7 Things To Look For When Choosing A Sovereign Firewall

Digital sovereignty is becoming a more important consideration in cybersecurity procurement. For organisations handling sensitive information, operating critical infrastructure or working within regulated sectors, the origin and governance of their security technology can form part of the wider risk assessment.

But choosing a sovereign firewall involves more than finding a vendor headquartered in Europe.

You should consider security assurance, real-world performance, management, IT and OT requirements, vendor transparency and ongoing support. For MSPs and IT resellers advising customers on their next firewall, here are seven areas worth examining.

1. Where Is The Firewall Technology Developed And Governed?

Start by looking beyond the location of the vendor's headquarters.

Digital sovereignty considers where technology is developed, who controls it and the legal and regulatory frameworks under which the vendor operates. These factors can become particularly important when a customer handles sensitive information or wants greater visibility over its technology supply chain.

Consider questions such as:

• Where is the technology developed?
• Who owns and controls the vendor?
• Which jurisdiction applies?
• Where are security updates developed and managed?
• How transparent is the vendor about its technology and development processes?

A European address alone does not demonstrate sovereignty. Understanding the organisation behind the technology gives customers a much clearer picture of what they are introducing into their infrastructure.

Stormshield develops its cybersecurity technologies in Europe and positions digital sovereignty and European technology independence as central parts of its approach.

2. What Independent Security Assurance Does The Firewall Have?

Vendor claims are useful, but independent assessment provides another level of assurance.

When evaluating a sovereign firewall, look at the certifications and qualifications that apply to the solution and understand what they actually demonstrate.

Stormshield Network Security firmware holds ANSSI Standard Qualification on relevant versions, alongside security credentials including Common Criteria EAL4+, NATO Restricted and EU Restricted across applicable solutions.

These credentials can be particularly relevant for government, defence, critical infrastructure and other security-conscious organisations, but they can also provide useful independent evidence for commercial organisations carrying out supplier due diligence.

Always check which product and software version a qualification applies to rather than treating certification as a blanket vendor-level credential.

3. How Does The Firewall Perform With Security Features Enabled?

Headline firewall throughput only tells part of the performance story.

The more useful question is how the appliance performs when the security capabilities your customer intends to use are actually running.

Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), VPN traffic and deeper traffic inspection all introduce additional processing requirements. A firewall that performs well under basic traffic conditions may behave differently once these services are enabled.

When comparing solutions, consider:

• Firewall throughput
• IPS throughput
• Threat prevention performance
• IPsec VPN throughput
• Concurrent connections
• Number of supported VPN tunnels
• The customer's expected traffic profile

Stormshield publishes separate firewall and IPS performance information across its Network Security range, allowing partners to size appliances against the customer's intended use rather than relying on a single headline figure.

For more complex environments, a proof-of-concept can provide valuable evidence before committing to a wider deployment.

4. How Easily Can You Manage The Firewall Estate?

Firewall management becomes increasingly important as environments grow.

For MSPs managing multiple customers, or organisations operating across several sites, administering appliances individually can create unnecessary work for technical teams.

Look at how the platform handles centralised administration, policy management, updates, configuration backups, VPN supervision, monitoring and automation.

Stormshield Management Center provides centralised administration across SNS firewalls, including policy management, updates, backups and scheduled script execution.

The goal should be to give engineers greater visibility across the environment while reducing repetitive administration. This becomes particularly important when firewall management forms part of an ongoing managed service.

5. Can It Support Both IT And OT Security Requirements?

IT and OT environments present different security challenges.

Industrial networks can involve specialist protocols, legacy equipment, strict availability requirements and systems that cannot simply be taken offline for routine changes. A firewall intended for these environments needs to account for those differences.

When OT forms part of the customer's infrastructure, consider capabilities such as:

• Industrial protocol support
• Deep Packet Inspection
• Intrusion prevention
• Network segmentation
• IT and OT visibility
• Hardware suitable for industrial environments
• Centralised management across the wider estate

Stormshield provides network security capabilities across IT and OT environments and offers dedicated industrial firewall appliances alongside its wider SNS range.

This can be particularly useful for partners working with manufacturing, critical infrastructure and other organisations where corporate and operational networks increasingly need to be considered together.

6. How Well Does The Solution Fit The Customer's Environment?

Sovereignty and certification should not come at the expense of suitability.

The right firewall still needs to meet the customer's technical, operational and commercial requirements.

Before recommending a solution, consider the existing network architecture, traffic requirements, VPNs, policies, integrations, high-availability requirements and future plans.

This becomes particularly important when replacing an established firewall vendor. A migration may involve years of existing policies, configurations and dependencies that you need to understand before designing the new environment.

Rather than replacing an ageing firewall like-for-like, use the migration as an opportunity to reassess what the customer actually needs from their network security.

Testing can also play an important role. Hammer's pre-sales support includes proof-of-concept evaluations that allow solutions to be assessed against agreed criteria before a wider rollout.

7. What Support Is Available Before And After Deployment?

The technology is only one part of a successful firewall deployment.

Partners also need access to expertise when scoping an opportunity, designing the solution, testing it and planning the migration.

Before choosing a vendor and distribution partner, consider what support is available around:

• Technical pre-sales
• Solution design
• Proof-of-Concept testing
• Migration planning
• Training and enablement
• Deployment
• Ongoing technical support

Hammer works with partners from the discovery and design stages through to deployment and ongoing development. Our pre-sales services include technical scoping, demonstrations and proof-of-concept evaluations, helping partners validate a solution against the customer's requirements before committing to rollout.

Choosing The Right Sovereign Firewall For Your Customers

Sovereignty adds another consideration to firewall procurement, but it should form part of a much wider assessment.

Technology provenance and jurisdiction matter. So do independent security assurance, performance, manageability, IT and OT capabilities, migration requirements and the expertise available to support the deployment.

For MSPs and IT resellers, asking these questions can help move the customer conversation beyond a simple comparison of specifications and towards a clearer assessment of security, trust and long-term suitability.

Hammer Distribution works with Stormshield to give partners access to European network security technology backed by technical pre-sales, solution design and proof-of-concept support.

Looking at a firewall migration or evaluating sovereign cybersecurity options for a customer? Speak to the Hammer team about your requirements.