Any organization gains major data security benefits with a firewall. Firewalls are a necessity for not only large enterprises employing hundreds of users, but also small businesses, retail locations, clinics, classrooms, & even cafes. Firewalls protect the data of an organization, its internal users, & its customers.

Yes, a firewall can slow down network speeds, but this is for an important purpose. Bandwidth must be dedicated to allow critical security services to process data packets traversing into the network - scanning, analyzing, & filtering data in real time.

In most scenarios, a single office or home office location requires only one firewall if the appliance is appropriately sized for the demands of the network. A larger organization may require multiple firewalls depending on network size, and also to secure branch offices, remote outposts, or even home users.

Firewalls require expertise to configure for each specific network’s security needs. While many firewall manufacturers offer “zero touch” deployments & similar strategies to make firewalls more novice-friendly, professional configurations are highly recommended to optimize performance and protection.

Firewalls play a key role in protecting networks from a variety of Internet-borne threats such as viruses, spam, intrusion attempts, ransomware, & malware. Depending on the firewall’s security services, the appliance can act as a content filter, a sandbox environment, a network management platform, & much more.

Managing employee and visitor access rights at single or multiple locations can become a complex task with many moving parts. But with safety and security on the line, you can’t afford to have a weak link or any gaps in your system.

NAC products can be used by organizations of all sizes, they are most relevant to those that have a large number of employees with many different devices (for example, smartphones, tablets and laptops). In addition, NAC aids IT in the enormous challenge of securing network access when a company has many satellite offices.

If you don’t know the answers to all these questions, then an organization probably feels like it has little control over what is already connected to its network, and what will be connecting in the future. In this case, NAC is strongly worth considering, as it will provide visibility to existing infrastructure and any new devices connecting to the network.

Devices connecting to the network are obviously one of the key ways that data then leaves the network. If an organization is concerned about what data is being removed from the network -- and specifically what type of data -- NAC could help deliver network access to only the data required for the specific purpose a user is connecting. In this way, if a malicious user accesses the network, the NAC system would restrict their access, limiting the damage done by the compromise