By Lindsay,
There's a lot of speculation over firewalls for internet protection. In a previous company the standard practice was to ensure that we sold a 'hardware' firewall to ensure maximum protection. But was it really necessary?
Well no. For small businesses today, connectd to the internet, and running Windows 7 as the operating system, no additonal 'hardware' firewall is necessary. The ADSL router has a firewall built-in, and the workstations also have a software firewall (Windows Firewall) running all the time. Some anti-virus products also provide their own software firewall that replaces Windows Firewall as well.
What's the difference between a hardware firewall and a software firewall? About $400. You see there is no such thing as a hardware firewall. Rather there is a box - an appliance if you will - that runs firewall software. It might run a special version of a cut down operating system such as Linux, dedicated to firewall duties.
So by default you have 2 firewalls in place. No need for a third. However in sales the extra dollars for the device, plus configuring helped improve my bottom line even if it didn't help yours....
Some hadware firewalls have additonal functions - such as providing Virtual private Network (VPN) services to users outside the local area network. However today with Clud based services and applications, we see the use of VPN's declining, in fact not needed at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment