Firewall as a service (FWaaS) promises to extend the capabilities of next-generation firewall (NGFW) and unified threat management (UTM) solutions across a modern IT environment. Using a centrally-managed FWaaS solution permits an organization to deploy consistent protection in a scalable and consistent manner to geographically dispersed users, cloud applications, and local network resources.
Vendors in the FWaaS market tend to provide their solution as a feature within other products such as secure service edge (SSE) from Cato Networks, zero-trust network architecture (ZTNA) from Perimeter 81 or Zscaler, or secure access service edge (SASE) solutions offered by Cisco or Palo Alto.
Only a few vendors, such as Cloudflare, offer a stand-alone FWaaS service, and several of them don’t even use their own technology; instead, they deploy the Palo Alto solution as a service.
Headquartered in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, Cato Networks focuses on cloud-first network architecture and makes a claim to be the world’s first SASE platform.
“Cato is a stellar SASE provider with an extremely intelligent and decisive support team that is prompt, responsive, helpful, and [patient]. We have had a great experience with deploying our SaaS edge network, and they have been there right along with us all [the] way.” -A senior cloud infrastructure architect for an IT services company, review at Gartner Peer Insights
Networking giant Cisco, based out of San Jose, California, offers its feature-rich Umbrella platform to help secure users and resources connected through the internet.
“[Cisco Umbrella] allows you to review threats as well as update a shared database of negative and destructive web links in real time. Cisco Umbrella makes it simple to visualize and customize your risk defense. Individuals may also submit their own request to the administrator to review a blocked website. I recommend Cisco Umbrella if you want a simple online defense against risks at the application level that is easy to implement while also providing adaptable manageability and effective defense.” -Data engineer for SoftBank Group, review at TrustRadius
San Francisco-based Cloudflare specializes in delivering information. Its original products improved website and application performance, but Cloudflare quickly expanded into security products to protect against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks or to enable secure connections from and to remote resources.
Cloudflare’s Magic Firewall solution provides a stand-alone FWaaS solution as well as FWaaS features for the broader Cloudflare One SASE platform.
“In the past, filtering had to be done through complex access-lists across multiple network equipments. Now, it can be all managed through the Cloudflare Dashboard — fill in the form, and press validate. With less risks, more people can now manage security.” -Managing director and founder of premium managed hosting service provider, Nexylan, in a case study
Santa Clara, California-based Palo Alto Networks, a well-established firewall appliance provider, offers FWaaS as part of its Prisma SASE product and its Prisma Cloud security platform. Customers already familiar with Palo Alto firewalls can easily transition to the cloud-based platforms to configure and deploy firewalls to local networks from Palo Alto’s global network.
“[Prisma SASE solution is] useful in complex environments. … The interface is the same as that of firewalls, so if you are comfortable you don’t have to learn a new thing, but you can already apply your knowledge. Useful for centralizing logs, configurations, and certainly [firewall] management in general.” -A network administrator for a mid-market enterprise, review at G2
Perimeter 81, based in Tel Aviv, Israel, offers customers the easy-to-deploy Cloud Network Management Platform to provide secure connections between remote users, networks, and applications.
The solution offers four levels of service with FWaaS policies offered in three of the levels: Premium (10 policies), Premium Plus (100 Policies), and Enterprise (unlimited policies).
“We use it [Perimeter 81] for worldwide VPN networks and to help authenticate our employees logging into several different applications. The service allows you to segment to dial in via various regions around the world. They help with a delay in speeds, etc.” -Solutions consultant, review at TrustRadius
Based in San Jose, California, Zscaler offers a cloud-first approach to securing corporate environments. Zscalar’s Cloud Firewall is incorporated as a feature in the Transformation and ELA Zscaler Internet Access Editions as well as its Zero Trust Exchange platform.
“[Zscaler is] a terrific method to be entirely compliant. The Zscaler Internet Access Platform is a dedicated SSE solution that focuses on risk mitigation, reliability, and scalability to allow us to deliver our users secure access to our applications while keeping them secure. Zscaler Cloud Security Platform provides us with safe internet gateways with complete functionality and incorporated internet security. Because attackers can’t attack what they can’t see, the Zscaler technology hides source identities by distorting their IP addresses and prevents the business network from being exposed to the internet.” -Program director of DACH integration and TR for a services company, review at Gartner Peer Insights
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