Reducing hardware footprint through router-to-firewall migration

Overview

Industry

Location

Software and IT services

Netherlands

Technology Used

BGP

OSPF

Palo Alto Networks NGFW (PA-820/850/141/1420 series)

Project overview

The client’s network utilized a dual-platform approach: separate Cisco routers for dynamic routing and Palo Alto firewalls for security, entailing excess hardware and complex maintenance. To fix this, we initiated a core infrastructure modernization effort, strategically migrating all routing functions onto the Palo Alto NGFW platform. This allowed for the complete removal of physical routing devices, resulting in a cleaner data center presence, simplified infrastructure management and a significant reduction in the overall hardware footprint.

Client background

A provider of secure managed cloud services for organizations with high security requirements. The company’s offer, including cloud solutions, outsourcing, managed hosting, Pentesting, Red Teaming and Agile Security, supports government agencies, municipalities and financial institutions with their digital transformations.

Goals

The project's goals revolved around efficiency and simplification: reducing the physical infrastructure footprint and energy consumption by removing unnecessary hardware. Operationally, the aim was to simplify the network architecture and management processes, thereby enhancing routing and security policy visibility within a unified control plane. Ultimately, this consolidation was designed to increase the potential for automation in future network configuration and deployment cycles.

Results

Infrastructure consolidation

Separate routing hardware was decommissioned, resulting in a 40% reduction in physical rack space and power consumption in the data center.

Operational efficiency

Simplified, centralized configuration management allowed for lower operational costs and faster deployment cycles.

Simplified troubleshooting

Unified logging for routing and security dramatically reduced troubleshooting complexity, providing comprehensive insights from a single control plane.

Full routing redundancy

Network reliability was sustained and enhanced by implementing and verifying full routing redundancy within the NGFW clusters.

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