As stories of data breaches fill our news feeds daily, security should be the focal point of all business IT plans. Unfortunately, for some small and medium-sized businesses this is not the case. Firewalls are purchased and installed for the sole purpose of securing the business network and are left in the back closet to do so for the next 3-5 years. Many owners of small and medium-sized businesses don’t have the time or the resources for regular maintenance. They assume the firewall is serving its purpose, because after everything is working. Until it’s not…..leaving your business’s data more susceptible to hackers, viruses, etc. If time and resources are the reasons behind outdated or unmaintained technology, how can owners of small and medium-sized businesses make sure their network is secure?  Enter – firewall as a service.

Firewall as a service (FWaaS), is a new procurement method that allows small and medium-sized business owners to implement the latest and greatest network security technologies for a monthly fee. FWaaS as a monthly subscription not only allows business owners to keep their technology current, it ensures all critical services necessary to keep a firewall up-to-date, such as managing firewall administration and policy changes, security monitoring, updates and patches, gateway level Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware and basic web content filtering and application. Under the current Capital Expense procurement method network security technologies are purchased with a general life expectancy of 3-5 years. Even if software updates are applied as needed in the traditional model, the hardware engine stays the same. In a new subscription based procurement model the very same hardware engine can be replaced more frequently to ensure you are up-to-date and protected, without a big upfront cost.

With firewall as a service (FWaaS) business owners are able to rest assured knowing their firewall is being monitored for the latest security threats in addition to performance tuning and updates. Business owners now have the flexibly to adjust and grow as their business needs change,  without throwing away your hard-earned dollars.