🔥 Firewalls

Modern Network Protection—Policy-as-Code, Zero Trust, and Audit-Ready

Firewalls are your policy enforcement engines for north–south and (select) east–west traffic—on-prem, cloud, and edge.
SolveForce designs and operates next-gen firewalls (NGFW) and Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS) that are Zero-Trust by default, policy-as-code, and wired to evidence—so you get real protection without slowing the business.

Related: 🛡️ WAF/Bot → /waf • 🔐 ZTNA/SASE → /ztna / /sase • 🚪 NAC → /nac
🧩 Microsegmentation → /microsegmentation • ☁️ Cloud → /cloud • 🔀 SD-WAN → /sd-wan
📊 Evidence/Automation → /siem-soar • 🔑 Keys/Secrets → /key-management • /secrets-management

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🎯 Outcomes (Why SolveForce Firewalls)

• Real control— application/user/identity-aware rules, IPS/AV, URL & DNS filtering, sandboxing, DLP/TLS inspection where policy allows.
• Zero-Trust posture— default-deny, least privilege, identity + device posture in decisions.
• Change with confidence— policy-as-code, staged rings, automatic rollback on SLO breach.
• Cloud parity— same policy model across DC, branch, SASE/FWaaS, and cloud NGFW.
• Audit-ready— rule owners, hit-counts, recertification, change diffs, and logs exported to SIEM.

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🧭 Scope (What We Build & Operate)

• Perimeter & DC NGFW— L3–L7, IPS/IDS, decryption, NAT, virtual routers, HA clusters.
• Cloud firewalls— provider NGFW & partner firewalls (AWS/Azure/GCP), hub-and-spoke, Private Endpoints. → /cloud
• SASE / FWaaS— cloud POP-based firewalling (SWG/DNS/IPS) for roaming users/sites. → /sase
• Branch firewalls— NGFW with SD-WAN (app-aware steering) and ZTNA for per-app user access. → /sd-wan • /ztna
• East–west choke points— selective internal zones (e.g., crown-jewel VRFs) complementing microsegmentation. → /microsegmentation
• DNS security— sinkhole, domain risk feeds, split-DNS enforcement.
• Policy lifecycle— owners, tags, comments, hit-counts, time-bound rules, recertification, shadowed/duplicate cleanup.

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🧱 Building Blocks (Spelled Out)

• Rule modelidentity (SSO groups/claims), device posture (MDM/UEM, EDR health), app-ID, URL category, geo/ASN, time, data class.
• Threat servicesIPS/AV/anti-bot, file detonation (sandbox), DNS security, URL filtering.
• TLS decryptionselective (legal/privacy aware), enterprise CA, bypass lists for sensitive apps, cert pinning exceptions.
• VPN/IPsecsite-to-site & remote (Ikev2), perfect-forward secrecy, BGP over IPsec for dynamic routing.
• HA & scaleactive/active or active/standby, health-checks, session sync, autoscale (cloud).
• Logging & evidenceevery allow/deny with rule ID/owner; config diffs, package version, threat updates → SIEM/SOAR. → /siem-soar

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🧩 Reference Architectures (Pick Your Fit)

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📐 SLO Guardrails (Targets You Can Measure)

Metric (p95 unless noted)	Target (Recommended)
Inline latency added (IPS on)	≤ 0.25–1.0 ms DC • ≤ 1–3 ms branch
TLS decrypt throughput per node	Sized to peak; alert at ≥ 70–80%
Threat feed update latency	≤ 10–30 min
Policy deploy → enforced	≤ 60–120 s
Change success rate	≥ 99% (staged rings + rollback)
Log delivery delay to SIEM	≤ 60–120 s
Evidence completeness (changes/incidents)	= 100%

SLO breaches trigger SOAR (rollback, relax rule, scale out, re-prioritize). → /siem-soar

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🔒 Zero-Trust & Integrations

• Users: ZTNA per app/session; SASE inspection for web/SaaS; NAC at ports. → /ztna • /sase • /nac
• Workloads: Microseg for least privilege; firewalls enforce zone boundaries and service egress. → /microsegmentation
• Keys/Secrets: enterprise PKI, HSM/KMS custody for TLS inspection and VPN; vault for shared secrets. → /key-management • /secrets-management
• Front door: WAF/Bot for web/API; DDoS stance; signed URLs and API quotas. → /waf • /ddos

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🧪 Policy Hygiene & Governance

• Owner & intent on every rule; tags for app/team/data class.
• Hit-count review; quarantine stale rules → remove after change window.
• Shadow/duplicate detection; explicit default-deny at end of sections.
• Recertification cadences(e.g., 90/180 days) tied to CAB/CI evidence.
• Policy-as-codein Git; PRs, approvals, and automated checks (lint, shadow, order). → /infrastructure-as-code

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🧰 Cutover & Change (Safe by Design)

• Canary policies (percentage/sites), health & latency gates, instant rollback.
• Maintenance windows + pre/post snapshots; config lock + break-glass SOP.
• Autogenerated AAR with diffs, metrics, and recommendations.

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📜 Compliance Mapping (Examples)

• PCI DSS Req. 1— network segmentation, rule documentation, change control, logging.
• HIPAA— transmission security, audit controls.
• NIST 800-53/171 / CMMC— AC/SC/CM families (boundary, cryptographic, configuration).
• ISO 27001— A.12/A.13 controls for operations and network security.
  Evidence exported to SIEM with WORM options; rule attestations included.

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📊 Observability & Evidence

• Threat visibility: IPS signatures, DNS sinkholes, sandbox verdicts.
• Policy: rule hit-counts, top denies/allows, shadowed rules.
• Health: latency, CPU/NP offload, session counts, decrypt queues.
• Change: diffs, approvers, CAB IDs.
  All streams feed SIEM; SOAR automates block/unblock with approvals. → /siem-soar

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🛠️ Implementation Blueprint (No-Surprise Rollout)

1) Zone model & protect surface — crown-jewel apps, data classes, user groups.
2) Identity & posture — map SSO groups/claims; device posture signals; ZTNA/SASE interplay.
3) Baselines — current rules, hit-counts, flows; desired intents; east–west choke-point plan.
4) Design — HA/scale, decrypt policy, IPS/DNS/URL, NAT/VPN, logging/SIEM, SD-WAN integration.
5) IaC & policy-as-code — modules, PR gates (lint/shadow/order), canary rings.
6) Cutover — staged deploy; health/latency gates; rollback playbooks.
7) Operate — SLO dashboards; quarterly recertification; backlog of rule cleanup & optimizations.

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✅ Pre-Engagement Checklist

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🔄 Where Firewalls Fit (Recursive View)

1) Grammar — policy rails in /connectivity & /networks-and-data-centers.
2) Syntax — compose with /cloud hubs and /sd-wan edges.
3) Semantics — /cybersecurity preserves truth; keys/logs/backups prove control.
4) Pragmatics — /solveforce-ai predicts risk & surplus latency, suggests safe policy changes.
5) Foundation — consistent terms via /primacy-of-language.

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📞 Deploy Firewalls That Are Fast, Safe & Auditable

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Key terms in plain language

Open a term for a concise explanation of language used on this page.

⏱️Latency

The time it takes data to travel between two points. Lower latency improves voice, video meetings, cloud applications, gaming, and other real-time services.

🔀SD-WAN

Software-defined wide area networking. It manages multiple connections and chooses paths based on application needs, performance, and policy to improve resilience and control.

🔐VPN

A virtual private network creates an encrypted connection across another network, commonly allowing remote users or offices to access private resources securely.

🧰Software as a Service (SaaS)

Software accessed as an online service instead of being installed and maintained entirely on the customer’s own computers or servers.

🛡️Cybersecurity

The practices and controls used to protect identities, devices, networks, applications, and data from unauthorized access, disruption, or manipulation.

🚫Zero Trust

A security model that does not automatically trust a user or device because of its location. Access is continuously verified and limited to what is necessary.

🧭SASE

Secure Access Service Edge combines networking and security capabilities in a cloud-delivered architecture so users and locations can receive consistent policy wherever they connect.

✅Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

A login control requiring more than one form of verification, such as a password plus an authenticator app, security key, or biometric factor.