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What Is Predictive Analytics?

Posted in: analytics, Big Data, IT Strategy, machine learning, machine learning algorithms, predictive analysis tools, predictive analytics, predictive business performance metrics, predictive marketing - Aug 27, 2021

A growing number of companies use predictive analytics, causing decision-makers elsewhere to strongly consider following suit. That’s understandable, but it’s vital to understand how the technology works and what it can do before investing in it.

What Is Predictive Analytics and How Does It Work?

Predictive analytics is a type of data analysis that uses machine learning and algorithms to predict future events or trends. Additionally, it’s a statistical method that can take past or current information to make predictions.

Users generally interact with predictive analytics tools via specialized dashboards that generate data streams based on specific questions posed. Someone might wonder, “What percentage of this month’s sales will come from new customers versus returning ones?” or “What’s the likelihood of running out of a certain item this month?” Data analytics can answer those queries and many others.

Predictive Analytics vs. Prescriptive Analytics

As people learn more about predictive analytics, they’ll likely come across content about prescriptive analytics, too. While they have similar names, these technologies are not the same.

Predictive products give details about future events. prescriptive tools offer solutions based on what the data shows.

Predictive products give details about future events, helping people plan for them. In contrast, prescriptive tools offer solutions based on what the data shows. Users often depend on them to solve known problems.

Types of Predictive Analytics Forecasting Models

Numerous predictive analytics exist to help users make accurate and useful forecasts. Some of the broadly utilized types include:

Neural networks: Using algorithms to find relationships between datasets
Regression techniques: Showing relationships between variables
Decision trees: Displaying the possibilities stemming from each choice made
Time series models: Generating trend data across a specific period
Clustering: Grouping data according to shared characteristics
Outliers: Highlighting data that deviates from the norm

What Are the Benefits of Predictive Analytics?

Many people understandably want to know how predictive analytics could help them before deciding to use such solutions. For starters, predictive tools enable company leaders to move away from gut instinct and assumptions. Relatedly, they cut down on time-intensive decision-making processes and eliminate guesswork.

Predictive tools enable company leaders to move away from gut instinct and assumptions.

Predictive analytics algorithms are well-suited to intensive data processing. Thus, they can
work with larger amounts of information faster than humans could alone. It’s then possible to identify patterns people may otherwise miss.

This technology can also improve the processes associated with product launches, supply chain decisions, and customer outreach efforts, among others. Not surprisingly, having a predictive analytics strategy can also help companies achieve better marketplace performance. One study showed that 63% of business representatives cited their data analytics programs as creating a competitive advantage.

How Do Companies Use Predictive Analytics?

Health Care

Hospitals can use predictive analytics to determine patient survival rates, allowing the best resource allocation. One study combined algorithms and patient medical record data to assess a person’s likelihood of hospital readmission within 30 days. Hospital administrators found that this analytics application reduced that rate, resulting in improved outcomes.

Marketing

Marketing teams often depend on predictive analytics to assess how a campaign or new product launch will perform. One company claims 85% accuracy with technology predicting which actors will generate the most profits if placed in lead roles.

Similarly, event planners and tour managers rely on algorithmic predictions when choosing which markets to visit, as well as the audience segments to target. They can also assess how fast a certain date may sell out.

Retail

Retailers rely on predictive tools to understand likely sales trends, as well as preventing product depletion or overstock issues. They know factors such as weather and preferences can make sales fluctuate, and want details on the elements that drive or decrease consumer demand.

Human Resources

Hiring managers apply predictive analytics in numerous ways. For example, they may do so to gauge a potential candidate’s suitability. Alternatively, predictions may let them intervene to communicate with disgruntled employees. Then it’s possible to address matters before the workers leave the organization.

Further, analytics could determine how a company’s workforce needs may change in the coming months, letting managers prepare.

What Are Some Examples of Predictive Analytics Platforms?

Business leaders must examine their organizations’ specific needs before investing in predictive analytics tools. However, some may wish to start their searches by looking at some of the industry-leading offerings. For example, Board offers automated predictive modeling features to speed utilization. SAP Analytics Cloud has tailored fast-start solutions that allow people to start analyzing data in days rather than weeks.

A selling point associated with Alteryx is that it caters to people without coding experience who consider themselves citizen data scientists. Then, at the other end of the spectrum, there’s the KNIME Analytics Platform. It’s geared towards people with formal data science backgrounds. This open-source option lets users build and optimize their models, plus create data visualizations to aid stakeholder comprehension.

Data Quality Matters

No matter when or how a company’s decision-makers want to start using algorithms to predict the future, high quality data is essential for success. If a company feeds incorrect or duplicate information into a powerful tool, the results may not have the accuracy and dependability a business leader needs to feel confident.

Read next: What Is Vector Similarity Search?

The post What Is Predictive Analytics? appeared first on CIO Insight.

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Are You a Data Hoarder? The Dangers of Data Hoarders in Business

Posted in: archive storage, big data security, big data storage, Blogs, cloud data security, Cloud Storage, cloud storage providers, data security, Security - Aug 26, 2021

In a time when data storage seems to be pretty much unlimited, organizations are storing vast amounts of old, redundant information. Here we’ll explore the ramifications of data hoarders for your business.

What Is Data Hoarding?

Data hoarding is the accumulation of saved files and information over time, whether on a personal computer or on a shared network within a corporation. Whether digital hoarding is happening at an individual or enterprise level, it’s a huge security vulnerability.

Data hoarding is the accumulation of saved files and information over time.

Data is arguably the lifeblood of a company. It informs key decision makers on everything from how to budget for the upcoming quarter to where inefficiencies lie. The more you lose sight over data and its storage, the more likely your business will suffer a breach in data security. Data hoarding costs your company in more ways than one.

Data Hoarding Impacts

Hoarding excess amounts of old files can negatively impact data security. Files often contain sensitive information, and if they’re unencrypted, they’re at risk of getting hacked or stolen.

Furthermore, storing excess files severely hampers your organization’s flexibility and efficiency. When old and redundant files clog up your data stores, it makes the information harder to find.

Contrary to the idea that you’re doing your team or your organization a favor by saving files for future reference, you’re throwing those files into a blackhole that you’ll have a hard time retrieving them from — if the need ever actually arises.

Costs of Data Hoarders

If sensitive information gets leaked or hacked, your company brand suffers as a result. You may have to win back the trust of key clients. Data hoarding and its associated security risks can cost your company its reputation, but it can also incur huge operational costs.

In relation to data loss and breach of security, your company may get charged with a fine for breach of data protection, copyright laws, or other compliance issues.

Purchasing more storage than you need encourages data hoarding.

In addition, cloud storage makes it incredibly easy to purchase more storage as needed. With limitless cloud space, it’s logical when network users don’t think twice about saving files. However, the costs of increasing cloud storage capacity quickly add up. This is especially the case with businesses with multiple locations, as the cloud may host a copy of the data for each location.

The other side of this add-it-when-you-need-it mentality is that some businesses purchase more storage capacity than they actually need. This not only encourages future data hoarding, but it also costs companies around the world more than $62 billion every year, according to Business Insider.

Tips to Limit Data Hoarding in Your Business

You can start rethinking your company’s approach to data storage and management with these tips.

The CIO should set the right cultural tone around data security and storage best practices.
Remind network users on a regular basis that they should refrain from saving personal data, including photos and emails, on the cloud.
Create a company policy with a “spring cleaning” schedule. Multiple times per year, users should manually delete old and redundant files. At the IT level, implement processes to automatically purge old data after a set period of time has lapsed.
Some cloud service providers have monitoring tools that assesses how much data is being used and how frequently users open files. This can assist in deciding which files you can purge.

Mitigating the Risks of Data Hoarders

It’s easy for companies to store excess amounts of data, whether intentionally or accidentally. Plus, the growing capacities of cloud servers make it ever easier to add more data storage space. However, hanging on to old data and keeping copies of copies puts your company’s data at risk, hampers efficiency, and can incur financial and reputational costs.

There are some steps your company can start taking now in order to limit data hoarding. With the CIO leading from the front on best practices, implement new storage practices and take advantage of monitoring tools. These small but effective changes to your company’s culture will encourage mindful file saving and deletion.

The post Are You a Data Hoarder? The Dangers of Data Hoarders in Business appeared first on CIO Insight.

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Best Agile Project Management Tools for 2021

Posted in: agile, Agile Project Management, Asana, ClickUp, Collaboration, Enterprise Apps, github, IT Strategy, JIRA, monday.com, Project Management, Targetprocess, Wrike - Aug 25, 2021

Agile project management has grown in popularity for software development teams globally, but also for other businesses that balance multiple projects and deadlines.

With the growing number of agile adopters, many business technology companies have developed agile project management tools, or software that aids in iterative communication, collaboration, deadline management, and deployment.

Because agile project management tools can include any combination of the agile features included in this article, it’s difficult for prospective customers to research their options and find the solution that best fits their needs.

To guide your decision-making process, read on for the best tools in the project management sphere and the areas in which each tool outshines its competitors.

More on this topic: COVID’s Impact on Agile Project Management

Top Agile Project Management Tools for Your Business

What Are Agile Project Management Tools?

Agile project management is a popular project management methodology in the specialist-client relationship that focuses on frequent iterations of project deliverables, constant and open communication, and openness to project scope changes and fixes over time. Agile PM tools are software platforms that assist the team in creating and delivering on project goals with an agile approach.

These tools are designed to help the project team collaborate with an external client or an internal ops team. Although agile project management platforms are often used for communication and timeline updates, collaborative creation frequently happens on them, too.

Agile vs. Waterfall Methods: Agile vs. Waterfall: Differences in Software Development Methodologies

Top Agile Project Management Tools

Wrike

Best for Gantt Charts, Timelines, and Spreadsheets

Wrike is an agile collaboration tool that provides basic project templates, reporting, communication integrations, and other key project management tools. Its user interface focuses less on design elements and more on diverse features and views. Users are most often drawn to the detailed Gantt chart and timeline offerings that go beyond the product features of most similar tools.

Its subscription packages increase in price quickly. However, Wrike offers a fairly robust free version that could be a good fit for teams that don’t require certain advanced features like shareable dashboards and additional integrations.

Features:

Live activity stream and real-time updates across global, project, and task levels
Interactive board, spreadsheet, and timeline views
Cloud storage and productivity integrations
Enterprise security features, such as SSO and 2FA
Custom workflows and user groups

Asana

Best for Built-in Communication

Asana is a leading collaboration platform that excels in setting and communicating expectations across agile teams. The embedded messaging system and process management—through rules, forms, templates, and approvals—help users at all levels to update others on their progress.

Several of the other agile collaboration tools on this list integrate with external messaging platforms like Slack, but with Asana, messaging and communication are natively built into the software. Note that Asana has a Slack integration, though.

Although Asana does offer a free version of its software, the features within that package are limited and do not include tools like reporting, admin console, or private team management.

Features:

Unlimited projects, tasks, messages, and activity logs
Unlimited file storage space
List, board, and calendar view options for project and deadline management
Quality assurance through goal setting, a custom rules builder, and custom fields locks
Over 100 free integrations available

monday.com

Best for Friendly UX

monday.com is a collaboration platform that offers several similar features to competitors like Wrike and Asana, but its focus on simplified user experiences sets it apart. The dashboard and data viewpoints are flexible, but more important than that, monday.com offers dozens of productivity templates that can be customized and combined to fit specific projects. Existing templates limit coding requirements and give newer developers and non-developer teammates alike a starting point for project development.

Although monday.com is primarily designed for project management in agile groups, the free tier is a strong productivity suite for individual users that simply need a tool to help them better manage personal deadlines, data, and projects.

Features:

Over 200 productivity templates included
Timeline, Gantt, chart, and calendar views available
Automation actions available in standard, pro, and enterprise tiers
Integrations available in standard, pro, and enterprise tiers
Advanced security and governance features available in enterprise package, including GDPR and HIPAA

Jira Software

Best for Integrations

Most agile software platforms include a few dozen integration opportunities, but Jira was actually designed with integration as a core offering. Whereas most products in the agile PM software market offer 100 to 200 integrations, the Atlassian Marketplace for Jira includes over 3,000 integration choices.

Parent company, Atlassian, also extends Atlassian Open DevOps to Jira Software customers. This solution is preconfigured to include a combination of the company’s top products and third-party integrations as an out-of-the-box solution for teams that opt in.

Jira also offers one of the strongest free package versions, including features like backlogs, reporting, customizable workflows, integrations, automation, roadmaps, dependency management, and basic security — all at no additional cost.

Features:

Admin controls, such as domain verification, account capture, and session duration management
Long-term project planning through roadmaps
Reporting and customizable workflows
Security features, such as SSO, password policies, encryption, mobile device management, and disaster recovery
Capacity planning and project archiving in premium and enterprise packages

Targetprocess

Best for DevOps Teams

Targetprocess can be used in several different agile scenarios, but it’s actually best suited for internal software development or project management, most commonly known as DevOps. The idea behind Targetprocess and similar DevOps tools is to make information easily accessible to all users, regardless of account access level. Further, this tool enables communicating all data and project changes quickly and effectively to stakeholders across departments.

One of Targetprocess’s core offerings is product management, or several features that ensure Targetprocess users and non-users within the same company receive relevant, timely information on project launches. These features include backlog prioritization and grooming, release planning and estimation, and service desk and ticketing management.

Targetprocess itself is limited in some areas, such as analytics and templates, but its two-way integrations and partnerships with platforms like Azure DevOps and Atlassian Jira Software help to fill in the gaps.

Features:

Offers the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS) solutions to customers
Two-way Integration with tools like Azure DevOps and Atlassian Jira Software
Service Desk app to collect feedback and suggestions from stakeholders without user accounts
24/7 security monitoring and GDPR compliance-driven encryption
Customizable fields, rules, practices, rich domains, and mashups

ClickUp

Best for Buyers on a Budget

ClickUp has quickly proven itself a strong solution for businesses that don’t want or can’t make a huge investment in additional software. The free version of ClickUp is more comprehensive than most free agile project management platforms, including features like unlimited users, unlimited tasks, two-factor authentication (2FA), 24/7 support, and 100mb of storage space.

ClickUp’s unlimited, business, and enterprise tiers offer a few additional features, particularly in the realms of security, advanced user management, and integrations. But the free package offers unlimited users, so even larger enterprises can test this software without investing in dozens of seats.

The software has also saved some users money because it combines the features of other product types into one platform. Some products it has been known to replace for customers include Trello, Airtable, Todoist, Microsoft Excel, and Jira Software.

Features:

Unlimited tasks and users, even in the free version
2FA, guest and user permissions management, and private space management
Timeline, workload, table, and Gantt views available
Task and document management
Goal development and monitoring across users

GitHub Project Management

Best for Open Source Development and Collaboration

Github is a well-known community of software developers that use Git as version control for community software development. But what most users don’t know is that GitHub offers project management for enterprises, or the ability to privatize workspaces so development teams can code and collaborate separately from the greater community. Out of all of the software options on this agile list, GitHub is perhaps the most flexible, with an open source format limited by little more than the expertise of your team.

Some of the top features in the GitHub Project Management Solution include product backlogging and dashboards, sprint planning and visualization, and workflow automation. The open source format also makes customized security solutions easier for your team, with code scanning in the developer workflow, custom queries, and automated monitoring.

GitHub is a strong solution for mature developer teams, but if your team lacks coding expertise, a more templated solution may be a better fit.

Features:

Collaborative coding and real-time updates
Workflow automation with iterant security and dependency monitoring
Adaptable open source code and workflows from the open source community
Scaleable policies with traceability through deployment
Learning Lab for developer-led learning and coding

Other Agile Tools to Consider: Best Agile Software & Tools for Project Management

Who Needs Agile Project Management Solutions?

Small and Midsize Companies

Agile tools are a great, affordable way to make sure all team members in a smaller organization are aligned on tasks, communication, and deadlines.

Smaller Teams Within Larger Enterprises

Agile tools don’t fit well with larger enterprises but can work really well for smaller teams within the organization. Tools that feature robust reporting and visualization features are especially helpful when communicating project progress internally and externally.

Software Development Teams

Whether they’re developing for internal company needs or for an external client, software development teams can benefit from the organization, iterative design, and single-platform communication that many agile solutions offer.

Third-Party Software Consultants and Developers

Although they are not the primary developers or engineers behind the customer software, third-party consultants can benefit from an agile methodology when guiding customers through software customizations and projects. These tools focus the timeline, hold both parties accountable, and ensure everyone has access to the same documentation and project updates.

Employees Who Work in Sprints

Agile project management is typically associated with software and technology development, but iterant “sprint” style project management can be used in projects ranging from internal events planning to content creation. Users who work on regular sprint timelines with set deadlines and expectations can benefit from agile software, especially collaboration and productivity tools.

Key Features of Agile Project Management Software

Real-Time Updates and Versioning

Many agile solutions are hosted on a public or private cloud, so project changes are updated in real time for all users. However, project management tools also lean heavily on version control and archiving, making it easy to refer to or even revert back to a previous version from an older project iteration.

Communication, Notification, and Threading

Agile tools offer third-party integrations or embedded tools to make communication possible amongst teammates. Typically, these features offer customizable notifications and threading, or the ability to only tag and notify users who are needed on that particular thread of the project.

Task Assignment and Management

An important quality of agile tools is task management, or the ability to delegate tasks and subtasks to different team members. Not every user should be able to sign off on all tasks, but it should be clear to all users who is responsible for each task and what kind of progress they’re making.

Collaborative Coding and Content Creation

An all-in-one agile platform includes a collaborative workspace where teammates can move beyond discussing project tasks and actually make the updates to code, data, and overall project details as needed.

Navigable Dashboards

Not all users will be experienced developers, so navigability and at-a-glance details are good features to help everyone keep up with project updates and progress. Several platforms offer customizable dashboards, making it possible for users to adjust their primary panels based on their project roles and requirements.

Reporting and Other Visualizations

In agile platforms that offer collaborative content creation and workspaces, users can typically extract that data and create reports or data visualizations at each step of a project. This visual information can help less technical members of the team visualize what’s happening. it can also help with progress reporting to external stakeholders who don’t have regular access to agile platforms.

Learn More: What is Data Visualization?

Release Planning and Deadline Management

One of the quintessential factors of agile project management is planning and managing iterative deadlines. Simple calendars and messaging software can help users to discuss these deadlines, but Gantt charts, timelines, and other estimation tools in agile software help everyone to see deadline shifts, dependencies, and contingencies. Further, they display what users are completing each subtask leading up to a deadline or new release.

Issue Tracking

Agile development is all about iterative development. But more importantly, it’s about the flexibility to address concerns and scope changes as needed. Issue tracking is a common agile platform feature that helps agile teams flag potential problem areas. Further, issue tracking can also include automated monitoring within the platform.

Considering Security: Why is Risk Management Important?

Automation Pipelines or CI/CD

Although not every agile tool offers automation pipelines, they’re a great feature for teams that want to ensure smooth deployments, limit user error, and juggle multiple projects at once. Automation pipelines are particularly useful for DevOps teams that need continuous integration (CI) and continuous development (CD), or CI/CD.

More on DevOps Tools: Best DevOps Tools & Software of 2021

Tips for Choosing an Agile Project Management Solution

Consider Price Point

Some of the best agile tools come at higher subscription costs, but several tools offer free versions or free trial periods with limited features. Look for the free tiersof popular agile options and take a closer look at the features included. Depending on your needs, you may not need to heavily invest to optimize your agile toolkit.

Research Integrations With Other Business Software

Most agile tools integrate well with other business software because of the goal to assist with project development, but some tools offer more pre-built integrations than others. Before you commit to a solution, take a look at its integration library and review integration opportunities for business software you already use in your development workflow.

Look for Customizability

Open source tools are the clear winners for customizability, but most agile software offers some customizable features for developers. If your industry use cases are highly specific, you’ll want to find a solution you can customize accordingly.

Think About Your Primary Users

Who will be the primary users of the software? Chances are, they’re already familiar with some of the solutions on the agile product market, or they know the kinds of questions you should be asking vendors while you search. Talk to these stakeholders and figure out the main pain points the software should help them solve.

The post Best Agile Project Management Tools for 2021 appeared first on CIO Insight.

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Why Is Risk Management Important?

Posted in: board and C-level engagement, enterprise risk management, ERM, IT Strategy, management, risk management, Security - Aug 24, 2021

Enterprise risk management done correctly can mitigate different types or levels of risk. Depending on the industry and group, risk management should address the organization’s business needs and respond to any risk event.

At best, risk is challenging to handle at any business level. But enterprise risk management streamlines the company’s risk portfolio.

What Is Enterprise Risk Management?

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is the core principles and practices to guide a company through uncertain events. It provides a response and strategy to help the business when an event occurs. Today, many Fortune 50 companies have a Chief Risk Officer (CRO) or equivalent. The role of a CRO is to establish an effective risk plan and response for the organization.

“To get started on an ERM plan, businesses must define their core operating objectives and then identify the risks that exist to these core operating objectives and strategies,” writes Matt Kunkel, CEO of LogicGate, in an article for Forbes. “An ERM plan should seek to mitigate these risks.”

Successful risk management practices should not be complex. Unfortunately, organizations tend to overreact every time a risk event happens. Rational, simple decision-making before, during, and after something occurs will help deliver a solution that works and keeps the business operating.

Risk Management Team

Over the past several years, the need for internal risk management teams has become vital to organizations’ success. Along the same lines, executive team buy-in is critical to the success of risk management. Executives should participate by asking the right questions to the core risk management team.

If the enterprise risk team is merely considered a project team, the enterprise effort will fail.

If the enterprise risk team is merely considered a project team, the enterprise effort will fail. Enterprise risk teams are not project teams; they need to be aligned and directed by the executive team and the board as a continuous function of the company.

Enterprise Risk Management Programs

Understanding risk management programs will help corporations execute better responses to multiple threats. The following are a few basic things needed for success.

Industry Requirements

Industry requirements assess the business area and then match the appropriate risk training or certifications. The risk management team should always consider sector-appropriate requirements when putting together a plan.

Check out the Best Risk Management Software for 2021

Training

Risk training is essential for companies. Further, the training should be tiered to meet the requirements of each area. Follow-up training is key to keeping everyone aware of risks and mitigating them for each department.

Companies can escalate the risk training when an event occurs. A good rule of thumb is to assess the risk event and ask the right questions before reacting, especially if it is a new unknown risk.

Certifications

Risk certifications should be a requirement for individuals directly responsible for risk management. Be careful to balance the business needs to what’s required.

Maintain Focus

Remember, focus on the right things. Reactionary risk management causes chaos in the entire organization. If the staff senses something is wrong, they will react accordingly.

Communication

Have a simple, structured communication and response plan. When a risk trigger is determined, a direct response will generate a higher degree of success. Overcomplicating the message and response will cause more confusion.

Risk Management Consulting Firms

Be careful when contracting an external party to handle ERM. Outside firms should guide and continue to strengthen the businesses risk management for the company. Firms offering an end-to-end solution need evaluation and accreditation before providing any long-term solutions.

Landmines and Rabbit Holes

There are landmines and rabbit holes with every risk management effort. Stepping back to reassess a situation may take time away from the response, but will ultimately generate better results.

Landmines explode when something triggers the risk. Most risk teams spend too much time outlining the worst-case scenario. Avoiding risk landmines by focusing on the short-term cause and effect will simplify the process.

Rabbit Holes start as productive initiatives and end up as something else. If the risk discussion becomes circular, table it and move on. Surprisingly, looking at another subject may answer the response intended by the rabbit hole.

Implementing ERM

Filling a business’s need for enterprise risk management will provide an excellent roadmap to meet expected and uncommon threats. As such, ERM should be required practice for all organizations.

Have a team or a plan in place to meet the threats of the 21st century — don’t wait until an event occurs. By being prepared, any business can bounce back from a risk event.

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What Does a Next Generation Firewall Do?

Posted in: firewall, IT security, IT Strategy, next generation firewall, NGFW, Security - Aug 23, 2021

While most of the world is full of good-intentioned, trustworthy people, there is a huge number of bad actors out there that want to take down your systems and get their hands on your hard-earned money or data. That’s why next-generation firewalls are an important part of modern cyber security strategy.

With so many organizations converting to a hybrid workforce, businesses are more vulnerable to cyber threats than ever. Learn how a next-generation firewall can protect your business.

What Is a Next-Generation Firewall?

A firewall is a software or hardware system designed to protect computer networks from being accessed by unauthorized parties. The name “firewall” is used because fire usually impedes the progress of something — in this case, it impedes the progress of an attack on a network.

A NGFW stops complex attacks by enforcing security regulations at the application, port, and protocol levels.

When it comes to security, a next-generation firewall (NGFW) goes beyond a typical stateful firewall. A NGFW is a type of firewall that can identify and stop complex attacks by enforcing security regulations at the application, port, and protocol levels. Like a traditional firewall, it can be implemented in either hardware or software.

What Does a Firewall Do?

A firewall works like a traffic guard at your computer’s entry point or port. Only trusted sources, or IP addresses, are allowed in. IP addresses are important because they identify a computer or source, just like your postal address identifies where you live.

Firewalls are the first line of defense against external attacks, and keeping them healthy is crucial for your network security. Not only do they keep malware and hackers at bay, but they also provide a solid defense for your data resources.

Vulnerabilities in the firewall can lead to intellectual property theft, damaging file deletions, or business interruptions due to cascading effects. Keeping up to date with the newest security upgrades and patches is a must.

At the consumer level, some people use their router as a firewall appliance. Because routers have minimal security features, they’re not recommended for individuals, and are entirely inappropriate for business application. The question then becomes: What is the best way to create an efficient and effective firewall for your systems?

What Are the Functions of a Next-Generation Firewall?

Firewalls are created for one purpose, and that is to allow/deny traffic from different ports and IPs. This is what a next-generation firewall should do, according to eSecurity Planet:

Deep Packet Inspection (DPI): DPI can identify and block unsafe packets at the application layer. In this way, DPI is goes beyond the stateful inspection of traditional firewalls.
Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS): IPS will inspect the contents of traffic and look for patterns of malware or malicious traffic. Formerly a standalone product, IPS can also remove suspect traffic from the network.
Identity Awareness: A NGFW’s ability to recognize identity enables administrators to apply firewall rules more granularly, targeting specific groups and users.

Next-Generation Firewall vs. Traditional Firewall

Both next-generation firewalls and traditional firewalls strive to safeguard an organization’s network and data assets, but there are a few distinctions.

In a traditional firewall, traffic is regulated based on port, protocol, source address, and destination address. Its core functionality is packet filtering, stateless inspection or stateful inspection, and virtual private network (VPN) support.

To guard against more complex attacks, NGFWs have multiple levels of protection built in. They also provide application-level control and intrusion prevention.

Who Needs a Next-Generation Firewall?

A strong firewall is the foundation of every company’s network security. Any traffic wishing to join or exit the corporate network must first travel through the firewall, allowing it to filter out any traffic that might jeopardize the organization’s systems or security.

A truly robust security strategy goes beyond the firewall; consider implementing zero trust security.

Because they can combine the work of antiviruses, traditional firewalls, and other security software into a single solution, NGFWs can be a low-cost alternative for enterprises seeking to improve their basic security. However, a truly robust security strategy goes beyond the firewall; consider implementing zero trust security.

How Do NGFWs Support Security Best Practices?

The goal of any firewall is to keep attackers out of the network while also protecting systems and data. NGFWs should be able to deliver on the following:

Advanced security and breach prevention
Visibility over the whole network
Flexible management and deployment options
Rapidity of detection

The Value of Next-Generation Firewalls

In the present era, having a next-generation firewall is vital. Daily, threats to devices and networks are evolving. A NGFW’s adaptability safeguards businesses from a far larger range of attacks than a traditional firewall. Security experts should carefully evaluate the advantages that NGFWs may bring, as there is a lot to gain.

The post What Does a Next Generation Firewall Do? appeared first on CIO Insight.

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