What is next generation firewall - NGFW

A class of firewalls designed to filter network and Internet traffic based upon the applications or traffic types using specific ports. The application-specific granular security policies provided by Next Generation Firewalls help them detect application-specific attacks, giving them the potential to catch more malicious activity than more traditional firewalls.

Next Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) blend the features of a standard firewall with quality of service (QoS) functionalities in order to provide smarter and deeper inspection. In many ways a Next Generation Firewall combines the capabilities of first-generation network firewalls and network intrusion prevention systems (IPS), while also offering additional features such as SSL and SSH inspection, reputation-based malware filtering and Active Directory integration support.

Manufacturers of enterprise-grade and commercial-grade NGFWs include Barracuda Networks (Barracuda NG Firewall series), Juniper Networks (AppSecure Suite), Palo Alto Networks and WatchGuard

Key Sourcefire NGFW Capabilities

Stateful firewall inspection	NGIPS threat prevention
Switching, routing & NAT	Automated impact assessment & policy tuning
Application control	Network behavior analysis
FireSIGHT® network and user intelligence	File type determination
IT policy compliance whitelists	URL filtering (optional)
User and User Group control	Advanced Malware Protection (optional)