What is FWaaS?

A firewall is a "protective barrier" that blocks unauthorized traffic from outside and controls outbound traffic from inside. Traditionally, physical appliances were installed at headquarters and each branch, which posed the following challenges.

• ✓An appliance is needed at each location, adding deployment and maintenance cost and effort.
• ✓Settings tend to diverge, making it hard to keep rules consistent across locations.
• ✓Remote workers are out of scope. Traffic from home and similar settings is not protected.

FWaaS consolidates all of this in the cloud. Traffic from any location and any employee passes through the same firewall and is protected by the same rules. Because the service provider handles appliance maintenance and updates, the operational burden is reduced.

Analogy: Consolidating per-site guards into the cloud

Firewalls (guards) once placed at each location are consolidated into a single place in the cloud, protecting all locations and remote workers with the same rules.

Before / After: From scattered appliances to cloud consolidation

Traditionally, each location had its own firewall appliance with divergent settings, and remote workers were out of scope. FWaaS consolidates everything into a single cloud firewall, protecting everyone with the same rules.

Step by step: How traffic is protected

Traffic from all locations and remote workers is gathered into the cloud firewall, inspected by the same rules, and only safe traffic is allowed through.

A wholesale business with ~800 employees and multiple locations

Challenge: Headquarters and numerous locations each have their own firewall appliance, with inconsistent maintenance and settings. Aging appliances are all approaching update at once, and with so many units the cost adds up. Remote workers are out of scope for protection.

Existing environment: Physical firewalls from different vendors at each location.

• 1Inventory each location's traffic rules and organize them into common rules.
• 2Consolidate rules into FWaaS and first pilot at a low-impact location.
• 3After confirming there are no issues, roll out to all locations and remote workers.
• 4Decommission the many aging physical appliances in sequence.

Result: Maintaining appliances across many locations became unnecessary, greatly lightening operations. The same rules apply across all locations and remote workers, and the appliance-renewal cost expected from a simultaneous refresh was also reduced.

• QWhat is FWaaS?
  FWaaS (Firewall as a Service) delivers the firewall — traditionally installed at each location — as a cloud service. Without placing appliances at each site, it protects all traffic centrally in the cloud. It is one of the building blocks of SASE.
• QHow does it differ from a traditional on-premises firewall?
  Traditionally, physical appliances were installed at headquarters and each branch, adding deployment and maintenance cost while settings tended to diverge. FWaaS consolidates these in the cloud, so traffic from any location and any employee passes through the same firewall and is protected by the same rules.
• QCan it support multiple locations and remote workers?
  Yes. Unified rules can be applied to all locations and all employees, and remote-work traffic — often out of scope before — can be protected to the same standard. Because the service provider handles appliance maintenance and updates, the operational burden is reduced.
• QCan mid-sized companies adopt it?
  They can. A practical approach is to migrate in stages, starting with low-impact locations while running in parallel with your existing firewall. It can scale flexibly with the size of usage.
• QAre there any drawbacks or considerations?
  Because traffic is consolidated in the cloud, it depends on the quality and stability of the internet connection. Migration from existing physical appliances requires planning, and a monthly cost based on usage and scale applies.