The next generation Today, evaluating which firewall is right no longer means having to evaluate a dozen different look-alike products. Vendors have tailored their products to meet very specific needs. By properly identifying your required features, it's easy to narrow the field of potential products. While simplified products address the needs of smaller nets, more advanced firewall products are concentrating on specific areas, such as Web proxy services, and neglecting areas that are not mainstream enough to create customer interest. This is not opening a security gap but is creating a functionality gap.
Some features are available only on the older and more mature firewalls.
But these older firewalls carry a larger code base and have not been as swift in adding and supporting new functions. Although the presence of market leaders such as Check Point and Axent poses a formidable challenge to new entrants, there appear to be plenty of vendors eager to get in the game. The markets that the leaders have ignored, such as small businesses, along with the continued explosive growth of the Internet, will keep firewalls a mobile and active business. Feedback Tell us your thoughts on this article or the issues raised in it. When you click Submit, you'll be taken back to this article.