The Internet is getting faster allowing businesses to implement cost-effective cloud hosted applications, rich media solutions and VoIP.

But it's also the case that the Internet is getting more dangerous. Hardly a day goes by now without the news media reporting another serious cyber security breach.

Every Business Needs an Advanced Firewall

It's now a reality for every business - big or small - that the days of a standard firewall/router device are no longer sufficient for business-grade network security and performance.

Accordingly we're now advising all our clients to replace their existing firewalls with a Cisco Meraki device that comes with the Advanced Security License.

We've researched the market extensively and we're confident the MX64 Meraki firewall is an affordable unit that provides serious security options.

The MX64 is suitable for any office with up to 50 users and is capable of inspecting all data going in and out for Internet connections up to 200Mbps without impacting on throughput. It also adds VPN support, allowing up to 25 highly secure remote connections.

For organisations with faster Internet connections and/or more users, we recommend the more powerful MX67.

5 Essential Security Features

The Meraki MX firewall range has too many security features to list them all - here's the 5 most essential ones:

  1. Malware protection - providing protection against malicious file downloads;
  2. Intrusion Detection and Prevention - providing alerts and prevention for suspicious network traffic;
  3. VPN access - providing secure, encrypted traffic between locations;
  4. Content filtering - providing category based URL filtering, and
  5. Reporting - providing comprehensive reporting on Internet access at the user level.

3 other benefits of the Meraki MX firewalls are:

  1. Application load balancing;
  2. Application prioritizing, and
  3. Failover protection, when used in conjunction with a second Internet connection, for example - an Accelerated 4G cloud-managed device.

Both the MX64 and the MX67 requires ongoing software licensing to operate securely. The threat landscape is constantly evolving so it's vital to have your firewall being automatically updated to keep your network safe.

The licenses are available in either 1 year, 3 year or 5 year subscriptions and we typically recommend the cost-effective 3 year option.