis. There is a lack of capital investments regarding equipment and expenses linked to this kind of security team.

According to research by Secure Data, a company with 500 workers will minimize its firewall expenses by 37 percent and save an average of $139,000. Your cloud infrastructure, WAN and internet, and other IT components you have will be secure at a low cost.

6. Convenient for a Mobile Workforce

The way people work is continually evolving. Advancement in networking technology has enabled remote working, which many organizations are already practicing. According to a 2015 US Bureau of Labor and Statistics study, 38 percent of employees performed part or all of their work remotely from home.

Businesses are accommodating this advancement by allowing cloud-based services, SaaS services, and mobile access to company applications and resources. This concept has disrupted the enterprise perimeter concept. Perimeter security technologies no longer offer the scope and flexibility required in the contemporary enterprise.

This has created the need for a managed firewall and security service. For remote working to be possible, most firms secure mobile users by backhauling traffic via their secure data center. Primarily all traffic is channeled to an on-premise firewall before being put onto the internet. When users require connecting to a primary location to gain access to a cloud application, latent and performance problems arise.

Another method used to secure remote and mobile traffic is through securing of the internet traffic locally, resulting in appliance sprawl. However, managed firewall and security service eradicates these issues through the connection of users via a world-wide SLA-backend cloud network, which links all users, resources, and traffic, including access to SaaS and cloud applications by remote and mobile users.

7. Performance

Performance limitation of physical devices is among the biggest problems regarding appliance-based security. When a physical device experiences increased load as a result of higher volume of traffic or extra processing is needed in decrypting an excess SSL traffic volume, the appliance usually needs upgrading to meet the growing requirements of the capacity. Because of constraints on the budget, physical appliance limitations frequently push you to choose between cost efficiency and security. Consequently, remote branch security is challenged. Using a managed firewall and security service removes the need for a sophisticated sizing process in determining the capacity of the appliance. FWaaS lets you grow your company organically with unlimited scalability.

8. Remaining Up to Date

Failure to install the latest patches and updates for your firewall exposes your company to many risks. New cyber-attacks are created fast and daily, which has resulted in the creation of regular updates to secure hardware. If you fail to install these updates, your security system will become susceptible to attacks. If you are too casual regarding updating your hardware, you are making your network vulnerability to threats. Outsourcing this role to a managed firewall and security service providers that utilize remote monitoring tools delegates the task of updating your system to them. These updates will be carried out on time, increasing your business’s security.

9. Reporting

It is hard to determine the number of threats that have attacked your network. Through the use of a managed firewall and security service, you can obtain detailed reports regarding the threats that face your business. These reports can assist you in analyzing your security measures and identifying vulnerabilities. They can also offer you a good idea of your staff’s behaviors that could minimize the value of your security efforts.

10. Improved Internal Threat Protection

Even though most security attacks originate outside your business network, threats can also originate from inside the organization. Use of social media, web browsing, staff productivity activities, and online videos can expose your network to malware and viruses. Managed firewall and security services can implement and configure applications that offer filtering and other safeguards against threats created by staff activities.

11. Complete Visibility

The current dynamic networks need a different approach. Numerous firms rely on costly MPLS based on WAN networks to link remote branches. Backhauling of traffic via a primary location leads to a trombone effect after remote users attempt to access cloud-based and SaaS Services business applications. This setup leads to a lack of visibility and control in the network. By migrating the firewall into the cloud, companies can benefit from centralized management and unique security powered by complete visibility into the whole network.

12. Better End-User Experience

Appliance sprawl and direct internet access unify the lifecycle of perimeter security management. Options like MPLS/VPN offer poor end-user experience because the outgoing traffic dispatched over the public internet can face packet drop and high latency. High costs are associated with using an MPLS network before routing the traffic. Managed firewall and security service avoids all these challenges and creates a secure and user-friendly environment.

Conclusion

If you know what is good for you, using a managed firewall and security service like ExterNetworks can work to your advantage. In addition to reduced costs, you will get comprehensive protection services, better data recovery, regular and relevant updates, simplified management, and more. Contact us today!