A firewall is going to be the first line of defence that protects your business’ IT systems from attack, which means that it is a vital asset and one which is worthy of investment.
There are a number of firewall options available to modern businesses, each of which has its own positive and negative aspects to consider when you are looking for one to adopt.
A managed firewall service can be comprised of two distinct elements: namely the firewall equipment and the software that is used to actively provide protection. There are many different levels of protection on offer as well as gradients of management, which means businesses are able to choose a package which is as comprehensive as they require it to be.
A managed firewall will be administrated and monitored by a third-party provider, which means you do not need to dedicate any in-house resources to this particular task. This will help you to free up IT staff to concentrate on other tasks, or indeed make up for the fact that you may not have the right talent available within your business and will instead need to outsource it.
The provider should be able to configure your firewall appropriately so that it gives you the right levels of security, but it is not simply about getting the set-up right and then leaving a business to it. Management of a firewall should also include in-depth monitoring and reporting so that a business can assess the effectiveness of its current security set-up and identify any incursions if and when they are detected.
The monitoring of a firewall might also take into account the amount of resources that are being consumed by it while it is active, which could prove to be useful.
One of the benefits to having a managed firewall is that the process of patching and upgrading it will be left to the provider and is not necessarily going to be the responsibility of the individual business. This means that your security systems can remain right up to date without any need for your involvement in the scheduling of maintenance.
Additionally, a managed firewall service will be able to identify upfront the kind of throughput that will be possible if your in-house or hosted solution is being protected. Sometimes a firewall can be a bottleneck that hinders the flow of legitimate data while also keeping out unwanted traffic, but with a managed solution you will be able to sit back and let these concerns fall on the shoulders of others.
Managed firewall services need not be tied down to a single physical location, because they can also be used to protect a whole network or even a cloud based solution. If you would prefer to use a hybrid set-up that involves a number of different network solutions, picking a flexible firewall to provide security will actually put you in a stronger position.
Like any outsourced IT facility, a managed firewall service will give you more scalability than would be possible to achieve in-house. You will also be able to enjoy a customised experience that suits your business down to the ground as a result of this.
Managed firewall services can still offer businesses a good degree of control over their security measures. Depending on the architecture that is in place this will vary, but you will get your own ability to check up on which users, devices and traffic types are flowing through your systems.
Ultimately, a managed firewall service is suitable for contemporary businesses that need an affordable yet effective way to provide security and prevent attacks.
About the Author: The article is provided by Daisy. A managed hosting packgage from Daisy is based in one of our Tier 3 Data Centres
