Untangle Integrates Firewalls With SD-WANs

Untangle today moved to bring firewalls and software-defined wide area networks (SD-WANs) more closely together with the release of version 14.0 of its NG Firewall.

The move reflects a broader trend in the industry, in which security, firewall, and routing features are being consolidated into software to connect a wider range of virtual networks.

With a free upgrade, Untangle will add several routing and security features. The NG Firewall can now direct network traffic to specific ports or protocol. Tunneled virtual private network (VPN) connections can now also be binded to specific wide area networks (WANs), which makes it possible to configure multiple tunnels across multiple WANs. NG Firewall now supports both the OSPF and BGP networking protocols, in addition to several new dynamic DNS providers.

Untangle is also now making it possible to set up tunnels without having to employ network address translation (NAT), which makes it possible to centralize policies across the whole network. The NG Firewall can also be connected to an existing WiFi network as a client, which in case of a disruption in service ensures the NG Firewall can still inspect traffic.

Finally, Untangle has enhanced the dashboards and reporting tools it provides in its software.

Untangle is specifically focused on small-to-medium businesses that are just now starting to embrace SD-WANs as a vehicle to access cloud services, says Heather Paunet, vice president of product management for Untangle. As that transition occurs, most of those organizations will be looking for the simplest way to secure all those WAN connections, says Paunet.

“They need to segment their WAN connections,” says Paunet.

The challenge those customers face is that they need all the capabilities of an enterprise network in an offering that is both easy to implement and secure, says Panuet.

In total, Untangle claims to have over 40,000 customers. Naturally, each of those organizations is embracing SD-WANs at a different rate. But as more organizations do embrace SD-WANs, many of them are about to discover that securing those connections is going to be a lot more difficult than making them.

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