Cisco Acquire Sourcefire for 2.7 Billion Dollars

Could this be the perfect time to migrate to Next-Generation Firewalls?

The world of advanced network security is altering rapidly as the weapons used on both sides of the battle become ever more sophisticated. Cyberattackers and advanced persistent threats (APTs) are evolving, and in doing so are presenting network security vendors and CIOs alike with a fresh set of challenges.

The good news is that Palo Alto Networks have developed a market leading firewall solution, more than capable of dealing with malicious attacks on your precious business data.

With ground breaking policy enforcement that is based on users, their applications, and content, as opposed to merely IP address (as with traditional stateful firewall models), Palo Alto’s Next Generation firewalls are built to protect enterprise networks from the modern threat landscape. Taking this divergent approach to threat prevention has gained Palo Alto a great deal of industry notoriety, and propelled them to ‘leader’ status within Gartner’s 2013 enterprise firewall magic quadrant.

Palo Alto firewalls boast the only next-generation security platform which controls the entire lifecycle of modern advanced persistent threats (those that are designed to steel valuable data rather than causing harm to the network) by…

• Actively ‘sandboxing’ targeting malware
• Granular control of custom malware protocols, persistence tools and C2
• Contextual decryption of SSL traffic

Palo Alto’s next generation firewalls simplify overall security by taking a comprehensive and integrated approach, which enables unified safe application enablement policies to be applied to all of your enterprise offices, data centres and end-users.

Palo Alto vs. Checkpoint – Gartner 2013 Quadrant Review

Palo Alto and Checkpoint are battling for enterprise firewall market leadership.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Palo Alto Networks and Checkpoint Software both performing strongly in Gartner’s 2013 Enterprise Firewall Magic Quadrant, and seemingly racing away from the fragmented competition, a direct product comparison has perhaps never been more relevant.

Checkpoint’s offerings have come out on top of Gartner’s annual assessment for the past 16 years running; a staggering statistic, which seemingly cements their place as the thought leaders in firewall technology. The company offers what they have dubbed a ‘total security solution’, which encompasses unified gateway and single endpoint, as well as single management architecture.
However, their grip on the top-spot has been slipping somewhat in recent times due to sustained pressure from relative newcomers, Palo Alto Networks. Their ground breaking technology has not only altered the playing field, but given the California-based network security company a real chance of overtaking their rivals.

A bit about the quadrant

The Gartner Magic Quadrant is essentially a way of assessing the competition between the major players in a given sector of the technology industry; In this case, the enterprise next-generation firewall space. The axes of the quadrant have been designed to measure market leadership, based on two key indicators; the ‘ability to execute’ and the ‘completeness of vision’.
The relative ability of each manufacturer is basically an assessment of the resources available to them, and is deemed to be indicative of their capacity to meet demand for, and to ultimately support, a growth in orders.
The second heading, the completeness of vision, indicates the level of technological innovation demonstrated by each product. Once complete, the quadrant’s four sectors categorise each manufacturer as being either being ‘niche’, a ‘challenger’, ‘visionaries’, or ‘leaders’.

How does Gartner define enterprise firewalls?

The enterprise firewall market is being driven by advanced threats to network security, as well as an evolutionary shift from traditional stateful inspection firewalls, to those in the Next-Generation category*. Gartner specifies that products entered into the Magic Quadrant must be able to support single-enterprise firewall deployments as well as large global deployments, including branch offices. The products must also be inclusive of highly scalable management and reporting consoles, products, sales, and support ecosystems which are focused on the enterprise.

*Next-Generation firewalls are characterised by the incorporation of full-stack inspection to support intrusion prevention, application-level inspection and granular policy control.

Head ‘2’ head

As previously stated, Palo Alto Networks and Checkpoint Software both perform well within the quadrant. The two companies alone share the ‘leaders’ space, with Palo Alto adjudged to be demonstrating more ‘vision’ in terms of their technology; a metric which could bode well for outstripping Checkpoint in the future, should the trend continue.
Checkpoint currently occupy the top-spot, predominately on their ‘ability to execute’, which could very well prove to be an accurate indication that their lead is by no means unassailable, given Palo Alto’s sharp rise and on-going momentum.

The technology

Traditional Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), such as that of Checkpoint, use port and protocol to classify traffic, which according to Palo Alto can lead to, “erroneous identification of the application”. Contrary to this, Palo Alto have adopted a three tier classification process, a method they feel is more consistent with the type of traffic traversing business networks. Rejecting the assumption that an IP address can be considered a trustworthy indication of user identity, their technology first identifies the application and then traces this to the user; all of which takes place whilst the firewall inspects for policy violations.

In Summary

The inescapable truth to come from Gartner’s 2013 Quadrant, is that Palo Alto currently possess a technically superior product, one that boasts more innovation and advancements than that of their Checkpoint counterpart, not to mention anyone else – a fact that has earned Palo industry recognition, and seen the relative latecomers perform such a remarkable ascent.
It is this level of protocol sophistication that has made Palo Alto firewalls such a strong contender to Checkpoint, and shows precisely why Gartner’s Quadrant estimates Palo’s ‘vision’ as being a commanding factor in their play for market leadership.

If you found this blog useful we’d love to hear your feedback.

To find out more about Palo Alto and next generation firewalls, speak to one of the Ensign team

UPDATE! Latest Palo Alto enterprise security and WildFire advancements have boosted the defence against modern malware.

Next-Generation Firewalls for Dummies – Free Download

Palo Alto Firewalls – A Dummies Guide

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Much like our busy, pot-hole ridden, roads, it is likely that in recent years, you’ve noticed an increase in the amount (and type) of traffic traversing your enterprise network.

The technology being implemented within the workplace has grown in sophistication, and in the majority of cases, is no longer signed off or even selected by IT departments. Aside from our desktop machines, there are numerous other devices, such as smartphones, tablets and netbooks for which their users require the same level of access. The applications being used by this new army of devices can carry harmful viruses, malware and other threats. So, whilst having fantastic effects on productivity and employee satisfaction,  they come with a certain degree of risk to the overall security and well being of your business network.

From these circumstances, what we see emerging is a simple benefit Vs risk scenario, in which the substantial pros of implementing web 2.0 applications within the workplace, can be offset by the level of risk they pose when not properly monitored. So what next?

There are undoubtedly a million and one places in which you could begin thinking about your network security options… but….If you are seriously concerned about this next generation of threats to your enterprise network, and are unsure where the answers might lie, help is here…

This easy to understand introduction to next-generation firewalls is a great place to start your research.  Next Generation Firewalls for Dummies will provide you with some of the key pieces of information that can help you begin a better, more informed, enquiry into updating or implementing a next-generation firewall network infrastructure. You can download your free copy here… or by going to http://www.ensign-net.co.uk/firewalls_for_dummies_download.html

Ensign are always happy to discuss a solution for your specific business needs, and can even arrange a courtesy test to identify what threats, if any, there are to your network before any further action is taken.

Get in touch today www.ensign-net.co.uk