10 Mistakes Businesses Make When Choosing a Firewall

I’ve been in networking and security since the early ’90s—when firewalls were fancy packet filters and Slammer was mowing down unpatched SQL servers. Now that I run my own cybersecurity company, I’ve watched businesses of all sizes make the same firewall blunders repeatedly.

Here’s the thing: A firewall isn’t like any other piece of networking gear. It is your first line of defense against modern cyberattacks. But most companies choose one the way you’d choose a takeout meal — quick, inexpensive, and crossing your fingers.

So here are the 10 top mistakes that companies make in their firewall selection.

🚀 Quick Take

• Scalability matters—your business will grow, and your firewall needs to keep up.
• Price isn’t everything—cheap firewalls bring expensive breaches.
• Remote work isn’t going back into the box—your firewall must provide retail location, from home, and everywhere security.
• Fortinet recommended by PJ Networks—because we have tested it out on the ground.

Now, let’s talk details.

1️⃣ Ignoring Scalability

This one drives me nuts. Businesses purchase firewalls for their current requirements, with total neglect of what they will require in the future. Then a year later they wonder why their firewall is choking on increased traffic loads or failing to counteract advanced threats and they call me up.

On average a firewall and related devices should last a good 5 years. So, ask yourself:

• If you have doubled your network traffic every two years?
• Adding more cloud services?
• Are Employees Bringing More Devices (BYOD)?

My lesson learned: Get a firewall with at least 30-50% more capacity than what you use. Future-you will thank you.

2️⃣ Going For The Lowest Price Only

I get it—budgets are tight. Security is not the area to skimp.

Some companies purchase the least-expensive firewall they can find and then think, “Any firewall is better than no firewall, right?” No. That’s like putting the cheapest lock you can buy on your front door and praying that burglars won’t attempt to enter.

Cheap firewalls usually mean:

• Inefficient performance in high-load situations.
• Poor or out-of-date security features.
• No threat intelligence feeds—so it’s blind to zero-day attacks.

And here’s a disturbing fact: Many budget firewalls don’t do the job of blocking modern threats—instead, they just log them. So congratulations, you now have an accurate account of how you’ve been hacked.

Performance security—much cheaper than a data breach.

3️⃣ Failing to Consider Remote Work Requirements

Remember when everyone was like, “Remote work is just temporary, right?” Yeah, that aged well.

But if you’re still choosing a firewall as if it were 2019, you’ve already lost. A firewall today must:

• Enable secure remote access (VPN or ZTNA).
• Identify and thwart threats originating from home networks.
• Do traffic filtering in the cloud—your employees are no longer just on your LAN.

Just recently, however, I got the opportunity to work with a bank that had zero cloud-awareness in their firewall strategy. They were getting hammered with Shadow IT—employees using personal cloud drives and SaaS apps outside the reach of security controls. It was an accident waiting to happen.

Remote work is here to stay. For enhanced security, shape your firewall strategy based on realism rather than optimism.

4️⃣ No One Knows More Than PJ Networks About Fortinet

I do not recommend products lightly. I’ve tested it—tested it hard—if I put my name behind it. We recently guided three banks through the transition to a Zero Trust architecture with Fortinet firewalls at its center.

Why Fortinet?

• Best-in-class threat intelligence. Ongoing updates for detection against the latest in attacks.
• This involved integrating Zero Trust tools at every layer, controls access (great for when working remotely).
• Insane performance. Their ASIC chips scale with massive traffic, without choking.

We don’t just sell security. We create networks that do not buckle under threats. And Fortinet has gained our trust.

5️⃣ Conclusion

Firewalls are complex devices and not set-it-and-forget-it. It can’t be something you just buy, plug in, and assume you’re secure. Cyber threats grow every day, and choosing the wrong firewall spurs data breaches, downtime, and lost revenue.

So, let’s recap:

• ☑ Look ahead—don’t purchase a firewall that peaks in a year.
• ☑ Security is an investment, not an expense—cheap choices incur future costs.
• ☑ Remote work is here to stay—your firewall needs to reflect that.
• ☑ Trust expert selections—we knew Fortinet would be great, and it is.

Need help selecting the right firewall? Reach out. We’ve saved businesses from making costly errors, and we can do the same for you.

Your security is not something I would gamble with.