What are the advantages of next-generation firewalls?

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Firewall technology has always been a cornerstone of the work of global networking and security teams. First generation firewalls focus on source IP, destination IP, port and protocol. However, this requires engineers to build both inbound and outbound rule sets because the firewall does not know the “state” of the connection. The second generation (circuit firewall) adds intelligence to monitor the “state” of the connection; therefore, engineers only need to establish a set of rules that apply to bidirectional connections.

Third-generation firewall technology adds intelligence to understand how various protocols work and adapt to their use in real time. This change is the beginning of the Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) feature in use today.

To put it simply, NGFW (Next-Generation Firewall) can be said to add application layer detection, intrusion prevention system and other protection layers to the boundary of traditional firewalls, and at the same time adds intelligent firewalls to the boundary of traditional firewalls. Standard port/protocol protection. NGFW is an upgrade to traditional firewalls, and in this blog, we will discuss the key benefits of next-generation firewalls.

Next-Generation Firewall Benefits

Application-level security functions such as IDS and IPS

Intrusion Detection (IDS) and Prevention (IPS) systems integrate directly with the NGFW for threat detection and blocking of packets from traversing the firewall.

These applications help you improve packet content filtering. These capabilities can also identify, analyze, and respond to irregular deviations from standard activity sets, threat signatures, and smart attacks based on user behavior.


Common deployment of firewalls, but does not allow NGFWs to inspect traffic between LAN segments. Threats from the LAN are not blocked or warned.	NGFW now inspects all packets flowing between network segments, applies traditional firewall rule sets, and performs deep packet inspection to detect and prevent threats.

Single console access

Next-generation firewalls are easily accessible from a single console, unlike traditional firewalls, where you need to manually set up and configure firewalls individually.

Multiple layers of protection

Traditional firewalls can block access through ports (single layer of protection), which can prove to be trivial in a complex and evolving data architecture environment.

NGFW provides multiple layers of protection by inspecting traffic from Layer 2 to Layer 7, while understanding the exact nature of the data transmission. If the data transfer is within the defined firewall policy, the transfer will be blocked otherwise.

Simplified Infrastructure

For each new threat, you need a separate security appliance. However, with next-generation firewalls, you can easily manage and update security protocols from a single authorized device.

This simplifies complex security infrastructure and saves time in day-to-day operational activities.

Optimize the use of internet speed

In the case of traditional firewalls, the network speed decreases as the number of security protocols and devices increases. This happens because private network speeds are not reaching their expected potential with the addition of security equipment and services.

However, with next-generation firewalls, you can consistently achieve potential throughput regardless of the number of devices and security protocols.

Antivirus, ransomware and spam protection and endpoint security

NGFW comes with a full suite of antivirus, ransomware and spam protection, and endpoint security to protect your business data. With these capabilities, you don’t necessarily need separate tools for these purposes.

Because NGFW includes all of these features, not only will you save the time and effort required, but it will also help you easily monitor and control cyber threats.

Role access capabilities

Next-generation firewalls have an inherent ability to detect user identities. It can also be used with different user roles and restrict access to individuals and/or groups. This feature helps organizations set up role-based access to certain parts of their data and their content.

Organizations can also make some of their data public and keep the rest confidential to themselves.

Conclusion

All in all, NGFW is powerful. Compared to previous generations of firewalls, they introduce advanced protection mechanisms with the correct topology at the edge or within the LAN. In addition, by leveraging the capabilities of NGFWs, the technical debt created by deploying multiple disjoint security systems can be effectively aggregated in a single platform, improving an organization’s security posture, reducing administrative burden and complexity, and enabling greater security. High return on investment (ROI).