Web Application Firewall Software

Web Application Firewall Software (WAF) is an application layer firewall that applies a set of rules to a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) conversation that covers application layer attacks, such as Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Structured Query Language (SQL) injection attacks and application layer Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), and protects application servers from security breach and loss of critical business information. Web Application Firewall Software (WAF) solutions are deployed ahead of web servers to defend web applications from internal and external threats, control and monitor web applications, and help organizations achieve the compliance requirements.

COMPETITIVE LEADERSHIP MAPPING TERMINOLOGY

The competitive landscape analyzes the growth strategies adopted by the key players in the Web Application Firewall Software (WAF) market. Imperva, Akamai, Barracuda, Citrix, Cloudflare, DenyAll, Ergon Informatik, F5 Networks, Fortinet, Penta Security Systems, Radware, Trustwave, Sophos, Positive Technologies, NSFOCUS, StackPath, Zenedge, Qualys, Instart Logic, United Security Providers, Applicure, Sucuri, Brocade, A10 Networks, and SiteLock are recognized as some of the top players in the WAF market. This chapter also includes the MicroQuadrant matrix, which provides information about the 25 major players who offer WAF solutions and services. The vendor evaluations are based on 2 broad categories: strength of product portfolio and business strategy excellence. Each category carries various criteria based on which the vendors have been evaluated. The evaluation criteria considered under strength of product portfolio include breadth and depth of product offering, product feature and functionality, focus on product innovation, product differentiation and impact on customer value, and product quality and reliability. The evaluation criteria considered under business strategy excellence include geographic footprint, breadth of applications/verticals served, channel strategy and fit, and mergers and acquisitions strategy. The products offered by these top players are loaded with many features and capabilities. Additionally, these players have adopted various business strategies to maintain a leading position in the Web Application Firewall Software (WAF) market.

VISIONARY LEADERS

Vendors who fall in this category generally receive high scores for most of the evaluation criteria. They have strong and established product portfolios and a very strong market presence. They provide mature and reputable Web Application Firewall Software (WAF) systems, solutions, and services. They also have strong business strategies. Imperva, Akamai, Citrix, and F5 Networks are the vendors in the visionary leaders category in the MicroQuadrant matrix.

DYNAMIC DIFFERENTIATORS

They are established vendors with very strong business strategies. However, they are low in product portfolio. They generally focus on a specific type of technology related to the product. Trustwave, Sophos, Positive Technologies, and Brocade are the vendors in the dynamic differentiators category.

INNOVATORS

Innovators are the vendors who have demonstrated substantial product innovations as compared to their competitors. They have a much focused product portfolio. However, they do not have very strong growth strategies for their overall business. Barracuda, Cloudflare, Fortinet, StackPath, Zenedge, Applicure, Instart Logic, DenyAll, Radware and SiteLock are the vendors in the innovators category.

EMERGING COMPANIES

They are vendors with niche product offerings and are starting to gain their position in the market. They do not have very strong business strategies as compared to other established vendors. They might be new entrants in the market and require some time before getting a significant traction. NSFOCUS, Ergon Informatik, Penta Security Systems, Qualys, United Security Providers, Sucuri, and A10 Networks are the vendors in this category.

Major Solutions in WAF
The solutions segment is further categorized into hardware appliances, virtual appliances, and cloud-based. Various features offered by WAF solutions include web application attack protection, deployment option, protocol validation, virtual patching, active and passive authentication, Uniform Resource Locator (URL) rewriting, content routing, cookie signing and encryption, DDoS prevention, data leak prevention, and web server and application signature security.

HARDWARE APPLIANCES

Hardware appliances are configured on the local network to protect the network from periphery threats. These Web Application Firewall software are easy to install and are suitable for high-volume sites, which require a high throughput. Physical WAF is a remote network component, hence it can be managed better. It can be easily moved and reconfigured with minimal interference in the network infrastructure. WAF solutions vary depending on the network infrastructure of the enterprise.

The WAF solutions map the virtual cloud resources to the physical ones and control the flow of data to and from the networks. They provide effective protection against web attacks, such as cross-site scripting, SQL injection, forceful browsing, information leakage and improper error handling, cookie poisoning, botnets, and DDoS.

VIRTUAL APPLIANCES

Virtual appliance-based solutions facilitate the deployment of wide-area distributed computing infrastructure. Such solutions run on Windows OS to create a virtual environment that resembles a completely separate computer environment. The WAF security provided by virtual appliances is equivalent to the security provided by hardware appliances. Rapid deployment, a significant feature of the virtual appliances solution, helps in reducing the deployment time. Advanced security, high scalability, elasticity, and greater visibility are some of the features offered by virtual appliances for virtualized and cloud-based environments.

CLOUD-BASED

Cloud-based Web Application Firewall software are available as software bundles, with a full stack of threat prevention technologies that provide the best protection against vulnerabilities, such as malware, phishing, ransomware, and the emerging cyber threats. Cloud-based WAF solutions provide protection and safeguard the network even if users are not on their Virtual Private Network (VPN). They offer capabilities, such as bot detection and enforcement, access control, caching, threat intelligence, Application Programming Interface (API) security, malware detection, and DDoS mitigation. Cloud-based deployment is cost-effective and delivers a better user experience, along with scalability options to safeguard the data. Cloud-based deployment of Web Application Firewall software is said to be gaining pace, due to the increased adoption of cloud computing technology across various organizations.

Best Web Application Firewall (WAF) Software

Comparing 30 vendors in Web Application Firewall Software across 81 criteria.
All vendors(30)
Selected by small-360Analysts
NSFOCUS Web Application Firewall Software provides up to 1 Gbps of DDoS protection from other volumetric and application layer attacks, including TCP Flood and HTTP/S GET/POST Flood. The WAF employs access rate thresholding, IP reputation, and algorithm-based protection mechanisms. Some of the virtual WAFs include WAF V1000, WAF V600, and WAF V300. Some of the WAF hardware include WAF 2000, WAF 1600, WAF 1000, and WAF 600. The NSFOCUS WAF is the ideal solution for safeguarding critical servers, web applications, and data. It delivers high-quality application layer security to organizations of all sizes.
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It offers superior protection and is updated in the real time. The SecureSphere WAF patented “dynamic application profiling” technology analyzes all aspects of the web applications to deliver optimal accuracy and mitigate technical as well as non-technical attacks. SecureSphere Web Application Firewall Software can be deployed as a physical or virtual appliance onpremises. Imperva ThreatRadar updates the SecureSphere WAF to provide better protection, improve WAF accuracy, and proactively filter traffic from recognized bad sources. SecureSphere WAF’s key capabilities include virtual patching of application vulnerabilities. It can be easily integrated with most of the leading Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems, such as Splunk, ArcSight, and RSA enVision. The company scores well in the breadth and depth of product offering parameter with excellent product features and functionalities.
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F5’s Web Application Firewall Software offers a range of deployment options, from on-premises to private and public cloud deployments. It also offers other additional functionalities, including visibility into HTTP and WebSocket traffic, integration with third-party Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) tools, dynamic learning and site-wide behavioral analysis, geolocation and IP intelligence, proactive bot defense and client-side integrity defense, security services, and Azure Security Center integration. F5 Networks’ WAF is a cloud-based service built on the BIG-IP Application Security Manager. It offers 2 service options. The first is a Security Operations Center with 24/7 all-year-round support, and the other is an express service option, which provides fast self-service deployment of expertly maintained policies across hybrid environments. The Silverline WAF is available in a flexible licensing model with 1–3 years of subscription. F5 Networks is focusing on introducing innovations in its Herculon family of security products to overcome the everyday emerging threats.
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WAP is a self-managing Web Application Firewall Software that is easy to set up and maintain, and can work without customization. The integration of the WAP with the Akamai Web Application Protector platform enables end-users to access the websites faster, due to the content caching feature. WAP further improves the website performance by optimizing HTML and image content for faster delivery. It solves application security problems by providing an intuitive administrator interface, preconfigured rule groupings, automatic rule updates, and self-serve installation. The product ensures application security for organizations. WAP also receives added benefits from the Akamai Intelligent Platform. These benefits include frequent automatic updates to application security rules, features and products that secure and accelerate website performance, and scalability without additional hardware requirements. These benefits assist customers in achieving PCI compliance.
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NetScaler App Web App Firewall software protects web infrastructure against vicious attacks, including DDoS, SQL injection, XSS, and SSL attacks. It aids corporate IT security teams in conforming to the governmental privacy regulations and industry mandates. Apart from providing comprehensive security, the firewall is quick and easy to deploy and manage. It creates reports using a simplified Graphical User Interface (GUI). NetScaler AppFirewall is available in various platforms, such as NetScaler SDX Appliances, NetScaler ADC Platinum Edition, NetScaler MPX Enterprise Edition, and NetScaler VPX Platinum Edition. Citrix solutions and services target customers of all sizes, from small businesses to large global enterprises.
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FORTINET Web Application Firewall software uses advanced tools to minimize false positive detections and enhances the protection with FortiGate and FortiSandbox integrations. It also offers application protection from the top 10 OWASP listed application attacks, including XSS and SQL injection. FortiWeb can be configured on hardware, such as 100D, 400D, 600D, 1000E, 2000E, 3000E, 3010E, and 4000E, as well as on virtual machines. Additionally, the company offers FORTINET Web Application Firewall support services and training. FortiCare is available 24/7 for continuous support.
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The company’s AppWall Web Application Firewall Software enables organizations to fully comply with PCI DSS. Radware has a dedicated emergency response team that serves 24/7 for configuring and updating security policies and detecting, alerting, and mitigating attacks. The Radware Cloud WAF service is available in 2 packages: enterprise and enterprise premium. DDoS protection capabilities up to 1 Gbps of attack traffic are available in both the packages. Radware’s Cloud WAF service also provides customers a reporting tool to gain visibility and insights into the security threats to their assets. The AppWall WAF ensures secure and reliable delivery of critical web applications. It provides protection against web application attacks and advanced HTTP attacks. AppWall is available with various deployment modes, including reverse proxy, transparent and non-transparent, and cluster deployments.
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It immediately identifies and isolates infected systems till they are cleaned up. Exposes hidden risks: The risks from unknown apps, top risk users, advanced threats, and suspicious payloads are identified. The XG Firewall cater to organizations of all sizes.
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PT Application Firewall takes an advanced approach to addressing the problem, using true machine learning and behavioral analysis to defend against zero-day attacks, smart correlation to accurately detect major threats, unique P-Code technology for targeted real-time protection, continuous automated user profiling against level 7 DDoS and automated attacks and a WAF.js module to tackle client-side attacks. PT AF also features extensive integration capabilities for multilayer protection, data masking for maximum confidentiality of the end-user data and easy deployment and usability.
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The Trustwave Web Application Firewall Software leverages its expertise in risk and compliance management with pre-built best practice controls and reports for compliance mandates, including PCI DSS. It is built on the Trustwave Architecture, which is highly scalable. It is available in multiple configurations to support the requirements of different businesses. Trustwave WAF can be configured on hardware and virtual appliances (VMware, AWS, and Microsoft Azure). These hardware and virtual appliances are deployed as sensors, managers, or standalone appliances. A few of Trustwave’s WAFs include TS151, TS250, VX15i, VX30i, AWS15i, and MA15i. Trustwave is available with 2 service options: standard support and premium support. Standard support includes email and phone support, plus maintenance updates. Premium support includes 24/7 all-year-round email and phone support, one-year hardware warranty, next-day replacement service for Trustwave WAF hardware appliance, and maintenance updates. Onsite installation, extended hardware coverage, and professional services are also available as additional standard support.
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Cloudflare Web Application Firewall Software Protection receives about 2.9 million requests every second, and the CF WAF constantly recognizes and blocks new possible threats. Cloudflare WAF’s rulesets result in latency of less than 1 millisecond. Its offers security control for websites, applications, and APIs hosted on multiple cloud environments. Protection’s network shields internet assets across all cloud providers.
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Brocade Virtual Web Application Firewall capitalizes on deployment flexibility with a software-based Web Application Firewall (WAF), which can be used for Network Function Virtualization (NFV). It delivers significant scalability so that organizations can protect major online applications, grouping both within data centers and worldwide cloud platforms. It can be used to apply business guidelines to online circulation, reviewing and stalling attacks such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS), while cleaning outgoing traffic to cover credit card data, and help attain compliance with PCI-DSS requirements.

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2.4

TrueShield by Sitelock LLC shields sites from spiteful bot traffic while dropping load time by up to 50% for stationary website content. TrueShield carries dynamic caching and risk protection to website, eliminating attacks before they initiate. TrueShield Premium offers advanced threat protection while increasing site speed.

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2.4
Instart's Web Application Firewall Software protects the web application from threats such as SQL Injection, XSS attacks, cross-site scripting, and URL attacks. The core benefits of WAF are that it detects the threats within a short time and mitigates these quickly. The user can migrate the apps on the cloud without worrying about security issues. The other benefit is that it enables greater accuracy for the user in detection by removing the false positives.
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Qualys Web Application Firewall Software caters to a wide range of industry verticals, such as information technology, retail, biotechnology, chemical, BFSI, telecommunications, education, media, automobile, and food retail. This has a global presence across 100 countries, including regions such as North America, Europe, APAC, and MEA. The Qualys WAF blocks attacks on web server vulnerabilities, controls application access, and prevents disclosure of sensitive information with the help of an automated, adaptive approach. The company’s WAF can easily identify and mitigate web app risks to thousands of apps.
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2.4
The company offers the same pricing to all customers across the globe, rather than offering customer contracts. StackPath has progressed in the field of cybersecurity, and it is now a prominent provider of secure network as a service. The company has managed to gather more than 30,000 customers in 3 years.
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2.3
Zenedge solutions are backed by 24/7 monitoring and protection from attacks with the help of distributed Security Operations Centers across the globe

dotDefender's enhanced security tactic does away the need to learn the exact threats that exist on each web application. The software that runs dotDefender concentrates on investigating the request and the influence it has on the application. Actual web application security is based on the three powerful web application security engines: Pattern Recognition, Session Protection, and Signature Knowledgebase. dotDefender is categorized by an extremely low false positive rate. It offers complete protection against threats to web applications.

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2.3
it helps to optimize and accelerate corporate data streams to improve the team’s level of control over applications and how they are being used to access, create, and share information. The company’s WAF enables virtual patching, extensibility, log replay, and app learning. The DenyAll WAF can be deployed on hardware, software (virtual machine), or cloud. It has the capacity to reduce the traffic of malicious robots by 70%. DenyAll has maintained strong partnerships with High-Tech Bridge, Dimension Data, NTT Communications, and Prosodie-Capgemini. DenyAll’s partner program is focused on value-added distributors. The program has 3 certification levels (bronze, silver, and gold), according to the specific criteria (annual turnover, co-marketing actions, and technical support).
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ERGON INFORMATIK Airlock Suite WAF’s key feature is that it provides superlative end-to-end protection for complex web environments. The company’s WAF offers various features, such as secure reverse proxy, central checkpoint, filtering, API security, dynamic whitelisting, and a central security hub. The Airlock team has about 55 engineers to monitor the security offerings of the company. The company has a large clientele and is trusted by more than 150 banking and insurance companies. Ergon’s Airlock suite generates its maximum revenue from the financial sector. There are several variants of the Airlock WAF, such as Airlock WAF 6.1, Airlock WAF 6, and Airlock WAF hardware. With the introduction of the Airlock Suite, Ergon has become the first vendor without an antimalware product in its product portfolio to receive the EICAR Minimum Standard Certificate.
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The BARRACUDA NETWORKS Web Application Firewall Software offers various capabilities, such as adaptive profiling, which helps administrators build a positive security profile for the web applications by sampling web traffic. It also offers the vulnerability remediation service, which helps in deploying the WAF using an IP address, thereby reducing the costs and complexities involved in configuration and maintenance. Its server cloaking feature prevents server banners, error messages, HTTP headers, return codes, debug information, and backend IP addresses from leaking to the attackers. BARRACUDA NETWORKS WAF also provides the mobile application protection feature. Additionally, it offers protection against XML-based applications, web scraping protection, data loss prevention, and URL encryption. The Barracuda WAF works in conjunction with its Vulnerability Manager solution to identify vulnerabilities and remove blind spots while increasing visibility and end-to-end application security in a hybrid environment. The company is highly focusing on product innovations in its WAF offerings such as Sentinel, an AI solution; Next generation Firewall (NGFW); and Email Threat Scan for Office 365.
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The USP Secure Entry Server is a Swiss-made web access administration solution and offers a high-end web application shield, an ultimate authentication feature set, and actual widespread single sign-on competencies - all in a highly-enhanced, accessible, and reasonable all-in-one product set.

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2.1

Sucuri is a competent security service provider for websites. The cloud-based platform offers comprehensive website security with an antivirus and firewall for websites. The platform monitors security incidents, fixes website hacks, and protects sites to prevent hacking. The platform also ensures that the website runs smoothly and there is no loss of operational productivity.

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A10’s Web Security solution protects users from current threats on the internet by leveraging complex security services, leading to tougher enterprise perimeter safety and improved productivity.

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1.4
The company’s value class Web Application Firewall include WAPPLES-50, WAPPLES-100, and WAPPLES-500; performance class WAFs include WAPPLES-1200 and WAPPLES-2200; and the high-end class WAFs include WAPPLES-5200 and WAPPLES-10000. Penta Security also offers competitive product pricing for information security solutions, which include end-to-end data protection and web security. Penta Security provides application security systems by collaborating with specialized partners in various fields. It has a large clientele of about 5,000 customers across different nations. Its partner network includes companies such as Daiko, ISPConnect, and NSS Group.
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The Forcepoint Web Security solution provides the most comprehensive and secure application controls in the web security environment. The web security solution is the best-in-class web security solution and provides 52% greater efficiency. It is combined with advanced features such as enterprise-grade DLP, cloud sandboxing with Advanced Malware Detection (AMD), and perceptibility and control over shadow IT. Only Forcepoint offers license flexibility across deployment states.

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McAfee offers the high-performance web security product, McAfee Web Gateway which can be deployed as hardware or a virtual machine. It analyzes the nature of content and active code incoming the network, and uses the DLP technology to image outbound circulation. This safe web gateway delivers industry-leading, practical detection of zero-day malware along with the full consideration of web traffic, including SSL.
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Micro Focus Application Defender is a runtime application self-protection (RASP) service through which the user can identify and protect the applications in real-time from attacks and vulnerabilities. The product is easy to install and manages real-time detection and protection to distinguish between an actual attack and genuine request.

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Application Gateway and its Web Application Firewall software Protect web requests from web susceptibilities and attacks without alteration to back-end code. An example of Application Gateway can host of up to 100 websites that are protected by a WAP. It monitors attacks against web applications by using a actual WAF log. It is customizable to suit application requirements and eliminates wrong positives.

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Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Web Application Firewall Software (WAF) protects all internet-facing endpoints, providing consistent rule enforcement across a customer's applications.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Application firewalls are on a higher level in the OSI model compared to traditional firewalls. This is due to the fact that you protect the application itself, which provides it with an extra layer of security. What differs a WAF from traditional firewalls is that it is a bit more ‘user friendly’. You don’t have to rewrite rules in it all of the time. If a new type of hacker attack is discovered you can update the WAF software with the attack signature, which enables it to learn the patterns of that traffic and block it. One could say that a WAF gives a more intelligent protection than traditional firewalls.
A WAF examines and filters traffic to web applications. It keeps track of communication between the client and server, and server and server when building advanced web applications. A WAF allows you to, on a very detailed level, control access and decide what traffic should be blocked. A WAF protects against some of the most common cyber attacks, including SQL injections, cross-site scripting and (D)DoS attacks.
Healthcare Sector to Witness Significant Growth. Firewalls are the first line of defense for every healthcare network and protect EHRs (Electronic Health Record) and protected health information (PHI) from malware and other cyber attacks. Healthcare organizations have more than just computers and smartphones accessing the network. Connected medical devices are Wi-Fi enabled and usage of the network to collect patient data and monitor health. While hackers may not get the information they are looking for directly from connected medical devices, they can use these devices by means of remote network access as a means to freely access the entire network. Medical devices are often overlooked as a cyber security vector because they may lack traditional interfaces associated with accessing the network. Healthcare firewalls have to cover more ground than firewalls in other industries because of the value of EHRs and clinical data, since there are numerous ways where hackers can gain unauthorized access to the network.
The trending WAF technologies are offering machine learning and artificial intelligence, which play vital roles in the WAF arena. WAF solutions and services can be deployed over an enterprise’s cyber infrastructure using hardware WAF appliances, virtual appliance-based systems, and cloud-based applications. The major vendors offering supporting services include system integration and training, along with support and maintenance, for a seamless transition and implementation of WAF solutions.
The web application firewall is a fragmented market. Currently, the number of web application attacks are increasingly creating new spaces for the players and the existing players are segmented in business enterprises as small, medium, and large sector. The high rivalry is in small and medium players, by which the competitive rivalry is high in the market. Key players are Akamai Technologies Inc., F5 Networks Inc., Barracuda Networks Inc., Imperva, Inc., etc.
The current trend is to merge the ability of network vulnerability scanners with the toolkits for the web application security space. This gives the ability to use data found from one level and drive a more focused approach for the other level. Web-based applications and services have changed the landscape of information delivery and exchange in today's corporate, government, and educational sectors. Due to the easy availability of information and the richness of web services, a higher reliance is placed on web-based services and firewall market for greater integration of internal information systems. Certain industry and government regulations require the deployment of a WAF (Web Application Firewall) solution, either explicitly or implicitly. For example, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) is a well-known and important regulation that drives WAF adoption in the market. WAF functionality can be implemented in software or hardware, running in an appliance device, or in a typical server running a common operating system. The main challenge to web application firewalls are cost and performance. Performance is often an issue because these tools inspect all incoming and outgoing traffic at the application layer. Each protocol, such as HTTP, SMTP, etc., requires its own proxy application, and support for new network applications and protocols can become slow to emerge.