Dual WAN Firewall
Increasing use and reliance on the Internet has been increasing at a very fast pace over the last few years and the trend is expected to continue into the foreseeable future. This brings about the need for a secure and reliable connection in order to keep businesses constantly operative. Reliability and security are major concerns for all businesses and a good Wide Area Network(WAN) infrastructure is one of the prime determinants of business continuity. Dual WAN Firewall is a concept that emerged out of the necessity for more redundant and secure wide area network connectivity.
A Dual WAN Firewall, also called as Dual-WAN Firewall Router is an appliance, or software that can provide firewall functionality for Dual WAN connections. Dual WAN is a combination of two datalines, which has bandwidth utilization and failover capabilities. Its characteristic is to scrutinize network traffic and channel them based on protocol. Dual WAN Firewall serves as a device, which is configured to permit, deny, and encrypt network traffic between different domains. It works on a set of pre-determined criteria to accomplish this task.
In a growing network-reliant environment, Dual-WAN Firewall is a solution for securing connectivity options since it can take disparate wide area network connections and route traffic between networks. This technology enables businesses to connect two dissimilar ISPs to the same Firewall. A secure LAN connection is thus made possible with additional failover capabilities. This can be applied in most businesses due to its strategic functions such providing alternate wide area network routes and security. However, it is to be observed that a Dual-WAN Firewall is not capable of load balancing traffic in the inward direction in a redundant failover mode.
Increased bandwidth and enhanced reliability are the two major advantages of a Dual-WAN Firewall. Information sharing is the core of Internet usage. With the proliferation of businesses that are entirely dependent on the wide area network infrastructure, it is imperative to have secure and reliable connections as crucial information is shared over the network. Although it is beneficial with bandwidth management and reliability, technology has moved miles ahead with additional enhanced features. Technology providers have introduced high-end solutions to ensure high availability of wide area networks that secure businesses from network outages. They keep adding refinements and new features constantly and it is a Herculean task for a network manager to keep pace with technology. This is important for companies that want to ensure business continuity plans and technology are up to date.
Certain specific types of Dual-WAN Firewall contain the “application routing” feature. This enables the users to forward critical traffic (SSL, CRM, VoIP) over one wide area network link and other traffic such as email, chat, and non-crucial applications across DSL, wireless or cable. This helps to prioritize traffic based on its importance and also facilitates secure connectivity. Business continuity is the process where business continues without any interruptions. Such a level of uninterrupted services is possible with superior WAN-Redundancy Technology to assist Dual-WAN Firewall functionality.
In the category of bandwidth and security, Dual-WAN Firewall has certain advantages. It improves performance levels and ensures redundancy in Wide Area Network connectivity. Regulating network traffic at various levels among computer networks, this technology lends reliability and security, which are of utmost importance in any organization’s network. However Dual WAN Firewalls require programming and this makes it difficult to deploy. Programming expertise may not be readily available in house and may have to be contracted to a third party.
