It is common knowledge that having a firewall matters for most businesses, but choosing a firewall is rarely a clear-cut decision. There are plenty of features you might genuinely need for your business, and plenty of others you may not be sure about, before you even get to performance requirements, which can shift dramatically based on your speed and protection needs. By the nature of how a firewall works, since there is only so much bandwidth it can push through, it becomes a bottleneck for speed once every security service is turned on, regardless of vendor. So what services does your business actually need, and what level of performance is enough?
Firewall Services to Consider When Choosing a Firewall
Start by looking at the services you want the firewall to run. Intrusion Prevention Service (IPS) is one of the big ones, since it actively works to stop malicious actors from taking over your network and the mission-critical hardware sitting on it. An antivirus service to guard against the latest threats and viruses matters too, regardless of what applications run on your machine. Content filtering matters a lot for networks where people browse the internet, but it may matter far less on a network used only for development work, and the same logic applies to application controls. VPN connectivity is typically a must-have when you access the network remotely, though if you never use that function, setting up VPN may not be necessary. It is also worth remembering that a firewall might not be the only security appliance you need. Some setups call for a dedicated email security appliance, or an appliance built specifically to defend against DDoS attacks, since firewalls help fight DDoS but specialized appliances now exist just to absorb that load.
Firewall Performance and Throughput
Once you have decided on the features you need, figure out what performance you need from your firewall. The more services you turn on, the slower the firewall runs, but the more secure your network becomes, so depending on what applications you run, you may or may not need every service active (a good rule of thumb: turn on services like IPS or antivirus for any network handling customer information). Internet speed connected to the firewall is another factor. A firewall rated for 100 Mbps throughput will not push your internet speed up to 100 Mbps if you only have a 25 Mbps connection, since the internet connection itself becomes the bottleneck in that case. Also look at how many Ethernet ports your equipment offers. You might find the perfect firewall on paper, but if it cannot support all your equipment, it will not do you much good.
There are a lot of factors in play here, and our firewall sizing guide covers performance in more depth. Our Product Specialist is happy to review the solutions you are considering, either procuring that solution or recommending alternatives. In summary, the services worth evaluating are:
- Intrusion Prevention Services
- Anti-Virus
- Content Filtering
- Application Control
- VPN
These are not the only services available, so if you need something different or have other questions about a firewall solution, reach out to us at (305) 735-8098 option 2 or by emailing sales@vaultnetworks.com.