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Enterprise Security Magazine rates Secucloud as one of today’s most important firewall providers
December 2017 by Marc Jacob
To keep pace with the constantly changing threat situation, firewalls have evolved significantly over the last few years – on both a technology and a definition level. As a result, company executives often need to take expert advice when choosing the best solution for their needs. One such source of information is the US magazine Enterprise Security, whose editorial team, together with a committee of CEOs, CIOs and analysts, recently examined solutions from leading firewall providers. They evaluated the products according to several criteria, including the provider’s ability to develop a strategic approach to protection, understand its customers’ requirements, and adapt its solution to customer needs. The panel ranked the German provider Secucloud, along with other providers, as one of the ten most important firewall makers and confirms that the security specialist “understands current market requirements and is spearheading the firewall-as-a-service revolution”.
In the years since the explosion in internet usage, information on all types of devices – online or offline – has become exposed to the risk of attack. Small and medium-sized companies face the same security challenges as large groups – but do not have the same resources. This is why they need solutions that offer enterprise-level security without requiring an enterprise-level budget. As Enterprise Security Magazine emphasises in its analysis, protecting the network on a device is no longer sufficient. Instead, the focus should be shifted to the development of a complete strategy that integrates every device in the network and turns it into a point of defence.
Against this backdrop, the firewall-as-a-service (FWaaS) is currently one of the most talked-about security trends. The research and advisory firm Gartner has defined FWaaS in its new Hype Cycle reports (Hype Cycle for Threat-Facing Technologies, 2017 (July 2017)* and Hype Cycle for Midsize Enterprises, 2017 (July 2017)**) and names it under the category “on the rise”. Secucloud is one of the Sample Vendors listed in the two reports. The company has already been delivering this type of cloud security service to its customers for a considerable time.
Unlike traditional firewall appliances, whose design needs to go way beyond everyday requirements in order to handle traffic peaks as well as company growth – the firewall-as-a-service offers much more flexibility. This is because it scales automatically within a virtual cloud environment to fit requirements. Dennis Monner, CEO of Secucloud, says: “Secucloud is highly scalable because we focused on cloud security right from the outset and have adapted it to changing industry needs.”
Secucloud’s Elastic Cloud Security System (ECS2) provides security for small and midsized companies, mobile customers and private households. The framework delivers virtual instances as cloud clusters and filters DNS in its entry-level product. It protects all customer traffic with its complete FWaaS offering, using all the most advanced technologies to be expected in a next-generation firewall. All internet traffic from apps, browsers and background processes is automatically routed through Secucloud’s ECS2, where it is checked for damaging content using a combination of powerful security mechanisms. These include anti-phishing, anti-malware, anti-bot, anti-hacking and anti-anonymiser tools. If the solution detects any threats, it blocks the harmful data packets automatically, offering users comprehensive protection.
Secucloud also provides its cloud-based IT security in the B2B space as a managed service. This is broadly similar to ECS2 but functions on the enterprise level and allows cross-selling by FWaaS dealers and resellers to their customers. This enables these firms to position themselves as managed security service providers (MSSP). They can provide their small to midsized customers with a package of high-performance security technologies that are flexible enough to scale to each customer’s needs and always stay up to date with no need for maintenance.
*Gartner, “Hype Cycle for Threat-Facing Technologies, 2017” Greg Young, 17 July 2017.
**Gartner, “Hype Cycle for Midsize Enterprises, 2017” Mike Cisek, James A. Browning, Christian Hestermann, Robert Naegle, 19 July 2017.
Gartner 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 or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
