Scaling the firewall

You may think that once you have installed a firewall on your customer's systems, it will prevent all forms of attack. Don't be so sure.

Reports suggest that two-thirds of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been successfully hacked in the past year, and that there are nearly 60,000 viruses in circulation today.

New vulnerabilities are discovered every day and, if a firewall or security gateway is not upgraded, the risk returns. As a firm grows, its firewall needs to grow with it, incorporating faster throughput and new signature files, not to mention upgrades to the code itself.

Threats to network security change every day, as do the security platforms that sit on a company's gateway, and a system you sold for £10,000 might be worth only £7,000 off the shelf six months later, because its features are outmoded.

Good for you: you got your margin and made your sale. But your client's patience will wear thin when they realise that they need to buy a new product every year.

There are two ways to address this:

• Call yourself an outsourced security management provider
• Sell easily scalable firewalls

There are many outsourced security management companies that will install and maintain firewalls for a regular fee, but these face a high cost of entry, requiring a large investment in time, energy and infrastructure before they can outsource an entire security solution.

Unfortunately, many of the benefits you can offer as an outsourced security manager can also be considered inherent flaws.

It can be difficult to convince your customer to release control of his network to a third party, or to rent hardware and software from you with no assets to show at the end of the relationship.

The other option, scalable firewalls with flexible upgrade platforms, allows a company to maintain control of its network, and prevents SMEs and remote offices suffering from obsolete security appliances.

It is a softer sell, and allows you to continue to sell product and position yourself as a security consultant.

It is a perfect compromise between outsourced provider and tin-shifting reseller, allowing you to go back and discuss the client's needs, recent threats and new upgrades.

Trusting security to a one-time configured firewall is like putting a bike lock on a safe. Why sell a lock when you have the key to the perfect combination?

Peter Ruyters is EMEA managing director at ServGate.