Advanced firewall that combines traditional filtering with application awareness, intrusion prevention, and threat intelligence.
A Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) goes beyond traditional port and protocol filtering to inspect traffic at the application layer. NGFWs can identify and control specific applications (like blocking Facebook but allowing LinkedIn), integrate intrusion prevention, perform SSL/TLS inspection to examine encrypted traffic, and use threat intelligence feeds to block known malicious sources. They provide granular policy control based on users, applications, and content rather than just IP addresses and ports. NGFWs have become the standard for perimeter security, replacing traditional stateful firewalls.
Why It Matters
The DSC Perspective:
Traditional firewalls can't see what's inside encrypted traffic or distinguish between applications using the same port. NGFW gives you visibility and control that modern threats require. Essential for any organisation with internet-facing infrastructure.