SECURITY-NETWORK
FORTINET FORTIGATE 1800F
WINNER: OVERALL
Fortinet is accelerating data center security performance with its seventh-generation network processor—the NP7—which made its first appearance in the company’s FortiGate 1800 firewall earlier this year. The custom-designed NP7 is able to speed up the Fortinet 1800F to the point where it’s able to sit at the core of the network and support VXLAN network virtualization technology. The processor can thus serve as the building block for hyperscale applications, delivering performance and fast connections across the board. In fact, the FortiGate 1800 firewall with NP7 technology is 14 times faster than the industry average for products at a similar price point, according to Fortinet. The NP7 debuted with the launch of the midrange FortiGate 1800 in February and is now powering several additional FortiGate firewalls as well.
Finalist: Check Point Fast Track Network Security
Check Point’s Fast Track Network Security suite offers protection against advanced threats using higher-performance security gateways and Check Point’s updated R80 unified security software. The Fast Track Network Security gateways offer more than double the performance of competing appliances, according to Check Point, and bring capabilities such as the company’s ThreatCloud threat intelligence and SandBlast zero-day protection.
Finalist: Palo Alto Networks CN-Series
The Palo Alto Networks CN-Series is a containerized version of the company’s firewall that protects inbound, outbound and east-west traffic between container trust zones along with other components of enterprise IT environments. The CN-Series can be used to protect critical applications against known vulnerabilities as well as both known and unknown malware until patches can be applied to secure the underlying resource.
Finalist: SonicWall TZ Firewall Series
Along with breaking new ground in the industry as the first firewalls in a desktop form factor with multi-Gigabit interfaces, SonicWall’s TZ570 and TZ670 Series next-generation firewalls bring support for TLS 1.3 decryption and 5G; integrated support for SD-WAN; up to 10 ports and 256 GB of storage; optional PoE and Wi-Fi; and the ability to connect up to 1.5 million devices.
Finalist: Sophos XG Firewall 18
With Sophos XG Firewall 18, the company provides enhanced visibility by inspecting all encrypted traffic, making it more difficult for adversaries to hide information in varying protocols. The offering also retains high levels of performance, thanks to improvements in the way that Sophos determines whether apps and traffic need to go through its deep packet inspection engine.
