NSS Labs Research Report (September 2026)

2026 Comparative Test Report: Cloud Network Firewall

NSS Labs has updated their independent benchmarking of nine leading cloud firewall solutions: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Check Point, Cisco, Fortinet, Google Cloud Platform, HPE Juniper Networking, Microsoft Azure, Palo Alto Networks, and Versa. Four vendors were rated "Recommended," while one was rated "Neutral" and four were given a "Caution" rating.

Download a complimentary copy of the complete report to review the full test results for all vendors. Solutions were evaluated in a battery of tests across Security Effectiveness, Performance, and Stability & Reliability. In the report, NSS Labs then provides a price-per-Mbps cost-effectiveness calculation based on the test and cost data and translates that into a comparative view of the vendors on its Security Value Map.

Versa NGFW received NSS Labs' top "Recommended" rating for the second year in a row on the strength of the following results:

  • High Security Effectiveness – An overall Security Effectiveness rating of 99.91%, with a score of 100% in six of the eight security tests conducted: Routing & Access Control, Stability & Reliability, TLS/SSL support, Exploit Evasion Resistance, Malware Block Rate, and Malware Evasion Resistance.
  • Fastest Rated Throughput – Versa's rated throughput rate (3,201 Mbps) – across a tested mix of 95% encrypted TLS and 5% HTTP traffic – was 66% to 1,382% faster than all other vendors.
  • Highly cost-effective – Versa NGFW scored the second lowest Cost per Mbps among the nine vendors.
NSS Labs 2026 Comparative Test Report: Cloud Network Firewall — table of contents

Fig. 1 – Contents of the report