Tools of the Trade: Dedicated Firewall Appliances

I want to talk about dedicated firewall appliances. This is purely out of the blue, I am answering a question a reader sent to me about why would anyone want a firewall appliance, what does it do, et cetera.

Essentially firewalls keep bad stuff from entering a computer and bad stuff from leaving a computer. Fairly simple stuff, I just want to make sure everyone has the basics wrapped up.

Where software protects a single server, appliances can protect a cluster of servers. Also appliances are easier to manage, you plug it in, turn it on, and tell it what to filter. After that its easy peasy no need to touchy (hopefully) So firewall appliances make management of a firewall for multiple systems easier. Its especially good if you are using unmanaged servers. Even if you are not a security expert you can get the appliance, have it plugged in, get a consultant or the Web host’s support team to set and you are done. Most appliances these days handle updates, and what not so it is essentially a black box system.

Some dedicated server hosts offer dedicated firewall appliances. Instead of sharing a firewall appliance with other customers you have your own. The perks are you can make sure that it is thoroughly customized to what you need. If, for instance you want all FTP traffic to be stopped you can do so with a dedicated firewall. Shared firewall appliances will have this option open for the most part.

Do you need it? If you answer yes to any one of the following:

• Have a cluster of servers
• Have specific security needs
• Are paranoid.

You might want to look into the cost of a dedicated firewall appliance. If not, it doesn’t hurt to look, but it may be like using a quad core xeon computer with 64 GB of ram and 4 TB hard drive computer for sending email and adding notes to FaceBook.

Until next time, happy hosting.