Network Security, Firewalls, and VPNs, 3rd Edition

Improving Performance

Using a firewall is mainly about establishing and maintaining border security, but security managers must also look into other areas of importance and concern beyond just security. One of these additional nonsecurity areas is performance. Because the goal of security is to protect the production environment, installing security measures that severely hinder capabilities necessary to accomplish work is counterproductive.

Network communication speed is one of the most common concerns with the use of firewalls. When selected and installed properly, a firewall should function at wire speed. Functioning at wire speed means the firewall does not introduce any delay or latency in communications because it operates at the same ...