Firewall as a service (FWaaS) is a security solution delivered as a cloud based service that enables organizations to simplify IT infrastructure and systems protection. It provides advanced next-generation firewall features likewise intrusion prevention system (IPS), web or URL filtering, domain name system (DNS) security, Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), access controls, and so on capabilities. FWaaS enables organizations to have centralized security management through which they can address patch management, change management, and policy management challenges. And it works by enforcing the custom access control rules that the administrators set, and by flagging and blocking those unwanted network traffic dynamically and proactively.
Firewalls in general prevent unauthorized access to the network of the organization through proactively monitoring all incoming and outgoing network traffic, and by applying and enforcing security policies throughout the entire organization. Moreover, firewalls were initially developed to protect on-premise corporate networks but due to the movement of services and applications to the cloud, firewalls had to evolve to cope with the paradigm shift of computing. Therefore, unlike the traditional firewalls, the FWaaS security solution is provided through the cloud platforms and infrastructures. And it further helps organizations to scale and adapt to changing network requirements and dynamically evolving cybersecurity threat landscapes at ease as opposed to the rigid appliance based firewalls.
Benefits of FWaaS solutions include the following:
- Network visibility and simplified management
- Provides zero trust architecture capabilities
- Increased flexibility
- Improved scalability
- Simplified deployment and maintenance
- Unified security policy management
- Cloud based intrusion prevention system (IPS)
- DNS security
- Provides access controls
- Aggregates all traffic from the datacenters, branch offices, mobile users, and cloud infrastructures easily and dynamically
- Protects branch or remote workers
- Easy configuration