What is a Firewall-as-a-Service or Managed Firewall Solution
A firewall is a network security device that examines network traffic and based on rules and policies and vets the traffic to block that which is suspicious or unwanted. Firewalls developed by industry leaders like Cisco, Palo Alto, and Fortinet have been a first line of defense in network security for over 25 years. They establish a barrier between secured and controlled internal networks that can be trusted and untrusted outside networks, such as the Internet.
However, for 25 years organizations have been struggling with implementing, configuring, establishing rules and refining policies of their firewalls to keep this first line of defense effective against unwanted traffic. Unfortunately, because of the complexity of firewalls and now next generation firewalls and UTM’s, IT security teams are investing countless hours managing the technology.
Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS) or Managed Firewall solutions allow organizations to leverage managed service providers to handle as much of the firewall management as needed including eliminating the upfront cost and simply leasing the technology.
Third party management of Firewall technology operation for cost efficiencies
Eliminate or reduce the upfront cost of Firewall technology
Leverage installation and implementation experts to generate the right data and insights
Deliver simplified analysis of the data and intelligence to detect and eliminate threats
Manage IT security change management effectively to maintain the Firewall operationally
The challenge for most organizations however, is that the upfront cost of the technology is significant, managing multiple appliances is unwieldy, and constantly changing rules and policies is time-consuming. As firewalls have moved up the stack and added threat detection capabilities evolving into next gen and UTM technologies, the data they generate for network administrators and analysts has become overwhelming.
Thus, Firewall-as-a-Service is beginning to emerge as a viable option because of the centralized, cloud-based approach the solution leverages. The solution not only eliminates the upfront cost of what has become a significant investment, but also allows organizations to monitor, collect and analyze the firewall data efficiently.
Firewall-as-a-service, as predicted by Gartner in 2016, will quickly emerge as the preferred alternative to on-premise firewalls and SecureOps can provide a single, seamless solution to our clients.
SecureOps partners with organizations to provide the expertise to deliver the benefits of firewall, next-gen Firewall, and UTM technology without upfront cost, installation and implementation issues, and policy complications.
- An instant cost savings with a rent versus own model that saves up to millions in upfront technology costs
- Experts who work with industry-leading SIEM technology to integrate and operationalize the solution
- Analysts who collect, normalize and analyze SIEM data from disparate sources to provide actionable security insights
- Ongoing proactive support and maintenance of the solution to deliver predictable efficiency and costs
Learning More About Firewall-as-a-Service
The comprehensive and often overwhelming task of purchasing, integrating, and managing a firewall is often more complicated and time-consuming than can be handled in-house cost effectively. Having experts that understand the industry-leading technologies, how they work effectively with other security technologies, and how to reduce the noise and extract the most valuable data to protect the organization from threats is critical to those we serve.