Next Gen Firewall

What is a Next Gen Firewall (NGFW)?

Next generation firewalls offer several benefits, including:

• Enhanced protection against cyber threats — Next gen firewalls can inspect and analyze traffic more comprehensively than traditional firewalls, which helps them detect and prevent a greater variety of cyber attacks than a traditional firewall. For example, next gen firewalls can detect traffic maliciously targeting the network and prevent the intrusion by quarantining or blocking the traffic.
• Support for regulatory compliance mandates — Next gen firewalls prevent unauthorized users from accessing sensitive resources within the network—an important requirement for data privacy and protection regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act in the U.S., and the General Data Protection Regulation in the EU.
• Streamlined network architecture — Next gen firewalls provide advanced threat protection as well as basic firewall capabilities. Combining the capabilities of multiple devices and appliances within a single platform helps reduce network infrastructure complexity.

Unified threat management (UTM) comprises security services like malware (antivirus, phishing, trojans, spyware, etc.) detection and mitigation and web content filtering (restricting user access to specific kinds of content or websites). Next generation firewalls combine UTM services with firewall capabilities to deliver comprehensive protection via a single platform.

Next generation firewalls protect the organization from breaches and cyber threats, so it’s important to validate that the next generation firewall can accomplish its advertised functions. The best next generation firewalls are rigorously tested and certified by trusted, independent technology product assurance testers, such as ICSA Labs. Verify that the testing laboratory applies objective testing criteria for evaluating product performance.

When evaluating solutions, consider that the best next generation firewall may be part of a broader solution. For example, the HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN platform combines advanced SD-WAN capabilities with identity- and role-based traffic segmentation, enforced with a built-in next gen firewall (including IDS/IPS and other security functions). HPE Aruba Networking was also the first SD-WAN vendor to attain ICSA Labs Secure SD-WAN certification, validating its built-in next generation firewall and advanced security features.