What is a benefit of the application aware firewall feature in the Cisco SD-WAN solution?

While an application-aware firewall contributes to security, dedicated security services like IPS/IDS or advanced malware protection are primarily responsible for application malware protection, not the firewall feature itself.

Control policy enforcement is a broader function of the SD-WAN fabric; the specific benefit of an application-aware firewall is its ability to enforce these policies with greater granularity due to application awareness.

Application monitoring is an outcome enabled by application visibility, which is the foundational benefit provided by the application-aware firewall.

The application-aware firewall feature performs deep packet inspection to identify and categorize applications, providing significantly enhanced application visibility. This visibility enables administrators to apply precise security policies, monitor application performance effectively, and prioritize traffic based on application identity.