A firewall is a network security device that monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic and decides whether to allow or block specific traffic based on a defined set of security rules.
Firewalls have been a first line of defence 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.
A firewall can be hardware, software, software-as-a service (SaaS), public cloud or private cloud (virtual).
Explore the benefits of Secure Firewall in a Forrester study based on interviews with key decision-makers.
An early type of firewall device, a proxy firewall, serves as the gateway from one network to another for a specific application. Proxy servers can provide additional functionality such as content caching and security by preventing direct connections from outside the network. However, this also may impact throughput capabilities and the applications they can support.
Now thought of as a ‘traditional’ firewall, a stateful inspection firewall allows or blocks traffic based on state, port and protocol. It monitors all activity from the opening of a connection until it is closed. Filtering decisions are made based on both administrator-defined rules as well as context, which refers to using information from previous connections and packets belonging to the same connection.
A UTM device typically combines, in a loosely coupled way, the functions of a stateful inspection firewall with intrusion prevention and antivirus. It may also include additional services and often cloud management. UTMs focus on simplicity and ease of use.
See our UTM devices.
Firewalls have evolved beyond simple packet filtering and stateful inspection. Most companies are deploying next-generation firewalls to block modern threats such as advanced malware and application-layer attacks.
According to Gartner, Inc.’s definition, a next-generation firewall must include:
While these capabilities are increasingly becoming the standard for most companies, NGFWs can do more.
These firewalls include all the capabilities of a traditional NGFW and also provide advanced threat detection and remediation. With a threat-focused NGFW you can:
A virtual firewall is typically deployed as a virtual appliance in a private cloud (VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, KVM) or public cloud (Amazon Web Services or AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform or GCP, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure or OCI) to monitor and secure traffic across physical and virtual networks. A virtual firewall is often a key component in software-defined networks (SDN).
Learn about Cisco virtual firewalls for public cloud and private cloud.
Cloud native firewalls are modernising the way to secure applications and workload infrastructure at scale. With automated scaling features, cloud native firewalls enable networking operations and security operations teams to run at agile speeds.
Advantages of Cloud Native Firewalls
Learn about Cisco cloud-native firewalls.