Qualys, a provider of cloud security and compliance solutions, today announced that it will release the beta of its new cloud WAF solution as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) and as a VMware virtual image for on-premise deployments starting August 1.
Qualys’ new WAF service will be delivered through the QualysGuard Cloud Platform, providing customers centralised management capabilities and distributed protection whether applications are running on premise or in the cloud.
Qualys will showcase these new capabilities at the Black Hat USA 2013 Briefings from July 31 to August 1.
WAFs work by shielding web sites by applying a set of rules to HTTP conversations to prevent them from being attacked. Qualys say that WAF technology is costly and complex to apply and as a result, many organisations cannot afford to deploy WAFs, or they can only deploy them on a select number of mission critical web properties.
"It can be challenging for companies to use WAFs because initial costs are high compared with other technologies," said Phil Hochmuth, programme manager, security products, IDC. "They can also be expensive to maintain because once they are deployed, they must be carefully monitored and maintained by skilled web application security specialists or developers. This can be challenging to manage, and lead to configuration mistakes."
Qualys has developed a cloud WAF service as a more affordable solution for protecting web sites and increasing their performance. Leveraging the QualysGuard Cloud Platform, the new QualysGuard WAF is designed to provide real-time defence against attacks, application hardening and a low-cost, automated service.
Philippe Courtot, chairman and CEO of Qualys, said: "Qualys is committed to delivering powerful, effective cloud solutions that remove the cost and complexity associated with IT security and compliance, and we are excited to provide an affordable, automated solution with our next generation WAF."
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