This Alexander-Graham-Bell-ism has threaded through our careers and business models as technologies have bloomed, evolved and given way to better mousetraps. The catch—isn’t there always one? —is that open doors also create exposure. In the world of cybersecurity, they’re known as security holes.

 

Web Application Whack-a-Mole

Our mishmash world of interconnected applications, users and devices is, in essence, a patchwork of doors and windows. You can have the best network firewall in the market locking down your network, but every web application connection creates a new exposure that takes time to close. The more connections a web application or API incurs, the more risks it encounters. They amass quickly, especially with today’s decentralized business models and work-from-anywhere standards.

 

Out of the Firewall and Into the… Other Firewall

This is the part in the story when the hero appears. It’s a bird... it’s a plane… No, it’s web application firewall! Catchy, eh? OK, maybe not, but web application firewalls (WAFs) catch attacks from the bad guys and keep web applications, APIs and your data safe. 

 

WAFs are commonly associated with rules-based HTTP traffic filtering to harden defenses against threats like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS). But as threats have become more sophisticated, what’s under the hood has become critical. Since the bad guys are using artificial intelligence (AI) [CF1]to spool up the quantity and quality of threats, the solutions that fight them need automation and intelligence that scale with the threat environment. This means using WAF infused with machine learning (ML) and AI-powered threat analysis.

 

WAF-as-a-Service (WAFaaS)

WAF-as-a-Service (WAFaaS) provides critical security to applications hosted in the public cloud. Here again, sourcing matters, especially when it comes to provider depth and reach. The solution you source for your clients should be cloud native. And to minimize latency, it should also be deployable in the same regions as your AWS, Google Cloud or Azure applications anywhere in the world. 

 

Companies Like Yours Will Dominate WAF Sales

WAF is a high-growth opportunity for MSSPs. Companies in the financial, health and insurance industries are WAF’s earliest and greatest adopters. If you serve these verticals, congrats! You’ll have a real romp with WAF if you’re not already.

 

But WAFs are becoming vital security components for firms in all sectors. Some, especially SMBs, don’t fully grasp the limits of their network firewalls or the wide, protective net WAF can cast over their applications, APIs and IoT infrastructure. Others don’t know how to find the right WAF for their unique situations. This dynamic strongly favors consultative sales and trusted advisors—so much so that ResearchAndMarkets.com forecasts the consulting services segment to capture the most market share of the booming global WAF market through 2027. Yes, this means you. With the right provider partner at your back, you can ride the WAF wave with the best of them.