Disadvantages of Next-Generation Firewalls

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However, NGFWs do not prevent network attacks 100%, as every device has its limitations. It can be deduced from all these features that this type of firewall will be considerably more expensive compared to a conventional one.

On the one hand, studies have shown that the performance of such devices decreases dramatically when having to process SSL traffic, to the point of adding significant network downtime. This fact puts organizations at a certain trade-off when making a decision on the use of NGFW alone: either allow SSL traffic to bypass the firewall considering the security risks involved, or deal with reduced network availability and the potential to interfere with mission-critical tasks.

On the other hand, the NGFW shows shortcomings as far as tracking users to their devices is concerned, since they are unable to take all network-specific protocols and proxy settings into consideration.

But even with the additional functionalities that an NGFW has, they still manifest performance limitations as seen above.

With most of the workforce in Australia working remotely during the pandemic, the needs for VPNs and granting remote access to servers has changed. An employee trying to access the corporate VPN from their home internet IP may be blocked from accessing it because the NGFW does not recognise it as a safe network. The administrators may have to manually add each IP address to their safe users list, or make changes to the various policies on their networks to accommodate all the access conditions, data protection obligations and the number of applications and users accessing the network. This means that if an employee is working from home and is trying to access the corporate VPN from both his phone and laptop, he or she will have to experience delays in getting access as the administrator approves access. In turn, this will also lead to a delay in audit and maintenance. The upfront costs associated with upgrading a traditional firewall to a next generation firewall is a major reason why so many organisations shy away from it.