What changes when you move to the cloud
Cloud apps shift a lot of the protection to two places:
- Identity. Who can sign in, with what, from where. Multi-factor authentication and conditional access rules in Microsoft 365 do much of the work a firewall used to.
- The device itself. Endpoint protection (EDR) on each computer protects it at home, in a hotel or at a client site where your office firewall can't help.
If your whole team is remote and there's no office, a business firewall may truly not be needed. Device protection and identity controls carry the load.
What a firewall still does in an office
If people work in a shared office, a business firewall typically:
- Separates networks. Guests, staff, printers, phones and cameras can each be kept in their own segment so a compromised device can't easily reach everything else. See why businesses use VLANs.
- Blocks known-bad destinations and can filter some malicious traffic before it reaches a device.
- Provides visibility. Logs show which devices are talking to what, which helps during an investigation.
- Handles VPN or site connections if you still have anything on-premises.
- Is managed and patched. The consumer router from your internet provider usually isn't monitored, and its firmware often goes years without updates.
The honest tradeoffs
A business firewall costs money for hardware, licensing and someone to manage it. A firewall that's installed and never updated or reviewed gives a false sense of safety. If your budget is tight, strong MFA and EDR on every computer usually come first. The firewall is still worth it for most offices, but it isn't a substitute for those.
Blue Tree Technology®'s approach
Blue Tree Technology®'s approach is to put in a quality firewall. We have standardized on UniFi equipment for most of the businesses we manage. For all support plans from Compass Core on up, we also provide an always-on VPN firewall. This provides a layer of protection no matter where your employees work.
Questions to ask your IT provider
- What's on our office network besides laptops?
- Is guest Wi-Fi separated from staff devices?
- Who updates the firewall, and when did it last get firmware updates?
- Do we have EDR on every computer, including remote ones?
- Is MFA required for everyone in Microsoft 365?
FAQ
Is the router from our internet provider good enough?
For a home, often. For a business with client data, it usually lacks segmentation, logging and regular updates.
Does a firewall protect remote workers?
Not when they're outside the office. That's why device protection, identity controls, and a VPN matter.
Do we still need a VPN?
We look at this question differently. The VPN we put in place is a security layer a hacker needs to get past to reach your device. We also set up access rules when everyone is on the VPN. Many businesses don't strictly need one, but we put one in place to add protection.
Related Blue Tree Technology® pages
Still have a question?
Ask Little Sprout, the assistant on our website, for general information. To talk through what your office network actually needs, schedule a free 15-minute discovery call.