The expansion of Hillstone Networks’ award-winning NGFW product line continues with the release of A5100, completing its A5000-series. The latest A5100 model has similarities with other A-series firewalls, but is the most economical choice for borderline mid-large size enterprises. The performance output, mixed in with a consideration for TCO, makes the A5100 an optimal choice. As is with vendors in the visionary quadrant of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls, Hillstone Networks brings innovative methods to tackle common end-user problems. This A5100 model has augmented SW and HW capabilities that provide a cost-effective solution for stopping known and unknown threats plaguing the business environment.
High-density network interfaces
Smaller is becoming better in this big world, especially when smaller can still support the same capabilities. The A5100 is able to provide 8 GE, 16 SFP, and 6 SFP+ fixed network interfaces, meaning a variety of scenarios can all be covered with just one firewall. These include the need to cover longer transmission distances or to support higher speeds, or other customizable requirements of the business.
Module expansion
Connectivity needs and business operation needs come hand in hand with security needs, and when all 3 are being executed at high speeds and high volume, performance may lag. From the end-user perspective Users will surely experience the delays, making for a potentially negative user experience. With globalization, these declines in user experience are sorely exacerbated so it is important that firewall performance can be expanded as needed to fit. Enter, the A5100’s expansion slot. It is compatible with four types of interface expansion modules, one of which is the IOC-A-2QSFP+ module. This module provides two QSFP+ ports, enabling further flexibility with the performance needs that were mentioned before.
Comprehensive threat protection
Security is being reshaped toward the concept of cyber-resiliency, where adaptability, durability, and post-breach mitigation strategy is emphasized over rigidity, perimeter creation, and pre-breach mitigation strategy. In order to continue creating security that works, the A5100 must be able to flexibly and quickly adapt to multilayer and multistage threats that can come from an exponentially increasing threat attack surface. The A5100 is able to do this via a protection suite similar to other NGFWs in the A-series product line. Advanced threat protection against known and unknown malware is provided through intrusion prevention, IP reputation, URL filtering, Cloud Sandboxing, Anti-Spam, Anti-Virus, and others.
Hardware design advantage
During high-intensity usage scenarios, NGFWs can be prone to overheating, thereby heavily affecting product performance. The A5100 is able to nullify these drawbacks through its front end and rear end ventilation system. SSL decryption is a form of a first line of defense, but it could require heavy strain on CPU usage. As such, the native hardware decryption engine in A5100 can be leveraged for increasing the SSL decryption efficiency. Finally, though things are moving into the cloud, when it comes to the security products, it is convenient to have expanded local storage for processing and analysis of data for future optimizations. The A5100 has many expansion options for local storage.
