As organizations increasingly adopt virtualization, software defined networks and cloud applications, firewalls have been evolving from perimeter-based security devices to distributed security solutions.

A next generation firewall goes beyond security to include features that also improve connectivity and performance.  It intelligently optimizes traffic to improve network performance and provide reliable access to mission critical applications for all users across all locations.

Data exfiltration from botnets and spyware are prevented by next gen firewalls. They also have the ability to identify and block infected rogue endpoints in real time. Additionally, this type of firewall automatically blocks macro-enabled office documents, which can easily be used to deploy malware.

The firewall can improve WAN performance by including multiple uplink usage, intelligent uplink failover, link balancing and optimization, enabling 99.999% uptime with low-cost Internet uplinks. This is particularly valuable in hybrid environments that require fast, reliable connectivity to cloud apps as well as across premises and cloud-based network locations.

Cloud-based central management supports an unlimited number of managed firewalls and offers administrators an overview of cloud deployments through dedicated dashboard widgets that display data such as public IP, domain name and DNS name received from the cloud datacenter where the firewall is hosted.

DataLink can help you assess and implement firewall technology for any IT environment.  Contact us today: 410.729.0440 or sales@DataLinkTech.com.