Is secure web gateway a SaaS? What does each of these terms mean? To find out more about these two, keep on scrolling below.
What Is Secure Web Gateway?
A secure web gateway (SWG) is a network security software solution. One that is designed for enforcing security policy and gateway control, managing Web traffic, and the applications that run on it.
SWG is a physical or virtual server appliance that is deployed in the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). It can then have several functions such as:
- Filtering web traffic based on user-defined policies,
- Application Firewall,
- URL Filtering and Traffic Auditing,
- Compression,
- Load Balancing,
- Content Caching, among others.
Depending on their configurations, some SWGs can provide IDS/IPS capabilities. They are used to secure your web applications against attacks and to allow only authorized users to access them. Since they function as a gateway between the Internet and the application servers within your network, they can be used to protect your internal network from malicious attacks from outside the Internet.
As said, the SWG is designed to be placed in the DMZ of the network for maximum security. Then, the DMZ itself can be hosted by different server hardware. Or it can be co-located with other servers which are not part of the DMZ. When it is co-located with other servers, in many cases all of these servers may not be required to defend against external threats.
So, this means that there is no need for them to be placed in a DMZ (especially if they are not part of your web application). So why would you want to place your SWG in a DMZ? The answer lies in having fewer server administration tasks. This is due to its functionality as a gateway between internal and external networks.
By placing it in a DMZ you get rid of some security risks that could result from placing it directly into an internal network. Thus, this way you eliminate one more point of possible entry for hackers into your network.
Is Secure Web Gateway a SaaS?
The business model of software and application delivery whereby the vendor develops applications hosted on the cloud and makes them available to users using a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. So, here the provider of the service (applications) hosts them on the cloud so that users can access them from any Internet connection.
The advantage of a SaaS is that you don’t need to install and maintain (upgrade or patch) the application yourself. The provider does it for you, so you don’t need to worry about it. You just use it.
When it comes to SWG being SaaS, it is not a SaaS. It is a network security software solution that the company that provides the service must install on the cloud and maintain.
It doesn’t mean that you are not able to have your application protected by your own SWG if you use this type of service. You can still have them protected by your SWG while using a SaaS service. The provider can also add layer of protection and choose to deploy his/her SWG on the cloud,