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Choosing Firewall and VPN by Carl Spitzweg
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Choosing Firewall and VPN |
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Computers
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When selecting virtual private network (VPN) devices, think first about your existing equipment. If you want to integrate your VPN with your Cisco router network or your Barracuda firewalls, for example, your choice is pretty easy.
Adding on to an existing device, though, is not always wise. If your firewall or router is already bogged down with existing tasks, assigning VPN service to it will probably push it over the edge.
Consider your management workload. If you plan to use the VPN for client-to-LAN as well as LAN-to-LAN encryption, the product's ability to manage thousands of VPN tunnels is critical. Generally, we found that the software-only vendors, including Microsoft, Novell, Internet Dynamics, Axent and Data Fellows, offer a more limited feature set and less control than their hardware-based competitors.
As the concept of creating secure tunnels over the public network has evolved, there have been many different ideas about the best security technology for implementation. Most of the VPN technologies are difficult to implement, are difficult to implement or just plain won't work in certain situations, and are equally as difficult to administer once they are in production. I have included a summary of VPN technologies in general, so that you can make an informed decision about which VPN technology to implement for your situation.
Networks are more critical to business success than ever before. They support critical applications and processes and provide a common infrastructure for converged data, voice, and video services. Cisco understands the security challenges that organizations face today, and empowers its customers to safely engage in business by providing them with best-in-class security solutions. Instead of providing only point products that set a base level of security, Cisco embeds security throughout the network and integrates security services in all of its products--heightening security and making it a transparent, scalable, and manageable aspect of the business infrastructure.
Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances, Cisco PIX security appliances, the Cisco IOS Advanced Security feature set in Cisco integrated services routers and Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers, and the FWSM for Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches and Cisco 7600 Series Routers are integrated security solutions that best represent the Cisco security philosophy. Each of these products integrates comprehensive firewall, intrusion prevention, and VPN technologies in a cost-effective, single-box format. Customers who implement these integrated solutions benefit from enhanced security, lower cost of ownership, and lower operational costs--all resulting from the increased intelligence sharing of integrated security services in a single platform.
Integrated Firewall Solutions to Meet Every Need
The Cisco ASA 5500 Series, Cisco PIX security appliances, Cisco IOS Firewall, and the FWSM for Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches and Cisco 7600 Series Routers are Cisco flexible integrated firewall solutions. Based on modular, scalable platforms, each offering is designed with a particular feature set to better secure different network environments. You can deeply these solutions independently to secure specific areas of your network infrastructure, or combine them for a layered, defense-in-depth approach following the design best practices described in the SAFE Blueprint from Cisco.
Rounding out the integrated firewall solutions, Cisco provides a comprehensive security management product portfolio, ranging from Cisco security appliance and Cisco IOS Software security features and embedded device managers to standalone management applications, helping to ensure that you can effectively manage your Cisco security infrastructure.
Cisco ASA 5500 Series
Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances bring together market-proven, best-in-class security and VPN services with an innovative, adaptive architecture. The result is a powerful multifunction network security appliance that protects small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), enterprises, and data center networks--while reducing the overall deployment and operations costs associated with this new level of security.
The Cisco ASA 5500 Series uses technology developed for the Cisco PIX 500 Series Security Appliance, the Cisco IPS 4200 Series Sensors, and the Cisco VPN 3000 Series Concentrators. These technologies converge in the Cisco ASA 5500 Series to deliver a platform that stops the broadest range of threats. The Cisco ASA 5500 Series delivers application security, content security, and "clean" VPN connectivity across its product portfolio (Figure 1). This breadth of security protects any network segment, including the most common threat conduits such as remote sites, LAN-attached internal users, and remote-access VPNs.
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