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Zyxel ZyWall Security: UTM Overview and Analysis

See our complete list of top UTM vendors Key Takeaways Taiwan-based Zyxel focuses on the smallest companies, from 5 to 500 employees, and as you’d expect, the product gets good marks for ease of implementation and use once you figure out its logic. Users report solid performance. Application-aware capabilities in ZyWall Security can granularly block […]

Written By

Drew Robb

Jul 23, 2018

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See our complete list of top UTM vendors

Key Takeaways
Company Description
Product Description
Markets and Use Cases
Metrics
Intelligence
Delivery
Agents
Pricing

Key Takeaways

Taiwan-based Zyxel focuses on the smallest companies, from 5 to 500 employees, and as you’d expect, the product gets good marks for ease of implementation and use once you figure out its logic. Users report solid performance. Application-aware capabilities in ZyWall Security can granularly block viruses, malware, Web content, spam and other potential threats. The solution also includes gateway antivirus, gateway content Web filtering, gateway IDP and application control, gateway anti-spam, NGFW, and VPN (including IPSec, SSL and L2TP for remote client-to-site and site-to-site access).

Company Description

Zyxel is a public company founded in 1989 and traded on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. With its North America headquarters in Anaheim, California, it provides a portfolio of multi-service LTE, fiber and DSL broadband gateways, home connectivity solutions, smart home devices, enterprise-class Ethernet switches, security and Wi-Fi equipment for small to mid-size businesses.

Product Description

ZyWall’s application-aware capabilities can granularly block virus, malware, Web content, spam and other potential threats. ZyWall Security also includes gateway anti-virus, gateway content Web filtering, gateway intrusion detection and prevention (IDP), application control, gateway anti-spam, next-generation firewall (NGFW), and virtual private networking (VPN), including IPSec, SSL and L2TP for remote client-to-site and site-to-site access.

In addition to those core functions, Zyxel’s solution can scan inside SSL-encrypted packets using SSL inspection. Additionally, GEO IP blocking functions can block IP’s originating from or destined for specific countries. Smart Safe-Search integration prevents inappropriate content while using search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. IDP blocking can block ransomware and applications like BitTorrent.

“With advancements in AI, the future of threat management is adaptive learning as devices becomes more aware of anomalies in the network function, and once aware of the anomalies, take action,” said Tri Nguyen, market development manager, North America, Zyxel.

Markets and Use Cases

The company concentrates on small businesses from 5 to 500 users. Its products are used in home offices, small offices and branch offices. They are also used in retail outlets for remote access or PCI compliance with point-of-sale devices. Managed Service Providers utilize ZyWALL for remote secure management to client sites. Education users adopt it for content control and network security/hotspot. Hospitality providers use Zyxel for content control and hotspot integration.

Metrics

Up to 40,000 sessions, firewall throughput of up to 250 Mbps.

Intelligence

Cloud signatures update for the different UTM services, which adapt to the latest threats.

Delivery

Hardware appliance with cloud component for management and software/UTM signature delivery.

Agents

Yes

Pricing

UTM-enabled devices, including one year of services, range from $425 to $4,800.

Drew Robb

Originally from Scotland, Drew Robb has been a writer for more than 25 years. He lives in Florida and specializes in IT, engineering, and business. As well as eWeek and TechRepublic, he writes for a wide range of magazines including Gas Turbine World, SDxCentral, and HR Magazine. He is the author of Server Disk Management in a Windows Environment (Auerbach Publications).