Best of breed data center firewalls are available as high-performance network security appliances and chassis-based systems that add intrusion prevention, application control, and anti-malware to the traditional firewall-VPN combination.
Why deploy a data center firewall?
Despite the rise of cloud-based resources and a distributed workforce, the data center remains critical to many, if not most, enterprises. Containing mission-critical applications and other essential business equities, the data center has evolved and often dispersed geographically but remains just as vulnerable. In the face of ever-growing threats, IT departments understand that securing the data center from malicious threats and unauthorized access remains essential to the continuity of the business.
Benefits of a data center firewall
A robust firewall solution will combine the strengths of gateway and distributed firewalls to deliver north-south and east-west protection for the data center that:
- Provides the foundation for a comprehensive access control and threat control
- Enables consistent performance and delivery of apps and data
- Ensures products and services get to the customers and employees who need them
- Helps eliminate downtime and reputational damage from successful attacks
- Enables a modern, distributed workforce
How does a data center firewall work?
A data center firewall, whether perimeter-based or distributed, is a gatekeeper, continuously monitoring traffic flows in and out of a designated network area, blocking suspicious activity, and alerting security teams to threat events.
Firewalls may use a variety of techniques, depending on their design, to control traffic flow. Traditional architectures will often provide static packet filtering, proxy services, and stateful inspection.
Modern gateway firewalls often add intrusion detection (IDS/IPS), application context, and advanced threat analysis that helps evaluate the content of traffic passing through.
Finally, distributed firewalls are designed to filter east-west traffic and deliver protection down to the workload level.