Introduced over a decade ago, the first network intrusion prevention systems (IPS) were built on generic Intel servers with the purpose of blocking exploits that target vulnerable servers. Soon after, attacks against desktop clients emerged and the first generation of intrusion prevention struggled to maintain performance and security. This led to a new hardware-accelerated generation of IPS that could inspect much more traffic and at higher speeds than software-only solutions.

Over the past few years, several trends have emerged, each posing challenges for intrusion prevention: social media, remote workers, wireless, bring your own device (BYOD), and the explosion of business/personal web applications all have led to the near-disintegration of the network perimeter. Simultaneously, cybercriminals have grown more aggressive, increasingly targeting corporate assets including clients, browsers, and plug-ins. The growing number of vulnerability disclosures in widely deployed operating systems and applications is a multi-faceted problem. Therefore, a new generation of intrusion prevention is required to meet the challenges of organizations without clearly defined perimeters.