Firewall Buying Guide – How to Choose the Right Firewall for your Business

Fortinet offers a wide range of products. Which firewall is suitable for your business? There are a few factors to look into when deciding which firewall to purchase to protect your enterprise network.

1. Number of Users

Two types of firewalls are available: Small Office, Home Office (SOHO), and an enterprise class firewall. We need to look at how many users will be utilizing the network. Basically, the more users there are, the higher level of security required; thus the need for a better firewall. To be cost effective, we do not want to be purchasing a high end firewall for a basic office network of 5 users.

A SOHO firewall will be able to accommodate up to 50 users. In order to have a more secure network, we might want to consider buying an enterprise class firewall in order not to cause the network to overload, comprising the security of the network.

One point to note is the more users in a network, the more RAM and processing power needed by the firewall to process the tasks.

2. Choose a Firewall with Accurate Random Access Memory (RAM)

Choosing the correct type of RAM is very important as it will decide how compatible the firewall will work with the network. Two main types of RAM in choosing a firewall:

– Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM)
This is the main type of memory in a computer. As there is a cap to the storage ability, DRAM needs to be refreshed every now and then.

– Static Random Access Memory (SRAM)
This is the secondary type of memory in a computer. It does not need to be refreshed, and is also much faster in cycling through memory.

If there is a small number of users, a small amount of DRAM will suffice. That said, for a organization with many employees, there is a need to get memories of bigger capacity like SRAM. Choosing the right RAM will directly affect the organization’s network security and not cause any problems or slow downs later on.

3. Virtual Private Networks (VPN)

A VPN allows a user to securely connect to their business network from outside, even they are not sited at their office premises. Firewalls are often utilized as VPN endpoints, but not all firewalls have VPN features. It is worth noting that a VPN requires 2 endpoints; else information transacted will be susceptible to hackers.

Click here to view Fortinet products.