OVERLAND PARK, KS--(Marketwired - Nov 4, 2015) - New research from Aberdeen group highlights the cost of network complexity, citing "firewall sprawl" as a source of increased costs and higher risk exposure. In the report, Aberdeen finds that firewalls, while pervasive as ever, are becoming more and more distributed and therefore more complex. They recommend a management solution that overcomes sprawl by leveraging visibility, intelligence, integration and automation. The full report, "Firewall Sprawl: How Complexity Is Adding Costs & Increasing Risk" is available for download from FireMon.
According to Aberdeen's research, 100% of respondents indicated that they had a current deployment of a network firewall and nearly half of those deployments are multi-site/multi-vendor. A Firewall Complexity Index quantifies the complexity and associated risk, where each additional site or vendor increases the rating exponentially -- from three-times to 800-times more complex than a single-site, single-vendor installation.
An organization with a high complexity index would appear to be more at risk for unplanned downtime and disclosure of sensitive data, two of the biggest risks facing enterprise organizations today.
"Given the complexity of the status quo, Aberdeen's view is that having continuous, real-time visibility into the actual policies, rules, and configurations that are currently in place throughout the firewall infrastructure is the cornerstone to winning back enterprise control over firewall sprawl," said the report's author, Derek Brink, CISSP, Vice President and Research Fellow for Aberdeen Group.
Aberdeen Group's findings confirm research conducted for FireMon's 2015 State of the Firewall Report, which surveyed over 700 security professionals. Of those surveyed, 93% stated firewalls remain as or more critical than ever to network security, and complexity was the number one issue cited when asked about their biggest challenge managing firewalls. The 2016 State of the Firewall Report is due out in early next year.
"Since day 1, FireMon's goal has been to make security management more efficient and cost effective to allow organizations the best opportunity to keep their data and networks secure," said Matt Dean, Vice President of Product Management for FireMon. "We continue to push the envelope with visibility and analysis features that provide our customers with the information they need to maintain and configure their network security infrastructure."
About FireMon
FireMon solutions deliver continuous visibility into and control over network security infrastructure, policies, and risk. Using the FireMon Security Intelligence Platform, today's enterprise organizations, government agencies, and managed services providers dramatically improve effectiveness of network defenses, optimizing investments and speeding response to changing business demands. For more information, visit http://www.firemon.com.
About Aberdeen Group
Since 1988, Aberdeen Group has published research that helps businesses worldwide improve their performance. Our analysts derive fact-based, vendor-neutral insights from a proprietary analytical framework, which identifies Best-in-Class organizations from primary research conducted with industry practitioners. The resulting research content is used by hundreds of thousands of business professionals to drive smarter decision-making and improve business strategies. Aberdeen Group is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Contact Information:
Rachel Metzler
rachel.metzler@firemon.com