Top 5 Data Center Firewalls

Key Takeaways

• Data center firewalls provide real-time traffic monitoring and advanced threat prevention to protect critical applications, data, and infrastructure.
• The best data center firewalls offer advanced inspection techniques and security features, scalability, and low latency while monitoring both north-south and east-west traffic.
• Key evaluation criteria for comparing data center firewalls include advanced NGFW features, high availability, ease of management, vendor support, and compliance capabilities.
• Leading providers, Check Point, Fortinet, Palo Alto, Juniper, and Cisco, offer a range of hardware and virtual firewall options with differing strengths that suit different networks.
• Check Point’s Quantum firewall stands out due to its industry-leading threat-prevention capabilities, strong scalability, and simplified centralized management.

Top 5 Data Center Firewall Providers

#1. Check Point

Check Point is a leader in firewall technology, with its Quantum NGFW ranking number 1 in threat prevention in independent tests by Miercom. During 3-month benchmark assessments, Check Point achieved a 99.9% malware block rate and the highest scores across all security efficacy categories.

This technology powers Check Point’s data center firewalls, which offer scalable protection against large-scale, coordinated attacks that incorporate the latest tactics and methods. This includes zero-day threats. With capabilities beyond typical NGFWs, the Quantum Security Gateways appliances offer best-in-class threat prevention for data centers and complex hybrid cloud environments, including 60 security services with telco-grade performance.

Check Point offers multiple data center firewall appliances to match the scale of your operations and the speed required. This includes the Quantum Force 19200 and 29200 security gateways. These platforms provide Nvidia-based hardware acceleration for firewall traffic, making them ideal for demanding data centers with the ability to secure east-west traffic at ultra-low sub-2-microsecond latency. The 19200 and 29200 can deliver up to 800 Gbps and 1.4 Tbps of firewall throughput, respectively. However, with Quantum Maestro firewall cluster design, intelligent load sharing can significantly increase throughput. For example, a Maestro firewall cluster of 29200 appliances can achieve up to 3 Tbps of firewall throughput.

Additionally, unified security management controls via an easy-to-use platform also cut administrative tasks by up to 80%. Additional features include remote access VPN and IoT security against evolving attack vectors.

• Check Point’s NGFW technology offers the highest malware block rate on the market, based on independent tests.
• Quantum offers extensive and scalable security coverage for data centers while maintaining high-speed performance.
• Manage your entire data center security posture from a single, simple-to-use platform.

#2. Fortinet

Fortinet offers an extensive portfolio of firewall solutions designed to secure data centers and sensitive business data that cannot be migrated to the cloud. The FortiGate portfolio is powered by the vendor’s NGFW technology based on a hybrid mesh architecture. Data center firewall hardware ranges from solutions for compact and midsize operations up to hyperscale solutions intended for cloud providers. Each offers dedicated data center protections while providing high throughput and low latency.

Specific security features include dynamic segmentation to limit lateral movement, comprehensive visibility into data center traffic, and threat protection enhanced by AI and machine learning technology. The entire platform and its security features can be managed from a unified platform to help IT operations. 

Finally, the NGFW seamlessly integrates with Fortinet’s Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) platforms. This brings the vendor’s security solutions together, allowing you to manage access control, threat protection, networking, and segmentation policies in a single product.

• Dedicated data center protections, including dynamic network segmentation and integrated ZTNA capabilities.
• Wide range of appliances catering to different-sized businesses.
• Can be difficult to learn how to utilize the platform, with some users complaining about outdated tutorials and guides.

#3. Palo Alto

Palo Alto offers a combination of physical and virtual data center firewall solutions that focus on securing hybrid environments by providing comprehensive visibility, minimizing the attack surface, and automating threat protection. This includes tracking network traffic across on-prem data centers and cloud services to map risk and limit potential vulnerabilities. This is complemented by granular access policies covering both north-south and east-west network traffic.

Palo Alto also automates threat prevention, both discovery and response, to identify attacks as quickly as possible and minimize their impact. For example, automatically isolating infected hosts to limit access to sensitive data and prevent business disruption. The vendor’s NGFW is powered by machine learning technology to provide consistent, high-level protection across all workloads. All Palo Alto’s firewall form factors are managed using Panorama, a centralized platform that simplifies configuration, reporting, and auditing.

• A variety of firewall form factors to protect data centers and provide consistent policies across environments.
• Machine learning-powered NGFW to enhance protection over time.
• Some users experience a lack of vendor support.

#4. Juniper

Now part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Juniper offers data center NGFWs for small and midsize enterprises up to large-scale regional HQ networks. The SRX series of data center firewalls is part of the Juniper Connected Security portfolio, with the vendor aiming to provide network security for every enterprise connection.

Juniper data center firewalls offer software-enabled NGFW features, including IPS, application security, role-based access controls, and enhanced web filtering. Threat prevention is aided by integrated intelligence feeds, malware sandboxing, and the ability to identify malware within SSL-encrypted traffic. 

Juniper data center firewalls also unify WAN connection controls regardless of transport type. This allows comprehensive networking and security management from a single platform, helping ensure fast connectivity and scalable protection. Additionally, remote users can access on-prem data centers with built-in remote VPN functionality.

• Extensive NGFW security features to proactively protect network users.
• Seamlessly integrates into the Juniper ecosystem for existing customers to extend security to data centers.
• Can take a long time to complete Juniper firmware updates.

#5. Cisco

Cisco’s hybrid mesh firewall provides protection for complex enterprise networks, with coverage for data centers, the cloud, and IoT environments. The platform focuses on unifying firewall management to implement consistent policies and optimize enforcement across hybrid environments. Protections extend to application traffic as well as limiting access and lateral movement through zero-trust segmentation.

By placing Cisco firewalls at the data center perimeter, users can monitor traffic with advanced inspection techniques, including the ability to analyze encrypted traffic and spot hidden threats. Cisco firewalls also incorporate machine learning and AI technology to monitor behavior, better enforce policies, proactively identify vulnerabilities, and then provide mitigation strategies. The hybrid mesh firewall also tracks app dependencies and applies optimal segmentation policies to minimize risk across workloads.

Their firewall tools also integrate with other Cisco cybersecurity technologies, such as Splunk (a data-logging platform), Cisco Identity Services Engine (which shares identity context for granular policies across hybrid networks), and Cisco’s ZTNA platform (which provides secure remote access to sensitive corporate resources).

• Unified firewall based on a hybrid mesh architecture to enforce consistent policies across different environments, including data centers.
• Strong integration with other Cisco platforms.
• Inelegant interface requiring multiple tabs to view configuration data simultaneously.