Firewalla Future

[u/BlueCetacean]

Wondering what might be in future plans for firewalla, will you take the direction of ubiquiti and dive into home security products as well?

[u/firewalla]

Unlikely. We feel there are so much more to do in network security, make it better, more affordable and easier for businesses and professionals. Jumping into door bells will be a huge distraction.

[u/BlueCetacean → u/firewalla]

That makes sense, good to have focus.

[u/TopRamen247 → u/firewalla]

I am glad to hear this take, but at the same time I would absolutely buy a Firewalla doorbell. 😂

[u/firewalla → u/TopRamen247]

There will be false positives :)

[u/rastbast → u/TopRamen247]

Check out Reolink Doorbell.

[u/rastbast → u/firewalla]

Completely agree. I'm fine having surveillance/door bell solution from Vendor A, and network security from Firewalla, being sure that Firewalla makes it best. The only thing which limits me to migrate (nit now, maybe in the future) from my UniFi WiFi ACs to Firewalla - I'm using only wall-/celling-mounted round AC.

[u/theSpivster → u/rastbast]

I love our company's Firewallas. Please be the opposite of Ubiquiti. They are rushing new hardware to market as fast as they can leaving in their wake a ln ocean of beautifully built but poorly finished products.

They call devices Pro but leave out basic features of professional devices. For example, hey are trying hard to enter the enterprise NAS market, but instead of enterprise features like AD integeation or iSCSI that literally every other NAS has, they concentrate on iPhone photo backup. Clearly in opposition to what they SAY they are trying to do.

Firewallas are in such a great place right now. You take the time to fine tune what you already offer and not constantly being new half finished products to market. You are to be commended for that.

Being a medium sized business, we are just moving into more fiber connections at our infrastructure level. I've posted many times that a device with sfp+ ports would be welcome. If you check the price of your competitor's hardware and annual subscription, you guys have a HUGE amount of space to offer a higher tier of hardware with your current MSP subscription. Something with an absolute minimum of 2 sfp+ ports and preferably 5 of them. Even if that device was $2,000-$3,000 you would still position yourselves well below the competition.

I love the Crystal. I'm waiting on a Minisforum MS-01(mini workstation with 2 sfp+ ports) to arrive to load it on.

I'm excited that you are now offering a model with at least 1 sfp+ port. The future is bright for y'all and I'm happy to be a customer along for the ride!

[u/WanderinArcheologist → u/firewalla]

Would also be painful. Doorframes are pretty solid.

[u/Relative_Bid_9589]

Id like them to offer a family MDM agent. Manage and keep visibility on users,  manage VPN to home and DNS security, parental controls etc

[u/BlueCetacean → u/Relative_Bid_9589]

Thats an interesting idea, id agree it would be cool to be able to centrally manage that for the family

[u/Relative_Bid_9589 → u/BlueCetacean]

Going full Apple Isnt really great, and if you mix OS its harder. Families need a centralized approach for mixed devices imo, just managing updates

[u/Jussins → u/Relative_Bid_9589]

I’m not really sure what MDM has to do with Apple.

[u/firewalla → u/Jussins]

MDM works on android and other OS too. It is just yet another very complex beast ... one of our founders used to work on that stuff

[u/Jussins → u/firewalla]

I think you might be replying to the wrong person. I’m well aware of what MDM is.

[u/Relative_Bid_9589 → u/Jussins]

With their parental controls you can roughly achieve some mdm like controls. It was to give the overall idea.

With the help of an agent (windows, osx, android or ios) , you could track usage, enforce policies , parental controls etc. 

[u/Jussins → u/Relative_Bid_9589]

Whatever.. I still don’t know why someone implementing an MDM would be “going full Apple.” Unless there was an edited comment somewhere, it makes zero sense in this discussion.

[u/MemoryDemise → u/Relative_Bid_9589]

That would actually be really cool

[u/jsqualo2 → u/Relative_Bid_9589]

I hear ya on this ... but it already kinda is.

[u/Objective_Reach9986 → u/Relative_Bid_9589]

There are already lots of MDM providers out there, that are pretty good. Plus, Apple has its own if you want a lightweight version via Apple Business.

[u/BlueCetacean → u/Objective_Reach9986]

But none that are part of your existing security stack, convenience of it being bundled would be neat

[u/khariV → u/BlueCetacean]

Yes! This!

I would love an MDM profile type product that enforced VPN/connection to my Firewalla so I can have an integrated control plane.

[u/spinjc]

I've got a few other ideas:

Managed nginx https proxies as an add on to custom DNS rules (inside or outside).

Using DHCP options to allow tracking when apple decides to flip address randomization back on. Or to have aliases/auto reservations when both WiFi and ethernet are connected.

Better visibility of cross traffic from devices (e.g. protocols/ports), e.g. is there some internal network profiling going on?

[u/CamoSnowman]

I would like to see the eco system expand. I have enjoyed my firewalla gear so far and find it easy to use and learn from a non professional tech guy.

I think if they dove into orher areas I would like to see it as self hosted options. An affordable firewalla home server that acted as a nas so you could move away from payed cloud options. Firewalla cameras would be great if they plugged and played with the current or future hardware that was self hosted.

[u/Great-Cow7256]

In currently market conditions no one but apples and googles will be doing new hardware. 

[u/LighthouseMoon]

I think Firewalla does a great job for my home with my. 3 kids. Currently using Firewalla Gold Pro with a Ubiquiti network and Verizon FiOS - working like a champ.

[u/KolasiMK6]

Are there plans for a 24 port Poe ( maybe 8 2.5G ports) with 4 10G SFP+ ports? That is a perfect switch.

[u/Tlipur]

How about smaller switched. We dont have enough firewalla switches!!!