H3C Named in Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Hybrid Mesh Firewall for Two Consecutive Years

On September 7, 2026, Gartner released the 2026 Magic Quadrant™ for Hybrid Mesh Firewall report. H3C was once again named in the report for its Hybrid Mesh Firewall (HMF) solution, securing its place among recognized vendors in the global HMF market. As one of a limited number of vendors included in this report, H3C’s continued recognition demonstrates its ongoing innovation and forward-looking approach to security architecture for hybrid environments.

As enterprise digital infrastructure continues to evolve toward hybrid cloud, multi-cloud, and distributed architectures, firewalls are gradually evolving from traditional point-based perimeter defense toward an integrated security architecture spanning physical, virtual, and cloud-native environments.

H3C believes the report reflects a new generation of firewall architecture that enables cross-environment security policy coordination through a unified management platform. This reflects the broader evolution of network security from appliance-based protection toward platform-based security operations, while highlighting key trends including centralized visual management, multi-form-factor deployment, and intelligent security operations.

Gartner Deepens Its Definition of the HMF Market

Unified, Integrated, and Intelligent Security Architecture Becomes an Emerging Trend

Facing increasingly complex and diverse network environments, enabling unified security management, consistent cross-environment policy enforcement, and improved operational efficiency has become a critical challenge for enterprises.

HMF integrates multiple security enforcement models across hardware, virtualized, and cloud environments, supported by cloud-based unified management capabilities. Based on Gartner’s definition of the HMF market and its observations on market trends, HMF is evolving toward three key directions: unified management, multi-form-factor integration, and intelligent security operations.

Unified Management: From Fragmented O&M to Centralized Security Operations.

Through a cloud-based unified management platform, HMF enables centralized management of firewall policies, security status, and operational analytics across different environments. This helps enterprises streamline security resources across different deployment forms, reduce multi-environment operational complexity, and enhance policy consistency and management efficiency.

Multi-Form Integration: From Single-Appliance Protection to Unified Hybrid Security.

HMF supports hardware, virtualized, and cloud-native firewall form factors, enabling flexible deployment across data centers, hybrid networks, multi-cloud environments, and branch locations to build a unified security architecture. HMF also strengthens integration with cloud and cloud-native environments, helping security capabilities extend into hybrid cloud, multi-cloud, and cloud-native business environments.

Intelligent Operations: From Basic Defense to Active Security Operations.

HMF integrates advanced threat protection (ATP), application control, intrusion prevention systems (IPS), and network sandboxing. Combined with AI and machine learning, automated orchestration, intelligent analytics, and policy optimization, these capabilities enhance threat detection, analysis, and response across complex distributed environments, driving security operations toward greater intelligence and automation.

H3C Drives Hybrid Mesh Firewalls Toward Intelligent Security

Centering on its Security Cloud Management Platform, the H3C HMF solution centrally manages hardware, virtualized, and cloud-native firewalls. It delivers unified security management across data centers, cloud environments, and branch scenarios, ensuring consistent policy enforcement across hybrid infrastructure.

Unified Management & Automated Orchestration: Elevating Hybrid Security Operational Efficiency

Leveraging the Security Cloud Management Platform, H3C HMF achieves centralized management of distributed security resources. It unifies firewall policies, device configurations, security logs, and security analytics.

Built-in automated orchestration capabilities—including policy templates, zero-touch provisioning (ZTP), automated device onboarding, and workflow orchestration—enable rapid policy deployment and consistent policy enforcement while reducing manual configuration risks.

Multi-Form Integration: Building a Unified Security Architecture for Hybrid Environments

Powered by an elastic, integrated security architecture, H3C HMF supports flexible deployment forms, including hardware, virtualized, and cloud-native firewalls, covering data centers, public clouds, and branch locations.

To meet diverse enterprise security requirements, H3C continues to enhance its firewall portfolio. Notably, the H3C SecPath M9000-X Series is engineered for large-scale data centers and high-performance computing (HPC) environments, delivering high throughput and low latency to provide reliable security protection for mission-critical operations.

AI-Empowered Security: Exploring New Paths for Security Protection in the Agentic Era

To address the challenges posed by rapid AI adoption and evolving cyber threats, H3C is advancing the integration of AI with network security technologies. In addition to strengthening traditional network perimeter protection, H3C is expanding security capabilities for emerging scenarios such as AI applications.

By applying AI and machine learning technologies, H3C enhances threat detection, analysis, and protection capabilities.

The H3C SecPath M9000-X Series AI Firewall is designed for high-traffic environments such as AI computing clusters and large-scale data centers. By combining a high-performance

Looking ahead, H3C will remain committed to the philosophy of “Active Security, Business Driven.” By deepening security technology innovation and integrating AI capabilities, H3C will continue to drive firewall evolution from traditional perimeter protection toward full-domain intelligent security, helping enterprises build secure, agile, and reliable digital infrastructure for the era of hybrid deployment, multi-cloud, and agentic AI.

hardware architecture with AI application identification and AI-enhanced detection capabilities, it strengthens network perimeter protection for AI-intensive environments.

Disclaimer:

Source: Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Hybrid Mesh Firewall, Rajpreet Kaur, Adam Hils, Odie Adesina, 7 September 2026.

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