The emergence of new cyber threats that bypass perimeter-focused security controls calls for a robust cloud-managed firewall solution. As many organizations grapple with keeping their networks free from intrusions, Firewall as a Service is a much-needed game changer. Besides keeping your network safe from infiltration, FWaaS offers other benefits, like providing a scalable network and centralized management.
This article takes a deep dive into FWaaS and how it stands out from other kinds of firewalls. Discover why your organization needs it and the benefits you gain after putting it in place. We’ll also talk about how MetTel can help you stay network-resilient with different cloud-based management solutions.
7 Business Benefits of Firewall as a Service
FWaaS presents many unique benefits, including:
1. Scalability and Flexibility
FWaaS provides unmatched scalability and flexibility in network security. As a cloud-based solution, FWaaS capabilities scale up or down to match the needs of a changing organization. It allows companies to scale their security to support new users, offices, or data without purchasing new hardware.
The cloud model also delivers extreme flexibility. As a business evolves, it can extend policies and protection to new applications, databases, or cloud services. Thanks to FWaaS, an organization can adapt seamlessly to changes in network traffic.
2. Centralized Management
Centralized cloud-based control panels streamline security operations management. FWaaS gives IT teams increased visibility and allows them to oversee patch management from a single portal. This visibility lets security experts schedule and perform planned maintenance sessions without disrupting users.
Administrators also benefit from consistently distributing updated security policies to all endpoints with the click of a button. A cloud-delivered FWaaS solution simplifies security orchestration across distributed assets. IT personnel can monitor logs, configurations, threats, and policies in real time from any location through a unified dashboard. Centralized management strengthens the overall security posture of modern networks.
3. Enhanced Security Features
FWaaS solutions offer capabilities beyond traditional on-premises firewalls. By migrating security to the cloud, FWaaS platforms leverage the latest firewall technologies and detection methods to enable enhanced threat filtering. Deep packet inspection and zero-trust network access provide access management.
Deep inspection analyzes packet payloads to identify hidden threats, while zero-trust access restricts network access based on individual user, device identity, or security posture. FWaaS also provides continuous URL filtering, threat intelligence feeds, and malware prevention techniques on a cloud scale to prevent emerging attacks.
4. Cost Effective
FWaaS is more cost-effective than traditional firewalls. This cloud platform saves companies the upfront costs of buying their firewall appliances and infrastructure. Instead of paying for costly hardware, organizations using FWaaS pay a monthly fee for advanced protections. Since the FWaaS providers handle maintenance, upgrades, and support, this saves money that an organization would require to hire additional in-house staff.
5. Remote Access and Mobility
Given the risks associated with remotely accessing a network, FWaaS makes remote access safe by analyzing and blocking malicious traffic. FWaaS solutions include built-in VPN capabilities that enable remote users to establish an encrypted tunnel to the cloud-based firewall.
Remote users can access the full firewall capabilities through the cloud using nothing but a standard internet connection. The VPN encrypts all traffic, protecting sensitive data from interception when users connect over public networks. Employees can confidently access internal networks and applications from any device safely. Network perimeters extend globally through virtual firewalls, making remote work far more secure and productive.
6. Zero-Trust Readiness
A zero-trust network guarantees that only approved users can gain access. Incorporating FWaaS as a component of a zero-trust architecture means security policies can migrate with employees across any device. Centralized zero-trust administration through FWaaS decreases complexity, resulting in easier enforcement of protections wherever and however users connect.
This approach upholds the secure access service edge framework, which is essential for safeguarding distributed personnel. By examining each connection request based on identity rather than physical location, FWaaS facilitates core zero-trust dynamics like confirmed access.
7. Easier Policy Enforcement
Conventional firewalls can only apply security policies to traffic flowing directly through the firewall. FWaaS allows for simplified routing of all network traffic through a centralized cloud-based firewall. This routing ensures safer traffic and allows for more consistent policy enforcement.
As users access resources remotely via the VPN tunnel, all traffic adheres to the same rules and threat checks as on-premise connections. Remote users, branches, and data centers align behind a single enforced ruleset. IT teams get centralized visibility and control over security posture regardless of users’ physical position or device.
Why Your Organization Needs FWaaS
The growing number of data breaches worldwide costs organizations big. Businesses that suffered a breach lost an average of $4.35 million between 2014 and 2023. To avoid catastrophic data breaches, organizations need advanced cloud firewall security to help detect attacks and keep harmful traffic out.
Moving security inspection to cloud-based FWaaS strengthens defenses against many modern threats. It also allows organizations to simplify their network security infrastructure by consolidating firewall functions into a single, cloud-based solution, which reduces complexity.
Since an FWaaS provider handles the maintenance of an organization’s network, a company can free up resources it would have used to maintain a hardware firewall. Unlike traditional firewalls, FWaaS provides faster and more affordable flexibility and scalability.
Implementing FWaaS is typically cheaper than maintaining on-premises firewalls because an organization doesn’t incur the costs of purchasing, installing, and upgrading hardware. You only have to renew your subscription and leave the rest to the provider, making FWaaS a more affordable option.
Firewall as a Service from MetTel
FWaaS is more than a firewall. It’s a scalable, efficient solution for organizations addressing the modern challenges of remote workforces, distributed networks, and policy enforcement. FWaaS enables organizations to maintain robust network perimeter control in and out of office settings.
Are you looking for a centralized cloud-based managed system backed by expertise? At MetTel, we have different solutions for unique needs. TrueUC is a unified communications solution that allows your employees to communicate with customers from any device, including smartphones, tablets, and desktops, using their business identity.
Combine FWaaS with SD-WAN to restructure and optimize your network security. At the forefront of network management innovations is our AI-powered managed SD-WAN service that uses Robotic Process Automation to monitor the network and troubleshoot any issues while ensuring you maintain connectivity.
Ensure you have IoT connectivity at all times, regardless of location. Our IoT Single SIM ensures you are always online with high-quality mobile signals. Get started with MetTel’s cloud-based management capabilities today!
Firewall as a Service FAQs
Have more questions about FWaaS? We have the answers.
What is FWaaS?
As you might already know, Firewall as a Service (FWaaS) is like an intelligent bodyguard that provides advanced firewall protection capabilities through a cloud-based security service. Unlike traditional firewalls, which the customer owns and maintains, with FWaaS, the cloud vendor retains complete ownership and management of the firewall cloud service.
For businesses that prefer simplified management, FWaaS is not only about having a virtual firewall: it’s about transferring firewall management and monitoring services to cloud providers for a secure, manageable IT infrastructure. FWaaS is a scalable, pay-as-you-go firewall model with centralized management and control. It removes many of the complexities of on-premise firewalls and introduces the expertise of specialized cloud vendors who configure and monitor security across all locations from any device.
How is FWaaS Different From a Regular Firewall?
Since their first implementation in the 1980s, firewalls have helped prevent unauthorized access to computer networks. As cyber threats have advanced, the need to reinforce the firewall has become essential. When packet and traffic filtering aren’t enough to prevent network intrusion, FWaaS comes in handy. So, what is firewall as a service, and how does it differ from regular firewalls?
One of the main differences between a conventional firewall and FWaaS is installation. While businesses have to have a regular firewall installed on-site, FWaaS uses a cloud computing platform that empowers it to deliver firewall functions, so it doesn’t need on-site installation. It virtualizes solutions in a cloud environment which makes it more reliable than on-premises hardware. Cloud firewall service uses machine learning and behavior analytics to detect complex threats that packet filters in regular firewalls can’t.
Traditional firewalls provide foundational network protection through traffic inspection, access control, and basic intrusion prevention capabilities. However, transitioning to FWaaS gives you superior threat protection and troubleshooting, simplified management, and scalability. You also get automatic updates whenever there are new threats. With regular firewalls, you have to wait for scheduled update windows.
A cloud firewall service also operates on an elastic cloud infrastructure that allows security services to rapidly scale as computing storage and resources change. This elasticity enables the next-gen firewall to accommodate traffic spikes or changing network usage and threats.
How Does Firewall as a Service Work?
The first step when transitioning to FWaaS is to set up a subscription. FWaaS uses third parties to protect your network and provide you with centralized web-based management of security policies. The companies building these cloud platforms help with customization and implementation.
Once you implement FWaaS, it immediately takes over your existing firewalls, and the security policing begins. As a guard for your network, FWaaS stands between the internet and your network and inspects every incoming and outgoing traffic. It works in a way that is similar to a web application firewall as a service by securing the VPN and IP features while checking for malware and addressing any threats. The virtual firewall reinforces packet filtering to protect networks from internal and external threats.
FWaaS does not just protect the network from external access. If someone within an organization’s network attempts to access potentially risky websites or downloads, the firewall intercepts and denies this traffic based on its rules.
Elastic cloud resources ensure the FWaaS can dynamically scale inspection and throughput. The service provider continuously upgrades the firewall so perimeter protections are constantly updated to the latest firewall rulesets and threat intelligence.
When your company has a remote workforce, FWaaS ensures they transfer data safely without the costs of installing extra equipment. The secure firewall incorporates VPN connectivity to encrypt traffic to and from remote workers so hackers and unauthorized users can’t intercept it. FWaaS provides a robust, agile, simplified smart firewall that protects your data.