New Delhi: Cybersecurity company Sophos on Monday introduced a new Sophos Firewall with capabilities to address the complex and demanding needs of distributed enterprise edge computing.
Leveraging the Xstream architecture and Flow Processors, the new Sophos Firewall now delivers performance enhancements that speed up encrypted traffic inspection and dynamic traffic routing for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).
It has added resiliency with software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) load balancing and high-availability enhancements. And it has integration with Microsoft Azure Active Directory.
“Sophos has leveraged its Xstream architecture’s flexibility to deliver improvements in performance for VPN throughput and more efficient handling of TLS encrypted traffic, which is vitally important in today’s encrypted world,” said Christopher Rodriguez, Research Director of IDC’s Security & Trust practice.
“They’ve also completed the build-out of their networking feature set to provide an integrated SD-WAN solution. Combined with other recent enhancements to their secure access portfolio like ZTNA as a Service, they’re positioning to provide the features and capabilities that larger distributed enterprise organisations demand, while also building out a SASE strategy that will appeal to organisations of all sizes,” added Rodriguez.
“One of the key benefits of the Xstream architecture and Flow Processors is that they are programmable. This means that while other firewalls get slower over time, we can increase performance, even when we add new features and capabilities,” said Daniel Cole, Sophos’ VP – Network Security Product Management.
“Our design ensures customers’ investment in Sophos Firewall is future-proofed and enables seamless transition to a cloud-enabled world. SD-WAN and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) demand a more efficient platform, which is not only resilient but also makes day-to-day management easier and faster than ever,” added Cole.
The effective and reliable assessment of network traffic is critical in protecting against threat actors, as evidenced in Sophos’ 2023 Threat Report that was published today. Distributed offices, remote workforces, cloud workloads, custom-built legacy apps, and a growing reliance on global software-as-a-service providers create a configuration and risk management headache for network security managers.
Sophos Firewall now provides the performance, protection and resiliency that distributed enterprises require while simplifying the management of complex networks. Benefits include:
· Advanced performance and protection: A new high-performance dynamic routing engine and Xstream Transport Layer Security (TLS) FastPath acceleration improves encrypted traffic inspection while also adding headroom for traffic that requires deep-packet inspection; the asymmetric cryptographic capabilities within Xstream Flow Processors – included in every XGS Series appliance – enable TLS inspection on even the most demanding networks
· Added resiliency and peace of mind: New SD-WAN load balancing for performance and reliability in the event of an internet service providers (ISP) outage along with enhancements to high-availability clusters ensure maximum business continuity and uptime for mission-critical networks
· Improved ease of management: Managing network security is easier than ever with new Microsoft Azure Active Directory integration for seamless administrator single sign-on and new host and service object search
Sophos Firewall integrates with Sophos ZTNA (zero trust network access) under one unified management plane and is a key pillar of Sophos’ SASE strategy, providing a more simplified, scalable and secure solution over traditional remote-access virtual private networks (VPN).
The network solution is also part of the Sophos Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem, which integrates Sophos’ entire portfolio of products, services and Sophos X-Ops threat intelligence for faster and more contextual and synchronised detection, protection and response.
Sophos Firewall is available for immediate purchase exclusively through Sophos’ global channel of partners and Managed Service Providers (MSPs).