Should organizations implement layered defenses from different vendors? Should we rely upon a single vendor for an organization’s overall security?
According to a Gartner research paper, “Two firewall platforms are not better than one. We believe there is a higher risk associated with configuring and managing firewalls from multiple vendors than from a single vendor. Therefore, Gartner advises enterprises that have more than one firewall to standardize on a single vendor platform when the opportunity presents itself (that is, new installations or replacement during a refresh). In choosing a standard firewall, enterprises should consider the experience of their firewall administrators with each platform, scalability, central management, and cost. ” (Young & Pescatore, 2008)
It also says that a firewall misconfiguration causes more than 99% of firewall breaches; not firewall flaws. It is true that debugging an error in any new appliance or tool can be cumbersome and time-consuming. Moreover, narrowing down to a single vendor relationship could help with greater discounts with less administration overhead.
However, there are situations where an enterprise could be stuck with a solution for long without much help to upgrade unless the enterprise pays almost the cost of a new solution and the extra cost of migrating to it. Sometimes it is better to diversify, especially when the industry is drastically changing and not all vendors address all issues with the changes.
Reference:
- Young, G., & Pescatore, J. (2008, August 12). Q&A: Is It More Secure to Use Firewalls From Two Different Vendors? Retrieved October 13, 2016, from TechData: http://www.techdata.com/techsolutions/networking/files/june2010/gartner%20firewall%20page%207%20qa_is_it_more_secure_to_use__160362.pdf