Take a moment and picture yourself at your workstation focusing on doing something pivotal and a notification pops up that cyber attackers are attempting to gain access to the computer network of your organization.
I understand how scary the scenario could be but since you will have an extra layer of safety at your place, you will have a reason to stay calm; this is when next-generation firewalls come in.
Even the business forecast for next-generation firewalls has already grown to $5.12 billion in 2024 showing the importance it holds today (Source: The Business Research Company, 2024).
If you want to know how your company can benefit from looking into these intelligent and enhanced next-generation firewalls, you may continue to the rest of the article.
Next-Generation Firewalls Explained
Next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) add more protective layers to the existing ones so they can gain the potential to face new and more destructive online threats.
They provide the following benefits:
Advanced Threat Protection: It utilizes tools such as machine learning and behavior analysis that allow the organization to catch hidden threats such as viruses, before they could do any harm.
Deep Packet Inspection (DPS): This category of firewalls searches even within the data flow of traffic in a bid to locate and remove materials that are dangerous and could be harmful.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): NGFWs can easily detect unusual traffic patterns and block intrusions in a network before hackers can access or harm them.
Application Awareness and Control: What’s more wonderful about NGFWs is that they can recognize and interact with applications, and regardless of the port number, it grants the ability to apply measures to mitigate dangerous apps.
In sum, when they are implemented together, these sufficiency measures greatly improve the security of a given network against the plethora of attacks that plague it.
To get an accurate view of the Global Next Generation Firewall Market between 2024 to 20230, take an insight into the graph below.
Enhancing Enterprise Security with NGFWs
Next-Generation firewalls aren’t your regular run-of-the-mill security apparatuses – they possess ample intelligence, are quick and significantly good enough to thwart possible online assaults before they happen at all, and provide other assistance.
Also, it provides the following advanced feature shields to enhance enterprise security:
Comprehensive Network Visibility
With Next-Generation firewalls, you can have detailed information about all aspects of system usage.
Such as analysis of strange traffic patterns across your entire network and detection of related events so you can on-time reduce the number of potential issues by rectifying them quickly.
In doing so, attacks against your systems are prevented and negated.
Threat Intelligence Integration
Over the years, malicious threats have increased, and so we stay alert to the new ones, the NGFW now connects networks across the globe.
It instantaneously informs us about fresh attacks, threatening sites, or even an unattended loophole within its surroundings.
This way the firewall mitigates potentially harmful traffic from reaching the network infrastructure before things go beyond, thus enabling a robust network-wide enhanced security structure.
Encrypted Traffic Inspection
You might be aware of the fact that more and more data is being transmitted to encode (encryption), so they can be protected from hackers.
However, due to that coding, traditional firewalls can not view the data and detect possible threats – which is a concern!
But not any longer with NSFWs, as it can decode the data, and check if there are any threats, hence, ensuring your sensitive doc has been transmitted properly.
Aligning NGFWs with Cybersecurity Strategies
The Next Generation Firewalls are major components within modern cyber security systems, again, this is particularly pronounced in Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and security automation.
Zero Trust Network Access
NGFWs are configured to presume no trust for any identity (people, devices, or apps) if they are on the network or within the perimeter.
In order to prevent unauthorized access to your network, they do a lot of checking and rechecking to enable only authentic users as well as devices to get into your network.
Security Automation and Integration
NGFWs also save you so much time as almost every security task has been handled automatically, which means you don’t have to manage everything manually.
They automate processes, collaborate with other tools, and autonomously address threats, which provides you with an overall view of the safety status.
This way these firewalls decrease errors and increase response time leading to better security of your network.
Do You Know? Palo Alto Networks launched the first next-generation firewall (NGFW) in 2008.
Real-World Impact and Considerations
Next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) on the other hand really enhance the security of any business and help safeguard them from any cyber threat.
Other than the fact that they provide enhanced safety, the creation of NGFWs will lead to faster identification of intrusions, management of security issues, and breaches in an organization.
These also assist you in saving money as well as ease the process of managing security as it combines multiple security tools in one.
However, the implementation procedure of NGFWs can be daunting and demand careful evaluation.
Therefore, to take full advantage of this innovation, it is pivotal to set it up correctly, update it whenever necessary, and manage it regularly in order to avoid problems.
Fortifying Your Enterprise with Next-Generation Firewalls
Cyber attacks are constantly on the trail of finding new methods of exploiting vulnerabilities and stealing data.
That’s why your organization needs to approach Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) to safeguard itself from top latest threats.
These tools are equipped with advanced features like threat protection, application control, and deep packet inspection, thus helping to thwart even the most sophisticated attacks.
Incorporating it into your security policy will make it possible to fortify your network, mitigate threats, and provide effective protection to your business.
