Most people imagine a hacker to be someone at a keyboard late at night, guessing passwords to steal confidential data from a computer system. This type of attack does happen but it makes up a very small portion of the total network attacks that occur. Today, worms and viruses initiate the vast majority of attacks and they generally find their targets randomly. As a result, even organizations with little or no confidential information need firewalls to protect their networks from these automated attackers. These security devices serve two key purposes: they filter what traffic comes into your network from the outside world and they control what computers on your network may send there.
While low cost router/firewall products are available at local stores, business-class firewalls offer better performance, better security and reliability and much better support if there ever is a problem. Not only can low-cost firewalls leave holes in your network but they can significantly slow down network traffic. It is well worth the investment to get the functionality necessary for defending a business network including: VPN, more granular NAT/PAT control (Network Address Translation and Port Address Translation), stateful packet inspection and the ability to work with blocks of IP addresses. These features are critical to organizations wanting secure remote access, proactive threat detection and reporting and support for servers handling such critical functions as email and web sites.
While The Launch Pad offers expert support on a wide variety of firewall appliances, our engineering team has found the SonicWALL TZ series to provide a good balance of price and features small and medium-sized business networks. The TZ Series has throughput that is ultra-fast and offers one of the most feature-rich firewalls on the market in the under $600 price range. In fact we have even implemented the TZ 200 to protect our business. Here is what stands out for us:
Protection: The S SonicWALL TZ series keeps your entire network safe by scanning across all ports including Web traffic, email, file transfers, Windows services and DNS. In addition to supporting traditional work environments the solution is able to provide remote and mobile employees with secure remote access to resources on the corporate LAN from virtually any location.
Performance: TZ series uses the same architecture as more expensive firewall and delivers throughput speeds of up to 100 Mbps. Security is in place without bottlenecking the system and slowing down productivity.
Flexibility: Through an integrated USB port to a 3G wireless broadband adapter on several units, the SonicWall is able to connect using primary or secondary connections. The solution also allows guest users to connect to the wireless Internet without providing access to the corporate network.
Ease-of-Use: The system can easily be installed and configured through a series of wizards and automatically detects and corrects incorrectly wired cables. Though some network engineers may not love the GUI wizards, it does make the system easy to set up, operate and manage without the complex commands of products such as CISCO.
Business Continuity: Many businesses invest in a secondary, low-cost broadband connection (if you haven’t, you should). SonicWall TZs allow you to easily take advantage of reliable and continuous uptime by implementing failover and failback technology.
In observance of October IT Security Month, The Launch Pad is offering a 10% SonicWALL Secure & Save discount on any SonicWALL purchased in October and $50.00 off a SSonicWALL installation. To learn more more about properly protecting your network, securing data in the cloud and managing remote users, join our September 30th, 2010 lunch & learn webinar, “Who Let the Web In” (recorded version available) and receive a complimentary Business Security Audit for signing up. For more information on the upcoming Webinar or on SonicWLL Secure & Save, please contact Megan Meisner at mmeisner@launchpadonline.com or 813 920 0788 x210.
