Firewalls are an essential part of a company’s cyber security, but there are different types of firewall available and you need to deploy the correct firewall for your company to ensure you are fully secure.
Types of firewalls
There are many different types of firewalls which are deployed in different parts of your system and achieve security through different methods, but the most important decision is how many firewalls to deploy.
Basic single site deployments are a simple firewall solution, ideal for companies who don’t have a complicated network setup. A single firewall is in place protecting your system from malicious traffic, and your entire system sits behind it. Since it is easy to deploy it is common for small companies to use a single firewall deployment, but it is unsuitable for protecting complicated computer systems with various interconnecting platforms.
If you are operating a computer system with different platforms (for example: a public cloud integrating with private hardware) you will need a more sophisticated firewall deployment with firewalls placed at different connections points to check the traffic going through them. These firewalls will also need to be clustered so that they work in sync with one another. While this process is more complicated, it is an absolute necessity to keep your system secure when you have multiple network connection points.
What impacts the firewall you need?
The model of firewall you need to deploy will depend on a range of factors including:
- How much traffic you have
- How much throughput you’re putting on the firewall
- How many connections you need
- VPN terminations
- If you need features such as intrusion prevention, intrusion detection, or gateway anti-spam and antivirus
Generally speaking, the more traffic you have and the more complex the connections between systems, the more sophisticated your firewall will need to be to keep up with that traffic.
At Redcentric, we have a range of Managed Firewall solutions. You can talk to one of our security experts to understand your needs and your requirements to make sure we deploy the correct firewall configuration for you.
