- Cato Networks Network Firewall
Best for: Teams eliminating on-premises firewall hardware entirely
The SIEM integration is worth noting. Cato logs network events and can forward them to your existing SIEM for correlation. This is important because FWaaS creates a new log source that your SOC needs to ingest and normalize. Verify that Cato's log format works with your SIEM before you commit. The cloud-native architecture also means you cannot do the kind of low-level packet capture and analysis that you can with an on-premises appliance, which matters for some incident response workflows.
From Best Next-Generation Firewall Solutions for Business, Fall 2026
- Sangfor Athena NGFW
Best for: Mid-market teams wanting built-in WAF and SOC tooling without extra licenses
The anti-ransomware correlation with Sangfor Endpoint Secure and Cyber Command is worth evaluating if you're considering the broader Sangfor ecosystem. The cross-product correlation between network and endpoint telemetry to identify ransomware processes is a real capability, not just a marketing claim. The limitation is that it works best within the Sangfor stack. If you're running a different EDR, the correlation benefit disappears. Sangfor is primarily an on-premises deployment, which suits organizations with data residency requirements or limited cloud connectivity.
From Best Next-Generation Firewall Solutions for Business, Fall 2026
