Everyone knows the performance of a firewall depends on which security features are enabled, the type and volume of traffic, the number of users and so on.

But very few companies know the “true” performance of their firewall because it’s so hard to measure.

Is this information valuable? Yes!

Knowing the real performance of your firewall – in your network, with your traffic, your applications and your users – will reveal:

• Is your firewall a performance bottleneck for users?
• How will changing your security policies impact performance?
• How do other changes to your network impact performance?
• Is your firewall giving you the best value for your money?

Safire is controlled via a simple web-interface called SafireManager. Users are guided through the few simple steps of connecting to the firewall and defining each variable relevant to the test – which network scenario and traffic profile to use, how many users to be emulated, which firewall features are enabled and so on. This typically takes only a few clicks, and then Safire is ready to start testing.

Every network has a unique traffic profile defined by the applications being used, the number of users, the data and security policies, the network topology and so on. Performance testing enterprise firewalls – where application-awareness is widely used for policing the traffic – requires unique traffic that matches the traffic profile of that network. To help you do this, Safire includes an extensive library of application traffic to maximize the accuracy of the test.

Once the test is completed, Safire generates a simple-to-read PDF report that summarizes the the key findings on the front page, followed by a wealth of graphical data so you can instantly spot any serious performance issues.

IT and network managers can use this report to make data-driven decisions like:

• How to boost their firewall’s performance without compromising security
• Document how changes to the network impact firewall performance
• Validate the need for a new enterprise firewall
• Verify if a new firewall lives up to the performance claimed by the vendor