Small changes that make a big difference

While the changes it provides may be small, collectively, the latest firmware update for Zyxel security devices can make a big difference and ensure your digital protection stays right up to date, says Thorsten Kurpjuhn, Security Market Development Manager Europe.

You will doubtless have heard of ‘Kaizen’ – the Japanese approach that advocates continuous improvement through small changes. While this is not a theory that we apply consciously at Zyxel, in practice it’s what we do every day. We are constantly taking feedback from our customers and partners on ways in which we can improve our products.

With security, this process is absolutely vital. The nature of cybersecurity threats is always changing, and we must continually adapt our solutions. Of course, every now and then there are some really big changes – such as when we add Nebula support – and when these come along, we will usually introduce a completely new version of the product range.

Direct benefits

But most enhancements are fairly minor, and these are provided through our frequent firmware updates. The majority of these updates won’t make a noticeable difference for most of our customers and partners. But every small improvement makes our solutions better, so it is always worth downloading and applying the firmware updates when they become available.

The latest of these – update 5.20 – is available now and it provides around 50 enhancements. While some of the changes are quite significant, and some are simply improvements to existing functions, most of them are quite small. Even so, there will certainly be a number of updates in every firmware release that will benefit you directly – even if it is only in a small way.

In this latest release, for example, there are some updates to Nebula capabilities on our USG Flex and ATP appliances, and that will certainly be significant if you manage devices in the cloud. There is additional VPN functionality too – and that’s going to be useful for any organisation that has people working at home.

Keeping up to date

There are also numerous enhancements to security features and usability, all of which improve the functionality of USG Flex and ATP devices and give our customers a better experience. But most importantly, the firmware release ensures that the protection our devices provide is right up to date.

In the end, that’s what matters most of all, and that’s why the regular changes we make with our firmware updates matter. As already mentioned, this is something we’re doing all the time. We usually issue three or four firmware updates every year and each one will apply scores of changes. In total, we may provide as many as 200 enhancements over a 12 month period. Most of them will be small, but collectively they make a big difference.