Hardware security appliances are ill-matched to meet sophisticated, modern application attacks. Appliances are expensive to maintain and manage, require downtime, and unequipped to deal with traffic spikes stemming from attacks or high demand. Organizations must purchase new hardware every 3-7 years to keep pace with throughput needs as technology advances and enterprises scale. And when hardware undergoes upgrades or maintenance, security services will need to go offline, resulting in protection gaps. Appliances must also be right-sized to handle expected peak demand – leaving them either underutilized or unable to handle traffic over the expected levels, leaving applications defenseless.
Switching to cloud-based security not only helps organizations streamline their infrastructure and operations, but can lead to significant cost savings by eliminating hardware refreshes, reducing vendor sprawl, and cutting down on data center overhead.