The M4850 is the entry point to WatchGuard's high-performance rackmount line. It fits organizations that have outgrown a midrange Firebox and need a firewall that can sit at the data center edge, campus core, or headquarters hub for a network of branch sites, with full security scanning turned on.

Out of the box you get 8 x 1 Gb RJ45, 4 x 1 Gb SFP, 6 x 10 Gb SFP+, and 2 x 25 Gb SFP28 ports. There's also one OCP 3.0 expansion bay that takes a 4 x 25 Gb SFP28 module or a 2 x 100 Gb QSFP28 module when you need more fiber or faster uplinks. The appliance needs to be powered off to install a module, so plan that for a maintenance window.

Either one. You pick the management method in the Web Setup Wizard. Cloud management through WatchGuard Cloud gives you over 100 built-in reports and dashboards alongside your other cloud-managed WatchGuard products. If you'd rather keep it on premises, you can manage it locally with Fireware Web UI or WatchGuard System Manager.

Basic Security covers the core services: IPS, Application Control, WebBlocker, spamBlocker, Gateway AntiVirus, Reputation Enabled Defense, and Network Discovery. Total Security adds APT Blocker sandboxing, DNSWatch, IntelligentAV, ThreatSync, longer WatchGuard Cloud data retention, and Gold 24 x 7 support. For a hub firewall protecting many sites, most customers go with Total Security.

The M4850 ships with two redundant, hot-swappable 600W power supplies and four hot-swappable fan modules, so you can replace a failed part without taking the firewall down. If a fan fails, the others speed up to cover it. For full hardware redundancy, pair two M4850s in an active/passive or active/active HA cluster.

The M4850 is a big jump. Full HTTPS inspection with IPS goes from 3.0 Gbps on the M4800 to 8.8 Gbps, UTM throughput goes from 5.2 Gbps to 19.1 Gbps, and concurrent connections go from 15 million to 37 million. It also ships with 10 Gb and 25 Gb fiber built in, where the M4800 relied on expansion modules for anything faster than 1 Gb. VPN tunnel limits stay the same at 5,000 branch office and 10,000 mobile.