What Is Firewall as a Service (FWaaS)?

Firewall as a Service (FWaaS) offerings provide the capabilities of a next-generation firewall (NGFW) delivered via a cloud-native service. FWaaS has become a critical component of many organizations’ security architectures as they increasingly adopt cloud-based and SaaS applications.

Adopting FWaaS can enhance the scalability and performance of security in the cloud and is a stepping stone on the path to full Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) adoption. This article describes how FWaaS works, its benefits, and how it integrates into a SASE deployment.

Understanding Firewall as a Service

FWaaS delivers the benefits of an enterprise-grade NGFW to all users, regardless of location. The cloud-based service includes key firewall capabilities, such as packet inspection, intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS), application control, malware prevention, and URL filtering.

FWaaS emerged in response to the growth in cloud computing and SASE adoption. Instead of a hardware firewall or a hosted virtual firewall appliance, FWaaS enables an organization to take advantage of the benefits of an NGFW just like any SaaS application. The global, scalable design of FWaaS is also more aligned with the modern workforce, which is increasingly distributed and reliant on cloud-based apps and resources.

Traditional Firewalls vs. Firewall as a Service

Traditionally, organizations deployed physical firewall appliances at each of their locations. However, this had significant limitations, including greater CapEx and OpEx costs, limited scalability, and the need to configure, manage, and patch firewalls on a branch-by-branch basis.

These firewalls, which are limited to an organization’s physical locations, are a poor fit for SaaS and cloud traffic, especially with a remote or hybrid workforce. To protect the enterprise, all traffic needs to be backhauled through the corporate network, increasing latency and degrading performance.

FWaaS addresses these limitations by placing firewalls in the cloud, where they are geographically distributed and elastically scalable. As a result, they’re the natural choice as companies progress toward cloud-native and converged IT and security infrastructure.

How Firewall as a Service Works

FWaaS implements NGFW functionality via a cloud-delivered service. Organizations have access to a centralized platform for firewall management, but PoPs are globally distributed for traffic inspection and policy enforcement. This design leverages cloud scalability, decreases latency, and can take advantage of vendor-provided threat intelligence for enhanced threat detection.

Key Capabilities of Firewall as a Service

FWaaS offerings provide the same security capabilities as an NGFW but are deployed in the cloud. In addition to core firewall features, key capabilities include:

• Application Awareness: FWaaS solutions have a deep understanding of various types of application traffic. This enables them to prioritize certain types of traffic and apply application-specific security controls and policies.
• IDS/IPS: IDS/IPS is a key capability of NGFWs and FWaaS. It can identify and block a range of potential threats, such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) or credential stuffing attacks.
• Anti-Malware: FWaaS inspects the contents of network packets, including files and executables that they contain. This allows them to identify and block malware from entering the network.
• URL Filtering: URL filtering allows an organization to inspect requests for various URLs and filter them. This can prevent users from visiting known malicious sites or ones that violate corporate acceptable use policies.
• Centralized Logging and Reporting: FWaaS offers centralized logging and reporting for the entire corporate WAN. This can simplify security monitoring and regulatory compliance by eliminating potential siloes and visibility gaps.
• Single Dashboard: Additionally, FWaaS offerings should allow organizations to manage policies and configurations from a single dashboard. This enhances security efficiency and reduces the risk of security gaps.

Benefits of Firewall as a Service

Replacing traditional appliance-based firewalls with FWaaS offers numerous benefits to the organization, including:

• Lower Costs: FWaaS eliminates the need to purchase, deploy, and refresh physical hardware. Additionally, they require less configuration and management than physical or self-hosted firewall solutions.
• Elastic Scalability: Limited scalability can introduce latency or force expensive upgrades to physical firewall appliances. FWaaS takes advantage of cloud elasticity to support growing organizations or sudden traffic surges.
• Consistent Security: Traditional firewalls were often managed on a branch-by-branch basis, resulting in inconsistent policy enforcement and security controls. FWaaS offers centralized management and consistent security across the corporate WAN.
• Faster Threat Responses: FWaaS offerings integrate vendor-supplied threat intelligence and security updates. These real-time updates enable faster responses to emerging and evolving threats.
• Centralized Visibility: Traffic flowing through a global network of geographically-distributed PoPs is visible and managed through a centralized dashboard. This enhanced visibility simplifies security management and enhances incident response.

Traditional Firewalls vs. Firewall as a Service

Firewall as a Service Use Cases

FWaaS provides an alternative to hardware-based firewalls or hosted NGFWs by delivering these capabilities as a service. Some common use cases for FWaaS include:

• Secure remote workforce access without VPN sprawl
• Centralized control for global branch offices
• Consistent protection for multi-cloud workloads
• Compliance-driven logging/reporting across industries
• Rapid scale for M&A or business expansion

Firewall as a Service in SASE and SSE

While FWaaS is available as a standalone offering, it’s also a core element of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) or Security Service Edge (SSE). These solutions converge many security capabilities into an integrated, cloud-native solution.

This integration provides significant benefits to an organization due to the synergy between FWaaS and CASB, SWG, and ZTNA capabilities. For example, SASE solutions with a single-pass security engine can use FWaaS’s deep packet inspection and application awareness to extract the information needed by other security solutions. This design enhances threat prevention and reduces the potential latency and performance impacts of security inspection on network traffic.

Cato’s Global Firewall as a Service Advantage

Cato integrates FWaaS capabilities as part of its SASE and SSE offerings. This provides numerous benefits to the organization, including:

• Global private backbone for optimized, high-performance traffic delivery
• 85+ PoPs to offer security close to users, regardless of location
• Inline traffic inspection eliminates backhauling
• SASE integrates security and networking while optimizing performance

Why Cato’s Architecture Works

Cato’s Single-Pass Cloud Engine (SPACE) applies NGFW and other network and security capabilities through a fully converged solution. This offers greater operational simplicity when compared to point solutions or SASE offerings that bolt together various standalone solutions.

Cato’s unified policy, management, and Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) provides full visibility into all traffic passing through the corporate WAN. By eliminating multiple consoles, this enhances security visibility, streamlines IT operations, and simplifies compliance.

Cato SASE and SSE offer enterprise-grade firewall capabilities without the need to deploy and manage expensive hardware. Additionally, Cato offers built-in real-time threat intelligence to accelerate detection and response.

Firewall as a Service with Cato Networks

Firewall as a Service: Why It Matters

FWaaS is a modern firewall model that has kept pace with businesses’ evolving security needs. While traditional hardware-based firewalls worked while companies’ users and IT assets were on-prem, a more distributed and scalable approach is needed for the modern business.

The Cato SASE Cloud Platform offers FWaaS capabilities as part of a converged SASE platform. This convergence, along with Cato’s global network of PoPs and dedicated private backbone, offers enterprise-grade security without sacrificing network and application performance.

See how Cato integrates firewall as a service directly into its SASE platform by requesting a demo.

FAQ about Firewall as a Service (FWaaS)

What is Firewall as a Service?

Firewall as a Service (FWaaS) provides the capabilities of an NGFW via a cloud-based service. This enables security to take advantage of the scalability and global reach of the cloud while centralizing management and security monitoring.

How does firewall as a service differ from traditional firewalls?

FWaaS provides access to NGFW capabilities via a cloud-delivered service, which increases scalability and makes it more suitable for supporting companies with cloud infrastructure and remote or hybrid workforces. Additionally, the elimination of physical appliances and the need to manage them can result in significant cost savings.

Is Firewall as a Service part of SASE?

Yes, Gartner’s SASE model incorporates multiple security functions, including Firewall as a Service (FWaaS). The Cato SASE Cloud Platform includes FWaaS capabilities as part of its single-pass engine to enhance efficiency and threat prevention.

What are the benefits of firewall as a service for enterprises?

FWaaS implements NGFW capabilities in a cloud-based service, which simplifies management and improves the cost efficiency and scalability of key security capabilities. Additionally, implementing NGFW capabilities in a global network of PoPs ensures consistent, enhanced security and improves the user experience by reducing network latency.