Fortinet Blog | News and Threat Research

In case you haven’t seen it, there’s an interesting research note authored by Greg Young of Gartner that posits “one brand of firewall is a best practice for most enterprises.”  And, in particular we have to agree.  Why?

Let’s go back to 1999 and see. Taking a quote from Bruce Schneier’s, A Plea for Simplicity, “the worst enemy of security is complexity.” Thirteen years later, Gartner also seems to agree; saying basically that having different firewall platforms increases configuration and management problems.

In Greg’s report, of which most is public knowledge (including this quote), he states:

“Through 2018, more than 95% of firewall breaches will be caused by firewall misconfigurations, not firewall flaws.”

Again… the worst enemy of security is complexity.

Having multifunction firewall solutions for the branch as well as next-generation firewalls for the enterprise perimeter, Fortinet holds a unique position in the security market.  One code base for simplified management.  A single pane of glass gives administrators complete control over wired, wireless access, user and group policies, and of course, strong security and performance.

Security is a balancing act. The more complex a system, the greater the risk of failure. Ask any industry analyst, and they’re likely to agree. Which, goes back to very original point of this posting… one brand of firewall is in most cases, the best practice for most enterprises.