How Even Your Firewall Can Be a Growth Engine for Your Business

Firewalls used to be simple defensive tools that consisted of antivirus, web filtering, and intrusion protection, but they are far more complex (and far more powerful) these days. In fact, they can serve an entirely different purpose in addition to network security. You can transform a well-configured firewall into a growth lever to harness the vast amounts of data they collect and process for the good of your business.

Stop Paying for Redundant Software Solutions

A firewall can see all the applications on your network, as well as what they are communicating to the outside world. This lets you use a firewall as a way to test which tools are actually being used by your team.

Shadow IT is a problem for many businesses, but not those who use the firewall in this way. You can root out unapproved apps to ensure your team is only using approved solutions. Monitoring in this way also helps you discover phantom software licenses, where you might pay for something that doesn’t get used. If the issue is one where your employees simply don’t know how to use the tool, you can offer training so that everyone is on the same page.

Basically, the firewall is what makes these issues visible. Then you can take corrective action.

Prevent Bandwidth Bottlenecks from Breaking Your Budget

Have you ever been on an important phone call or video meeting, only for it to drop at the worst possible moment? It’s often not a problem with your provider; it has to do with your bandwidth, or rather, a lack of it.

These issues arise due to internal priority conflicts, where you have too many solutions competing for the same limited resource. A firewall can help you prioritize traffic for your voice and video calls so they’re never dropped in favor of less important activities, like browsing the web or checking email. The firewall can also help you discover data-heavy applications and specific devices that are using more bandwidth than usual, and you can take action to limit the damage to the rest of your infrastructure.

Knowing exactly how much bandwidth you need, as well as what it’s for, can be a game-changer, allowing you to scale your business according to its needs—and it’s all thanks to your firewall.

Analyze Traffic Patterns to Manage Workflows

Your firewall scans the data flowing into and out of your business, and as such, it can be a way to get a quick impression of the overall health of your organization’s network.

The flow of traffic gives you certain insights into your business’ productivity, as well as your employees’ engagement. You can figure out when your staff are most active on all of the important business apps, compare latency and usage patterns, and determine if security protocols are where they should be. This helps ensure your network security stays right where you want it to be, i.e. you’re not forsaking security just for the efficiency of the network.

Security is something all businesses need, so you shouldn’t feel bad about spending a little extra on it—particularly if those investments keep your business from suffering catastrophic damage.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas for how to creatively leverage your firewall to get even more value out of it. Learn more today about how to make the most of your valuable technology investments by calling us at (02) 8825-5555 today.