WatchGuard’s New Fireboxes Chew Through Encrypted Traffic 94 Percent Faster Than Competitors

New Firebox M Series appliances help SMBs keep up with the rising tide of encrypted traffic

15 August 2017 – WatchGuard® Technologies has announced hardware upgrades to its Firebox® M Series to handle the rapid proliferation of encrypted web traffic and offer more flexibility. With the new M470, M570 and M670 appliances, users can add additional network modules to increase the number of copper or fibre ports available to support the growing use of 10G fibre in midsize enterprise data centres. The new Firebox M Series appliances also enable users to inspect encrypted traffic with industry-leading performance with all security services enabled. According to Miercom, an independent testing lab, the updated Firebox M370 performs full HTTPS inspection 94% faster than competing solutions.

Network defences that don’t adequately process and inspect encrypted traffic leave employees, customers and partners vulnerable to cyber attacks. According to a 2016 Ponemon study, 41 percent of attacks in 2016 used encryption to disguise their entry into the network or hide their connection to a Command and Control server. NSS Labs, Inc. forecasts that as adoption rates continue to climb, 75 percent of web traffic will be encrypted by 2019. A firewall that lacks the processing power necessary to inspect high volumes of encrypted traffic will need to turn off some security services or compromise throughput in order to manage the burden.

KEY FEATURES:

• Dramatically Improved Performance: As validated by Miercom, the new Firebox M Series offers approximately three times the performance of competing products.
• Flexibility Through Increased Port Density: All new appliances (except the M370) have an expansion slot for additional ports. 4x10Gb fibre, 8x1Gb copper or 8x1Gb fibre network modules are available as well.
• Intel processors with AES-NI and CaveCreek crypto acceleration: New chipsets allow the new M Series appliances industry-leading performance in HTTPS content inspection and fast processing of traffic even with all security services enabled.

Brendan Patterson, Director of Product Management at WatchGuard Technologies, said, “As adoption rates for encryption continue to climb, organisations need to know that their UTM offers performance levels that can process the growing torrent of encrypted traffic and the security services capable of detecting threats that might be lurking within that traffic. With the new M Series, we offer dramatic improvements in throughput to ensure our customers don’t have to choose between performance and security.”

Robert Smithers, CEO, Miercom added, “Based on results of our testing, the WatchGuard Firebox M370 displayed exceptional performance, outperforming its competitors for stateless and stateful traffic throughput scenarios. Its high-rate, non-degrading performance with security features enabled earns it the Miercom Performance Verified certification.”

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• Miercom Report
• Firebox M370 Webpage
• Firebox M370 Datasheet
• Firebox M470, M570, M670 Webpage
• Firebox M470, M570, M670, Datasheet

About WatchGuard Technologies, Inc.
WatchGuard® Technologies, Inc. is a global leader in network security, providing best-in-class Unified Threat Management, Next Generation Firewall, secure Wi-Fi, and network intelligence products and services to more than 80,000 customers worldwide. The company’s mission is to make enterprise-grade security accessible to companies of all types and sizes through simplicity, making WatchGuard an ideal solution for Distributed Enterprises and SMBs. WatchGuard is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. To learn more, visit WatchGuard.com.

For additional information, promotions and updates, follow WatchGuard on Twitter, @WatchGuard on Facebook, or on the LinkedIn Company page. Also, visit our InfoSec blog, Secplicity, for real-time information about the latest threats and how to cope with them at www.secplicity.org.

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NSS Labs, Inc. does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. NSS Labs expressly disclaims any warranties with respect to any research cited herein, including those of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

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