Introduction

WatchGuard XTM 8 series NG firewall appliances are best for medium to large scale organizations with the capability to support up to 1,000,000 bi-directional concurrent sessions. WatchGuard XTM 8 series security appliances are capable of handling up to 35,000 new connections per second, while having unlimited numbers of LAN IPs in the network. Leaving other security features such as Application Control, Reputed Enabled Defense, etc. to be purchased as additional subscriptions, WatchGuard XTM 8 series security appliances comprise of all other mandatory security elements integrated in them, hence eliminating the need of further fireware upgrades. Lower models of WatchGuard XTM 8 series security appliances are needed to be upgraded to the higher ones just to increase the maximum available limit of the features available with current models. Model XTM 830-F of WatchGuard XTM 8 series can be chosen if the network contains fiber optic media. This is because XTM 830-F model has 4 fiber optic interfaces along with 6 x 10/100/1000 copper interfaces.

Who Should Buy?

WatchGuard XTM 8 security appliances are manufactured and are useful for:

• Medium Scale Businesses – Organizations that are counted as medium-scale and are continuously in the process of expansion to get in the category of large-scale can use WatchGuard XTM 8 firewall appliance. Because of their completeness and reasonable prices, medium scale organizations can invest their funds on other productive elements, rather than utilizing the amounts in order to upgrade the firewares.
• Large Scale Business – Organizations that have recently reached the milestone of ‘large-scale’ and are planning to expand their network setups and business can count on WatchGuard XTM 8 firewall appliances. Because no fireware upgrades are needed to get advanced security features enabled, large scale organizations can experience the completeness of these security appliances and can exploit all their features at their full at no additional cost.

What Purposes It Serves?

WatchGuard XTM 8 security appliances allow security administrators to:

• Use Fiber Optic Media – Because XTM 830-F model of WatchGuard XTM 8 firewall appliances has 4 fiber optic interfaces, medium or large scale organizations can remarkably increase data transmission speed by connecting two campus area networks (CANs) via fiber optic guided media using them as backbone cables.
• Easily Manage Appliances – With the help of easy-to-use management tools, web interface and command line interface, administrators can easily and quickly create security policies and can implement them to secure the network. Intuitive configuration wizards make it even simpler for the administrators to perform various complex tasks within no time.

Top Features and Benefits

• VPN Connections – WatchGuard XTM 8 series firewall appliances support:
• ✓ VPN Failover
• ✓ Up to 1.7 Gbps of VPN throughput
• ✓ Up to 6000 VPN tunnels to branch offices
• ✓ Up to 8000 Mobile VPN IPsec tunnels
• ✓ Up to 6000 Mobile VPN SSL tunnels
• ✓ Up to 50 PPTP VPN tunnels
• Security – Since WatchGuard XTM 8 firewall appliances are dedicated security devices especially designed for middle to large scale industries, they support:
• ✓ Up to 6.5 Gbps firewall throughput
• ✓ Threat Protection (from Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, spyware, malicious elements, etc.)
• ✓ Deep Packet Inspection (DPI)
• ✓ Stateful Packet Inspection
• ✓ Proxy Firewall
• ✓ Up to 1.4 Gbps Unified Threat Management (UTM) throughput
• ✓ Up to 2.7 Gbps Intrusion Prevention Services (IPS) throughput
• Networking – Apart from other general networking features, WatchGuard XTM 8 firewall appliances also support:
• ✓ High Availability (Active/Passive and Active/Active load balancing)
• ✓ Multi-WAN load balancing
• ✓ Multi-WAN failover
• ✓ NAT (Static, Dynamic, IPsec NAT traversal, Virtual IP for Server Load Balancing)
• Voice over IP (VoIP) – Security administrators can also manage VoIP by:
• ✓ H.323
• ✓ SIP
• ✓ Session Security
• Single Sign-on (SSO) – This feature allows administrators to integrate the appliance with an existing Windows Active Directory environment to configure one time authentication. Single Sign-on (SSO) prevents users from providing their credentials every time they try to access data or resources.

Hardware Specifications – Hardware specifications of WatchGuard XTM 8 security appliances include:

• Up to 10 x 10/100/1000 copper interfaces (XTM 830)
• 6 x 10/100/100 copper interfaces and 4 x 10/100/1000 fiber interfaces (XTM 830-F)
• Up to 2 USB interfaces
• 1 serial interface
• 1 DB-9
• Up to 500 VLANS

Paid Subscriptions

In order to enhance the security of the network, and make the WatchGuard XTM 8 series firewall appliances work even more efficiently, security administrators can purchase any or all available subscriptions:

• Application Control – Security administrators can purchase subscription for Application Control that allows them to monitor and control the access of web applications such as Skype, etc.
• Reputation Enabled Defense – Reputation Enabled Defense (RED) adds an additional layer of security to the network by preventing users from accessing malicious webpages.
• WebBlocker – This subscription allows security administrators to block unwanted websites, hence restricting users from accessing inappropriate contents available on the Internet.
• Intrusion Prevention Service – Security administrators can purchase this subscription in order to detect and automatically prevent any intrusion attempts into the network.
• SpamBlocker – This subscription secures the network from unwanted virus oriented spam emails, hence allowing secure communication between internal and external networks.
• Gateway Antivirus – This subscription protects the network from virus attacks. When this subscription is purchased, viruses are blocked at the gateway itself.

Upgrades

• Although almost all advanced features like maximum numbers of VLANs support, etc. are already available in all WatchGuard XTM 8 series firewall appliances, models XTM 810 can be upgraded to models XTM 820 and 830. Moreover, models XTM 820 can be upgraded to models XTM 830. By upgrading lower model to the higher one allows more concurrent bi-directional connections and increased firewall, VPN, AV, IPS and UTP throughputs. Upgrading to upper WatchGuard XTM 8 series models also allow administrators to increase number of branch office VPN connections, mobile VPN IPsec connections and mobile VPN SSL connections.