Cloud developer platform launches free firewall protection

DigitalOcean, the cloud platform for software developers is launching a free Cloud Firewalls service to reduce the potential attack surface.

Developers can deploy the service quickly without installing or configuring any software, and are able to define what ports are visible on their cloud servers -- known as Droplets -- to minimize risk.

"We are committed to helping developers build great software. This includes offering a simple and automated way to secure their infrastructure," says Julia Austin, CTO of DigitalOcean. "Teams of engineers depend on DigitalOcean to stay true to our commitment to simplicity, and Cloud Firewalls ensures they can easily manage their production workloads securely, at scale."

For developers with a large number of Droplets it will be easier to secure their applications using Cloud Firewalls. It scales automatically from one Droplet to thousands and provides a central location to define and apply access rules to prevent unauthorized traffic from reaching them. Users can make use of tagging to group and organize any number of Droplets, and define how each group of Droplets is secured.

Cloud Firewalls gives users the ability to whitelist which ports are open and which IP ranges, tags, Droplets or load balancers can access them. They can configure the service easily and quickly through the dashboard or on the command line. They can also use DigitalOcean's API to automate tasks and build integrations. Official client libraries are available in Go and Ruby. Rules can be changed in one place and instantly applied to every Droplet that is tagged.

The service is available across every region to all Droplet customers at no additional cost. You can find out more on the company's website.

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