Virtual Firewall

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What Does Virtual Firewall Mean?

A virtual firewall is a firewall device or service that provides network traffic filtering and monitoring for virtual machines. A virtual firewall is deployed, executed and operated from a virtual machine.

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Techopedia Explains Virtual Firewall

Virtual firewall formats include:

Stand-alone software
Integrated OS kernel component
A virtual security provider’s dedicated hardware platform A virtual firewall operates in a virtual area network (VAN) environment of connected virtual machines. A virtual firewall operates in two different modes:

Bridge mode: Like a traditional firewall, this mode operates by diagnosing and monitoring all incoming and outgoing traffic bound for other virtual networks or machines.
Hypervisor mode: In contrast, this mode is isolated from the actual network, resides in the core hypervisor kernel and monitors the virtual host machine’s incoming and outgoing traffic.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.