Independently written by Trusted Strategies LLC, a research and advisory firm focused exclusively on IT security, this paper describes the results of a head-to-head test between Check Point NGX R62 and Secure Computing Sidewinder 7. In view of the fact that firewall performance is becoming more and more critical, particularly in light of the need to scrutinize data packets at a more sophisticated level than ever before to stop application attacks, Trusted Strategies decided to put two industry leaders to the test. In their investigation they found that Secure Computing Sidewinder performed 50% to 300% faster than Check Point NGX in the most secure configurations that today’s networks demand.