Enterprise firewall software program is an integral part of community safety infrastructure for organizations. These firewalls are designed to supply excessive availability and scalability to satisfy the wants of enormous and complicated networks as a result of they’ll deal with excessive visitors volumes and accommodate the expansion of community infrastructure.
By exploring the next high firewall options, enterprises could make an knowledgeable resolution to fortify their community defenses and safeguard essential property from ever-evolving cyber threats.
Finest firewall options for enterprises: Comparability chart
| Finest for | DLP functionality | URL filtering | Reporting | Integration with third get together answer | DNS filtering | Beginning value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palo Alto Networks | General | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | Accessible on request |
| Test Level Quantum | Linked units | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | Accessible on request |
| Fortinet FortiGate | Flexibility and scalability | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | Accessible on request |
| Juniper Networks | Logging and reporting functionality | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | Accessible on request |
| Cisco Safe Firewall | Centralized administration | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | Accessible on request |
| Zscaler | Companies with cloud community infrastructure | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | $72 per person per 12 months |
| pfSense | Open supply | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | $0.01 per hour |
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Palo Alto Networks
Finest general enterprise firewall
Palo Alto is a number one community safety supplier of superior firewall options and a variety of community safety providers.
The corporate affords varied firewall options for varied enterprise use instances, together with cloud subsequent technology firewalls, digital machine collection for private and non-private clouds, container collection for Kubernetes and container engines like Docker, and its PA-series home equipment designed for information facilities, community edge, service suppliers, distant branches and retail places, and harsh industrial websites.
These firewalls present enhanced visibility, management, and menace prevention capabilities to guard networks from varied cyber threats, together with malware, viruses, intrusions, and superior persistent threats (APTs).
Pricing
Palo Alto doesn’t promote its product pricing on its web site. Our analysis discovered that the Palo Alto PA-series value vary from $2,900 to $200,000 (roughly). To get the precise charges on your enterprise, contact the corporate’s gross sales workforce for customized quotes.
Standout options
- Superior menace prevention.
- Superior URL filtering.
- Area title service (DNS) safety.
- Medical IoT safety.
- Enterprise information loss prevention (DLP).
- As much as 245 million IPv4 OR IPv6 classes.
Execs
- Gives visibility throughout IoT and different related units.
- Gives visibility throughout bodily, virtualized, containerized and cloud environments.
- Provides quite a lot of merchandise for various enterprise sizes, from small companies to massive enterprises.
- Simple-to-navigate dashboard and administration console.
Cons
- Advanced preliminary setup.
- Some customers reported that the Palo Alto license is expensive.
Test Level Quantum
Finest for related units
Test Level is an Israeli multinational firm that develops and sells software program and {hardware} merchandise associated to community, endpoint, cloud, and information safety.
Test Level Quantum is designed to guard in opposition to superior cyber threats, focusing on Gen V cyber assaults. This answer encompasses varied parts to safeguard networks, cloud environments, information facilities, IoT units, and distant customers.
Test Level’s SandBlast expertise employs superior menace intelligence, sandboxing, and real-time menace emulation to detect and stop refined assaults, together with zero-day exploits, ransomware, and superior persistent threats.
Pricing
Test Level doesn’t publicly submit pricing data on its web site. Knowledge from resellers reveals that Test Level merchandise can vary from round $62 for a fundamental answer to over $50,000 for an enterprise-level answer. Contact the Test Level gross sales workforce on your precise quotes.
Standout options
- URL filtering.
- DLP.
- Full active-active redundancy.
- Zero-trust safety for IoT units.
- Test Level Quantum protects in opposition to GenV assaults.
- Superior menace safety.
Execs
- 24/7 customer support and assist.
- Simple to setup and use.
- Administration platform with automation options.
- Sandblast safety for testing malware.
Cons
- Customers reported that the Test Level firewall is dear.
- Documentation will be improved.
Fortinet FortiGate
Finest for flexibility and scalability
Fortinet affords varied firewall merchandise for various group sizes, from residence workplaces to massive enterprises.
The FortiGate 7000 collection (FG-7121F, FG-7081F, FG-7081F-2, FIM-7921F, FIM-7941F, and FPM-7620F) is an enterprise firewall product that gives high-performance community safety. It’s designed for organizations with excessive community visitors volumes and that must handle massive community infrastructures.
This firewall collection is powered by a Safety Processing Unit (SPU) of as much as 520Gbps and in addition contains the most recent NP7 (Community Processor 7) and CP9 (Content material Processor 9).
Pricing
Fortinet’s FortiGate firewall instrument pricing is on the market upon request. Pricing will rely upon varied elements, together with the dimensions of the community, the variety of customers, and the forms of security measures wanted. Contact a Fortinet consultant for pricing and product data.
Standout options
- Protects IT, IIoT, and OT units in opposition to vulnerability and device-based assault ways.
- FortiGate 7000F collection offers NGFW, segmentation, safe SD-WAN, and cellular safety for 4G, 5G, and IoT.
- Provides varied forms of firewalls, together with container firewalls, digital firewalls and {hardware} firewall home equipment.
- Zero Contact Integration with Fortinet’s Safety Material Single Pane of Glass Administration.
Execs
- Integrations with over 500 third-party providers.
- AI-powered capabilities.
- Customers reported that the instrument is user-friendly.
Cons
- Assist will be improved.
- Its reporting function will be improved.
Juniper Networks
Finest for logging and reporting functionality
Juniper Networks’ firewall helps enterprises shield their community edge, information heart, and cloud functions.
The corporate can be identified for its Junos working system (OS), a scalable community OS that powers Juniper Networks units. Junos offers superior routing, switching, and safety capabilities and permits for seamless integration with third-party software program and functions.
Juniper Networks vSRX digital firewall offers enhanced safety for Amazon Net Providers (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud, and Oracle Cloud environments, whereas its cSRX Container Firewall affords superior safety providers to safe functions operating in containers and microservices. The corporate’s SRX firewalls collection is designed for varied group sizes, from small to massive enterprises.
Pricing
Juniper Community pricing is on the market on request. Nevertheless, they provide totally different license strategies, together with Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) and Deliver-Your-Personal-License (BYOL) choices for public clouds. Contact the corporate’s gross sales workforce for customized quotes.
Standout options
- Juniper Community has varied forms of firewalls, together with container firewalls, digital firewalls and {hardware} firewall home equipment.
- Public cloud workload safety, together with AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
- Logging and reporting functionality.
- Helps VMware ESXi, NSX, and KVM (Centos, Ubuntu).
Execs
- Superior menace prevention functionality.
- Deployable on-premises and cloud environments.
Cons
- Assist will be improved.
- Customers report that some Juniper Networks firewall merchandise are costly.
Cisco Safe Firewall
Finest for centralized administration
Cisco Safe Firewall combines firewall capabilities with superior security measures to guard networks from varied threats, together with unauthorized entry, malware, and information breaches.
Cisco Safe Firewall integrates with Cisco Talos, a menace intelligence analysis workforce. This collaboration permits the firewall to obtain real-time menace intelligence updates, enhancing its means to establish and block rising threats.
Cisco Safe Firewall will be centrally managed by means of Cisco Firepower Administration Middle (FMC). This administration console offers a unified interface for configuration, monitoring, and reporting, simplifying the administration of a number of firewalls throughout the community.
Pricing
Contact Cisco’s gross sales workforce for customized quotes.
Standout options
- IPS to guard in opposition to identified threats.
- Net filtering.
- Community segmentation.
- Centralized administration.
Execs
- Gives complete visibility and management.
- Environment friendly assist workforce.
- Extremely scalable instrument.
Cons
- Assist will be improved.
- Advanced preliminary setup.
Zscaler
Finest for companies with cloud community infrastructure
The Zscaler firewall offers cloud-based safety for internet and non-web visitors for all customers and units. Zscaler inspects all person visitors, together with SSL encrypted visitors, with elastically scaling providers to deal with excessive volumes of long-lived connections.
One of many key benefits of Zscaler’s cloud-based method is that it eliminates the necessity for on-premises {hardware} or software program installations. As a substitute, organizations can leverage Zscaler’s infrastructure and providers by redirecting their web visitors to the Zscaler cloud. This makes scaling and managing safety simpler throughout distributed networks and distant customers.
Pricing
Zscaler doesn’t promote its charges on its web site. Nevertheless, information from resellers reveals that its pricing begins from about $72 per person per 12 months. On your precise fee, contact the Zscaler gross sales workforce for quotes.
Standout options
- Centralized coverage administration.
- Totally-integrated safety providers.
- Actual-time granular management, logging, and visibility.
- Consumer-aware and app-aware menace safety.
- Adaptive IPS safety and management.
- File switch protocol (FTP) management and community tackle translation (NAT) assist.
Execs
- Simple to make use of and handle.
- AI-powered cyberthreat and information safety providers.
- All the time-on cloud intrusion prevention system (IPS).
- AI-powered phishing and C2 detection.
Cons
- Advanced preliminary setup.
- Documentation will be improved.
pfSense
Finest open-source firewall
pfSense is an open-source firewall and routing platform based mostly on FreeBSD, an open-source Unix-like OS. It’s designed to supply superior networking and security measures for small and enormous networks.
pfSense will be deployed as a bodily equipment or as a digital machine. pfSense affords many capabilities, together with firewalling, VPN connectivity, visitors shaping, load balancing, DNS and DHCP providers, and extra.
Pricing
For pfSense cloud:
- pfSense on AWS: Pricing begins from $0.01 per hour to $0.40 per hour.
- pfSense on Azure: Pricing begins from $0.08 per hour to $0.24 per hour.
For pfSense software program:
- pfSense CE: Open supply model obtainable to obtain without cost.
- pfSense+ Residence or Lab: Accessible without charge for analysis functions solely.
- pfSense+ W/TAC LITE: At present obtainable at no cost, however the vendor might improve the speed to $129 per 12 months sooner or later.
- pfSense+ W/TAC PRO: $399 per 12 months.
- pfSense+ W/TAC ENT: $799 per 12 months.
pfSense affords three {hardware} home equipment tailor-made to the wants of enormous enterprises.
- Netgate 8200: Price $1,395. It has 18.55 Gbps IPERF3 and 5.1 Gbps IMIX visitors velocity.
- Netgate 1537: Price $2,199. It has 18.62 Gbps(10k ACLs) IPERF3 and 10.24 Gbps (10k ACLs) IMIX visitors velocity.
- Netgate 1541: Price $2,899. It has 18.64 Gbps(10k ACLs) IPERF3 and 12.30 Gbps(10k ACLs) IMIX visitors velocity.
Standout options
- NAT mapping (inbound/outbound).
- Captive portal visitor community.
- Stateful packet inspection (SPI).
Execs
- Free open-source model.
- Neighborhood assist.
- Anti-spoofing functionality.
Cons
- Steep studying curve for directors with restricted expertise.
- GUI is old style and may very well be simplified.
Key options of enterprise firewall software program
There’s all kinds of capabilities that enterprise firewall software program can present, however a few of the key options to search for embrace packet filtering, stateful inspection, utility consciousness, logging and reporting capabilities, and integration together with your present safety ecosystem.
Packet filtering
Firewall software program examines incoming and outgoing community packets based mostly on predefined guidelines and insurance policies. It filters packets based mostly on standards similar to supply/vacation spot IP addresses, ports, protocols, and packet attributes. This function permits the firewall to dam or permit community visitors based mostly on the configured guidelines.
Stateful inspection
Enterprise firewalls make use of stateful inspection to watch community connections’ state and analyze visitors circulate context. By sustaining details about the state of every connection, the firewall could make extra knowledgeable selections about which packets to permit or block.
Software consciousness
Fashionable firewall software program typically contains utility consciousness capabilities. It may well establish particular functions or protocols inside community visitors, permitting organizations to implement granular insurance policies based mostly on the appliance or service used. This function is useful for managing and securing internet functions and controlling the usage of particular providers or functions.
Logging and reporting
Firewall software program logs community occasions, together with connection makes an attempt, rule matches, and different security-related actions. Detailed logging permits organizations to investigate and examine safety incidents, observe community utilization, and guarantee compliance with regulatory necessities. Reporting capabilities assist generate complete reviews for auditing, safety evaluation, and compliance functions.
Integration with the safety ecosystem
Firewall software program is often a part of a broader safety ecosystem inside a corporation. Integration with different safety instruments and applied sciences, similar to antivirus software program, menace intelligence platforms, Safety Info and Occasion Administration (SIEM) programs, and community entry management (NAC) options, permits for a extra complete and coordinated method to community safety.
Advantages of working with enterprise firewalls
Key benefits of enterprise firewall options embrace enhanced community safety, menace mitigation, and entry management, in addition to visitors analytics information.
- Community safety: Firewalls act as a protecting barrier in opposition to exterior threats similar to unauthorized entry makes an attempt, malware, and different malicious exercise. Imposing entry management insurance policies and modifying community visitors helps forestall unauthorized entry and shield essential information.
- Menace mitigation: By combining intrusion prevention methods, deep packet monitoring, and menace intelligence, a firewall can detect and block suspicious visitors, decreasing the chance there that the community can be corrupted and broken so
- Entry management: Firewall software program permits directors to limit or permit entry to community sources, functions, and providers based mostly on particular person roles, departments, or wants. This ensures that solely licensed folks or programs can entry the display and its equipment.
- Visitors information and analytics: Along with defending your community, firewalls can even present granular details about visitors and exercise passing by means of your community, in addition to its general efficiency.
How do I select the very best enterprise firewall answer for my enterprise?
When selecting the very best enterprise firewall software program for your small business, contemplate the next elements.
- Safety: Assess your group’s particular safety wants and necessities.
- Options: Consider the options and capabilities of firewall options, similar to packet filtering, utility consciousness, intrusion prevention, VPN assist, centralized administration, and scalability. Take into account the seller’s popularity, experience, and assist providers.
- Compatibility: Guarantee compatibility together with your present community infrastructure and different safety instruments.
- Palms-on exams: Conduct an intensive analysis of various firewall options by means of demos, trials, or proofs of idea to evaluate their efficiency, ease of use, and effectiveness in assembly your group’s safety targets.
- Complete value of possession (TCO): Take into account the fee, licensing fashions, and ongoing assist and upkeep necessities.
By contemplating these elements, you may make an knowledgeable resolution and choose the very best enterprise firewall software program that aligns with your small business wants and offers sturdy community safety.
Continuously Requested Questions (FAQ)
Is an enterprise firewall totally different from a standard firewall?
Though they share many traits, an enterprise firewall isn’t the identical as a consumer-grade firewall. Enterprise firewalls are designed to satisfy massive organizations’ safety wants and community infrastructure challenges. They’re sturdy, scalable, and might deal with excessive community visitors volumes and complex threats, in comparison with generic firewalls for residence or small workplace environments.
What’s the strongest sort of firewall?
A firewall’s power is dependent upon varied elements, and no universally reliable firewall exists. A firewall’s effectiveness is dependent upon its supplies, configuration, and the way properly it suits into the group’s safety wants.
That mentioned, next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) present improved safety capabilities and are sometimes thought of the best firewall answer in as we speak’s enterprise. NGFWs mix conventional firewall options with further performance similar to utility consciousness, intrusion prevention, deep packet monitoring, and user-based insurance policies. They supply superior safety in opposition to trendy threats with larger visibility and management over community visitors.
How do you arrange an enterprise firewall?
Establishing an enterprise firewall entails a number of steps:
- Decide your community topology.
- Outline safety insurance policies.
- Plan firewall placement.
- Configure firewall guidelines.
- Implement VPN and distant entry.
- Take a look at and monitor firewall efficiency.
- Carry out common updates and upkeep.
We suggest participating community safety consultants or reviewing vendor documentation and assist supplies for particular steerage in putting in and configuring your enterprise firewall.
Methodology
The firewall options talked about on this information have been chosen based mostly on in depth analysis and trade evaluation. Elements similar to trade popularity, buyer opinions, infrastructure, and buyer assist have been thought of.
We additionally assessed the options and capabilities of the firewall options, together with packet filtering, utility consciousness, intrusion prevention, DLP, centralized administration, scalability, and integration with different safety instruments.
Additionally see
In case you’re undecided one of many firewalls included right here is correct for your small business, we additionally decided the greatest firewalls for SMBs, in addition to the greatest software-based firewalls.
And as soon as your firewall is in place, don’t neglect its upkeep. Listed below are the greatest firewall audit instruments to keep watch over its efficiency.
