F5 Networks today announced new solutions designed to simplify firewall security and management capabilities. The S/Gi firewall is offered with F5’s BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM), a full-proxy network firewall that can be deployed as a hardware- or software-based solution to deliver unparalleled scalability and performance for service providers.
In addition, F5’s new BIG-IQ Security offering streamlines firewall policy management for multiple devices for enterprise and service provider deployments. F5’s S/Gi firewall solution serves an important function within a mobile service provider’s network infrastructure.
Sitting at the Gi interface of a 3G network and the SGi interface of a 4G network, F5’s new offering is situated on the perimeter between a service provider’s mobile network and the Internet. This placement is ideal to protect both subscribers and networks from targeted attacks—such as DDoS threats—from a variety of sources (Internet-to-mobile, Internet-to-infrastructure, mobile-to-mobile, etc).
Enhancing protection at the perimeter of 3G/4G networks helps safeguard a service provider’s infrastructure to preserve network availability and performance. In addition, F5’s S/Gi firewall is fully extensible and can respond to threats in real-time with F5’s programmable iRules technology.
“As service and cloud providers update their infrastructures to better serve customers, advantages in flexibility and efficiency can have the unintended consequence of opening up new security vectors to emerging threats,” said Mark Vondemkamp, Vice President, Security Product Management and Marketing, F5.
“Innovative solutions like the S/Gi firewall and BIG-IQ Security help organizations realize the most value from their investments while minimizing risks. With F5, service providers can take advantage of new solutions to better protect the monetized services they offer, irrespective of the specific underlying systems such as corporate data centers and cloud resources,” Vondemkamp added.
F5’s firewall performance capabilities offer unsurpassed density, coupled with the ability to easily consolidate services on a single platform. Therefore, service providers can reduce the footprint of their network equipment to save on capital and operational costs while preserving the headroom to grow for future needs.
The S/Gi firewall solution provides performance and scalability beyond what other vendors can offer, including:
•Up to 20x more connections per second (8 million)
•Up to 10x more concurrent connections (576 million)
•3x faster firewall throughput (640 Gbps)
“One of the biggest advantages in going with F5 is that companies can painlessly combine all types of application delivery and security functions in a unified system,” said Bruce Hampton, Chief Technical Architect, Milestone Systems.
“With their span of security offerings, F5 provides customers with a flexible framework to address industry shifts—such as IPv4 to v6 migration and 3G to 4G LTE networks—and stay current on evolving compliance requirements while maintaining their overall security posture,” Hampton added.
Within F5’s intelligent services framework, the S/Gi firewall can be deployed seamlessly with other network and security capabilities, including solutions for policy enforcement, carrier-grade NAT and IPv6.
In addition, F5’s software-based virtual editions and programmable architecture components provide added flexibility to support scalable security, optimization and orchestration services alongside network functions virtualization and SDN initiatives.