Cisco ASA and PIX Firewall Handbook

8-1. Firewall Load Balancing Overview

You can implement firewalls to provide security in several ways. Table 8-1 is a quick comparison between a single firewall, a firewall failover pair, and a firewall farm that uses Firewall Load Balancing (FWLB).

Table 8-1. Comparison of Firewall Availability

Attribute	Single Firewall	Firewall Failover	FWLB
Cost	Lower. Only one firewall unit is needed.	Medium. Two units are needed.	Higher. At least two firewall units are needed, along with load-balancing devices.
Firewall Points of Failure	One: the firewall itself.	None. The firewall pair can be physically separated.	None. All firewalls are grouped to make up a firewall farm.
Performance	Limited to a single firewall.	Limited to a single firewall. Only one of the pair actively ...