Technology & Devices
A hardware firewall is a physical appliance that sits on
the facing end of your network and is primarily designed
for one purpose:
-To let you out to the Internet while keeping the outside
world from accessing your internal network.
Through a series of rules, the firewall dictates what network
traffic is allowed in and out of the network. Modern-day
firewalls also incorporate a variety of other security services
beyond this initial design. These additional features might
be: an intrusion prevention system, a network monitoring
& reporting service, and VPN to support secure remote
connections from user's on the road.
The evolution of firewalls have seen these additional features
grow and sculpt the modern-day firewall into a robust networking
device that not only aids in keeping your network safe--it
stream-lines productivity. The industry has coined the term
Unified Threat Management (or UTM) to describe the robust
features offered on today's security appliances.
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