Left unchecked, firewall proliferation and inconsistent configurations will drive firewall ownership costs steadily upward, while negatively impacting an organization’s security posture.
META Trend: Consolidation of functionally related capabilities and products into multiservice security solutions will accelerate in 2005. A related outcome will be the absorption of network security controls (e.g., firewall, VPN) by network infrastructure devices such as routers and switches (2005-08). Consequently, more robust management capabilities, including role-based administration, will become a more critical requirement.
Numerous factors contribute to consideration and implementation of additional firewalls in many current enterprises. These include: