Cisco Firewalls
Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series
Firewall Services Module (FWSM)
A high-speed, integrated firewall module for Cisco Catalyst
6500 switches and Cisco 7600 Series routers—provides the fastest
firewall data rates in the industry: 5-Gbps throughput, 100,000
CPS, and 1M concurrent connections. Up to four FWSMs can be installed
in a single chassis, providing scalability to 20 Gbps per chassis.
Based on Cisco PIX Firewall technology, the Cisco FWSM offers
large enterprises and service providers unmatched security, reliability,
and performance.
The Cisco FWSM includes a number of advanced features that help
reduce costs and operational complexity while enabling organizations
to manage multiple firewalls from the same management platform.
Features such as resource manager helps organizations limit the
resources allocated to any security context at any time thus ensuring
that one security context does not interfere with another. The
transparent firewall feature configures the FWSM to act as a Layer
2 bridging firewall resulting in minimal changes to network topology.
The Cisco FWSM also offers:
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An integrated module:
Installed inside a Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switch or Cisco
7600 Internet Router, the FWSM allows any port on the device
to operate as a firewall port and integrates firewall security
inside the network infrastructure.
Compatibility with future versions: The FWSM can handle up to
5 Gbps of traffic, providing unsurpassed performance to meet
future requirements without requiring a system overhaul. Up
to three additional FWSMs can be added to the Catalyst 6500
to achieve 10 Gigabit plus scalability.
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Enhanced reliability:
The FWSM is based on Cisco PIX technology and uses the same
time-tested Cisco PIX Operating System, a secure, real-time
operating system.
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Lower cost of ownership:
The FWSM offers among the best price to performance ratios of
any firewall. Since FWSM is based on the Cisco PIX Firewall,
the cost of training and management is lower, and because it
is integrated in the chassis, there are fewer boxes to manage.
Ease of use: The PIX Device Manager's (PDM) intuitive graphical
user interface (GUI) can be used to manage and configure the
features within the FWSM. The FWSM can now be managed using
the Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM) V5.2F as well.
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Efficiency and productivity gains:
Virtualized FWSM delivers multiple firewalls on one physical
hardware platform. Network administrators can configure, deploy,
and manage these functions as if they were separate devices.
Using virtualization to reduce the number of physical devices
in a network significantly reduces the cost and complexity of
managing network infrastructure.
