What is Intrusion Prevention System? | VMware Glossary

It is important to remember that an IPS is only one part of a robust security solution—it needs to work with other technology for maximum effectiveness. In fact, intrusion prevention systems are often offered as one capability of a unified threat management or next-generation firewall solution, although they can also be standalone offerings. In a typical security architecture, the IPS usually sits just behind the firewall and works in tandem with it to provide an extra level of security and catch threats that the firewall can’t catch on its own. An IPS also helps protect other security controls from attack, as well as improving performance for those controls by filtering out malicious traffic before it reaches them. Most importantly, an IPS provides an additional layer of security by identifying and filtering out threats that other parts of the security infrastructure can’t detect.