FireMon’s 3rd Annual State of the Firewall Report is based on 437 survey responses collected between November 16, 2016, and December 6, 2016.

Survey participants were asked 26 questions about their current firewall infrastructure and management challenges. Questions about adoption and impact of emerging technologies such as SDN, cloud, micro-segmentation and Internet of Things (IoT) were also included. 

The 2017 year’s report demonstrates the significance of firewalls to organisations’ security strategies. This is despite the fact that majority of organisations are adopting next-generation networking technologies such as cloud and SDN. 

The full report explores three main findings from the survey:

  • Complexity reigns as top firewall management technology with rule optimisation and multiple firewall vendors rounding out the Top 3.
  •  Cloud and SDN are gaining steam with an overwhelming majority adopting each in some manner.
  • Firewalls continue to support it all with 9 of 10 therefore, it will remain critical to enterprise network security.