# Features and Benefits

## Features

* **Centralized Policy Management:** NSGs offered by IONOS act as a centralized policy manager where firewall policy templates can be defined for a given Virtual Data Center (VDC).
* **Default and Custom NSGs:** NSGs are of two types: Default and Custom.
* **Stateful Virtual Firewall:** Each security group acts as a stateful virtual firewall, controlling both inbound and outbound traffic.
* **Integration with NIC-based firewall rules:** You can complement the NSG rules by configuring NIC-based firewall rules, providing additional flexibility and customization options.
* **Fine-Grained Access Control:** NSGs enable fine-grained access control at the level of Virtual Machines (VMs) and Network Interface Cards (NICs).

## Benefits

* **Streamlined Management:** Centralized policy management streamlines the management of firewall rules across multiple network interfaces and VM instances.
* **Flexibility and Customization:** Customization options for Default and Custom NSGs provide flexibility in managing firewall rules.
* **Enhanced Security:** Stateful virtual firewall and fine-grained access control ensure that only authorized traffic, based on defined protocols and port numbers, is allowed to flow through.
* **Enhanced Customer Experience:** You can get a more intuitive way of handling firewall rules for a VDC. NSGs address the need by enhancing the overall customer experience on the IONOS Cloud platform.