Frost Radar™: Next-Generation Firewalls, 2023

As with conventional firewalls, next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) filter network traffic based on predetermined security rules, acting as a barrier between a private internal network and the public internet. The “next-generation” aspect of the technology is the additional security, inspection, and control capabilities that offset the limitations of conventional firewalls, enabling organizations to analyze data traffic at a deeper level.

NGFWs have become an essential tool for most organizations, but with the growing utilization of cloud computing, internet of things (IoT) devices, and remote work, the traditional security perimeter is slowly disappearing, creating challenges for organizations to secure their digital footprint solely with NGFW technology. Unfortunately, NGFWs lack the visibility and flexibility to effectively secure complex, hybrid IT infrastructures that face an onslaught of cyber threats from numerous attack vectors. As a result, many NGFW vendors have expanded their product portfolios to include hybrid security solutions that fuse network and security capabilities to include secure access service edge (SASE) and zero trust principles.

NGFW solutions are delivered in different ways, including via on-premises (hardware), virtual (software), and cloud/firewall-as-a- service (FWaaS) models. While some vendors recently entered the NGFW space with their cloud-based FWaaS solutions, this Frost Radar™ focuses only on providers with hardware and virtual appliances as their primary firewall products. The NGFW vendors in this report offer a wide range of capabilities and use cases; they may or may not provide additional cybersecurity solutions but are solely benchmarked on their NGFW offering.

Frost & Sullivan analyzes numerous companies in an industry. Those selected for further analysis based on their leadership or other distinctions are benchmarked across 10 Growth and Innovation criteria to reveal their position on the Frost Radar™. The publication presents competitive profiles of each company on the Frost Radar™ considering their strengths and the opportunities that best fit those strengths.