How to Choose the Right Firewall for Your Business Needs

A firewall should be capable of reducing network traffic and cyber dangers. It should also provide the best network user experience possible when connecting to cloud apps and the Internet.

Massive Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks can render servers inaccessible to users, causing business operations to halt. Look for a firewall with DDoS protection capabilities.

Cost

When choosing a firewall, there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all. Your business’s budgetary requirements, threats, and the composition of its internal network are just some factors that can impact which kind of Firewall is best for you.

To begin with, you’ll want to take stock of how diverse your team is and what kinds of devices they use to access the Internet. This helps you determine the best software or host-based types of Firewall. Additionally, Firewalls that do not account for the variety of an organization’s IT environment might lead to security gaps and be less effective overall.

Another consideration is the size of your staff and the number of users you anticipate on your network. This can impact how much bandwidth your Firewall needs to support. It can also influence the sort of Firewall you select, as some are built to work better at greater levels than others.

You’ll also want to consider the types of cybersecurity tools you already use and how they can work with your new Firewall. For example, suppose you’re using DDoS protection and data loss prevention (DLP) technology that requires high levels of security to operate effectively. In that case, you’ll need a firewall with those same features to integrate them seamlessly.

Performance

Firewalls are critical inspection points for all traffic and must be able to handle network-wide performance demands. This is particularly important in today’s application-centric business environment, where a single slow firewall could be enough to bring your entire business to a grinding halt.

As such, you must choose a firewall capable of meeting your current and future throughput needs and providing additional functionality for your network security. One important feature to look for is deep packet inspection, which allows the Firewall to examine and evaluate each packet on a per-session basis rather than a per-port or session basis. This enables the Firewall to identify and respond to threats in real time.

Another consideration is a firewall’s ability to perform sandboxing, an essential function for many businesses. Sandboxing opens a suspicious file or executable in a safe virtual environment as it is downloading, allowing the Firewall to determine whether or not it is malicious before sending it onto your network.

Finally, a good firewall will have integrated high availability to prevent your entire network from becoming exposed to the outside world in the event of a failure or outage at your Firewall. Integrated high availability is a necessary and critical feature, especially for networks that host mission-critical services, such as email or file servers.

Availability

With today’s business technology relying on various devices and operating systems, choosing the proper Firewall is vital. For example, if your organization supports a mix of Windows and Linux, you might need a firewall to help all these platforms. In the past, when everyone was in the office and connected to a single network via wired connections, this might not have been an issue, but remote work and cloud-based applications have changed this.

Firewall throughput is another consideration. The more traffic you need to move across your network, the higher throughput you will need. If you have a high throughput requirement, look for a firewall designed to handle these demands and avoid performance issues.

Finally, consider how you will handle malware detection. You want to choose a firewall that can alert authorized personnel of severe threats by transmitting alarms over the management interface or through a messaging feature. These real-time warnings enable security professionals to quickly review firewall and device logs, identify Indicators of Compromise (IOCs), and take steps to prevent a malicious attack from progressing.

For more advanced detection, you can opt for a next-generation firewall. This type of Firewall typically features built-in VPN routes, high-availability capabilities, and the most advanced reporting and monitoring. It is usually the most expensive option but offers excellent protection against modern cyberattacks.

Security

A firewall’s security measures are essential to consider, but they aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution. The threats a small business faces, the size of its network, the amount of data it stores behind the Firewall, and other factors can all impact the type and quality of security a small business needs from its Firewall.

For example, suppose your network hosts mission-critical services that, once disrupted, could bring your entire organization to a halt (such as file transfer servers). You’ll want a firewall with a dedicated DDoS attack prevention module in that case. These modules provide enhanced alarms when attacks are detected and launch mitigation procedures to fend off DDoS attacks.

Similarly, if you host sensitive information in your internal network regulated by HIPAA or PCI DSS, you’ll likely require a firewall with data loss protection (DLP). Firewalls with DLP can detect data that is leaving your network and prevent it from getting into the hands of hackers.

Finally, you should also determine if your organization has a lot of diversity in its internal devices or operating systems (OS). If that’s the case, a software firewall may not be suitable as it will need to work on all the different OS platforms running on your network. In this case, you’ll probably need to choose a hardware-based or cloud-based firewall (Firewall as a Service or FWaaS). These firewalls will offer the flexibility to work on any device or OS while providing excellent security.