Firewalls; most are familiar with the ubiquitous term – that firewalls help protect their end devices from viruses and the like. Unfortunately, for many, that’s also where their understanding of them ends. Afterall, Microsoft has included a software firewall in its operating systems since Windows XP. It’s something that has just been there for the last 20 years. A comforting little tool running in the background, protecting devices for all types of nefarious agents across the world wide web.

And for the most part, it does the job it’s asked to do. Windows has even since expanded upon that initial offering with a whole suite dubbed “Windows Security” which includes additional account, virus, and threat protection. So… nothing to worry about, right? Your business is safe! We might as well just end the article right here.

…Of course, that’s not the actual case. Software firewalls come with a slew of their own issues, the biggest perhaps being the fact that they can be easily disabled, or compromised, by the most nefarious of all agents, the end user, whether intentional or not. For businesses, exposure due to a disabled or poorly configured firewall can mean more than just a “bricked” computer, it can mean financial ruin. So with all that said, it’s time to take firewalls more seriously.

That’s where hardware firewalls come in. Devices that physically sit between your end users and their access to the Internet. Devices that are simply much harder to compromise, and when configured correctly, do so much more than just intercept and quarantine viruses or malware. They can fine tune how your users interact with Internet, and the rest of your network.

They can be as granular as your company needs them to be, down to specific websites or file types. For example, maybe your marketers need access to social media, but your call agents don’t. Configuring these needs on a one-to-one basis can be quite difficult to manage, especially when your business has more than a dozen or so employees.

A hardware firewall provides a single spot where all devices and information flow can be configured and monitored by as a little as a single individual. With Cloud A.I. as an additional feature that’s only getting better with time, hardware firewalls can provide real-time monitoring of all traffic across your business’ network with minimal upkeep.

For example, where older firewalls and antivirus measures needed to be aware of specific viruses before they could intercept them, A.I. is capable of identifying virus “behaviour” on your network – as in, if it acts like a virus, it probably is. These kinds of features simply aren’t available with built-in software solutions like Windows Firewall.

Other software solutions also come with the caveat that they are eating up those local computers’ resources, slowing productivity to a crawl in some cases. Simply put hardware solutions provide consistent, simplified, improved, centralized monitoring and intercepting of threats across the board. Every business with assets to protect should consider using them.

That’s why we offer installation and ongoing monitoring of many different types of firewalls depending on a company’s needs as a part of our core business.

If you’re interested in protecting your business, contact us today to learn how we can help. Every relationship with us starts with a conversation.