What is a firewall as a service?

Just like a firewall to prevent the spread of flames in a building, a firewall in a computer network (hardware, software or both) acts as a barrier to an unauthorized network from being blocked. It does this by actively monitoring all incoming and outgoing traffic, as well as implementing and applying group security policies.

Firewalls were originally created to protect physical networks on site, but when several companies moved their applications and data to the cloud, the firewalls were forced to evolve. Now, firewall as a service or FWaaS, allows the delivery of firewalls as part of a company's cloud infrastructure.

Because companies need Firewall as a service

Years ago, when companies stored all their applications and data in individual on-site data centers, they adopted a "castle and moat" approach to protect their networks, with local firewalls acting as primary access checkpoints. However, when companies moved to the cloud, they adopted infrastructure and platform strategies as a service - IaaS and PaaS -, added more company-owned and employee-owned mobile devices to their networks and started using multiple applications. . and data hosted on third parties - third party infrastructures (i.e. software as a service or SaaS), quickly discovered that they no longer had a clearly defined network perimeter.

They also found that:

Since many of their applications and data were currently running and managed on third-party infrastructures, they no longer had any visibility or control over all their networks.

As companies and cloud service providers share a mutual responsibility to ensure security in cloud environments, companies realized that they could not simply depend on their cloud service providers to control all their security. They should find a way to do it alone.

This has forced many companies to completely rethink their approach to security.Put all traffic from multiple sources (eg on-site data centers, branch offices, mobile users, cloud infrastructure) into the cloud.

Implement and implement security policies consistently across all locations and users

Get complete visibility on their networks and control them without having to use physical devices

What is a cloud firewall?

Banks have a lot of physical security. Most brick and mortar banks incorporate security features such as security cameras and bulletproof glass. Security guards and bank clerks also help stop thieves and money is stored in highly secure safes.

But imagine if, instead of being held in one place, the money from each bank branch was stored in various stores across the country run by a company dedicated to safe maintenance. How can the bank be assured that its money is safe without the use of additional security facilities around its scattered coffers? This is what cloud firewalls do.

What is a firewall?

A firewall is a security product that filters out malicious traffic. Traditionally, firewalls have worked between a trusted internal network and an untrusted network, for example between a private network and the Internet. The first firewalls were physical devices that connected to a group's infrastructure on a building. Firewalls block and allow network traffic based on a set of internal rules. Some firewalls allow administrators to customize these rules.

What does Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS) mean?

Firewall-as-a-Service, or FWaaS for short, is another term for cloud firewalls. Like other "as-a-Service" categories, such as Software-as-a-Service or Platform-as-a-Service, a FWaaS runs in the cloud and is accessed over the Internet, and third-party vendors offer them as a service that they update and maintain.

What is the difference between a cloud firewall and a next-generation firewall (NGFW)?

A next-generation firewall (NGFW) is a firewall that includes new technologies that weren't available in earlier firewall products, such as:

Intrusion prevention system (IPS): An intrusion prevention system detects and blocks cyber attacks.

Deep packet inspection (DPI): NGFWs inspect data packet headers and payload, instead of just the headers. This aids in detecting malware and other kinds of malicious data.

Application control: NGFWs can control which individual applications can access or completely block applications.

NGFWs may also have other advanced features.

"Next-generation firewall" is a widely applied term, but NGFW doesn't necessarily work in the cloud. A cloud-based firewall may have NGFW functionality, but a local firewall may also be an NGFW.

What is the network perimeter? How does cloud computing affect the network perimeter?

The network perimeter is the division between the internal network an organization manages, and the network access provided by an external vendor, usually an Internet service provider (ISP). In other words, the network perimeter is the edge of what an organization has control over. Networks can be physically locked down as well: an employee of a company may have to be in the office and using a company-managed device to connect to the corporate network. Firewalls were initially designed to control this type of network perimeter and not let anything malicious through.

In cloud computing, the network perimeter essentially disappears. Users access services over the uncontrolled Internet. A user's physical location, and sometimes the device they're using, no longer matters. It's difficult to put a layer of security around corporate resources, because it's almost impossible to determine where the security layer should go. Some companies use to combine a range of security products, including traditional firewalls, VPNs, access control and IPS products, but this adds a lot of complexity to IT and is difficult to manage.

What does the Cloudflare web application firewall do?

Cloudflare Web Application (WAF) Firewall protects cloud buildings from vulnerabilities, helps block DDoS attacks and allows IT users to follow normal firewall rules. writing your own. Companies can implement WAF Cloudflare in the face of any type of cloud implementation - hybrid clouds, multicloud, public clouds, etc.