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Dell SRM data forwarder (Gate) is a proxy SRM collector server located in a demilitarized network zone (DMZ), in front of distributed collectors that are located in a secured internal network zone. It aggregates all traffic from the internal zone and forwards it towards the external network zone where central SRM server components (backend/frontend) are placed.
It also forwards traffic from the external zone (frontend admin UI) towards an internal zone (collectors) for management purposes. This kind of setup is required to avoid complex firewall rules that would need to be maintained for each collector in the internal zone. Instead, firewall rules, which are reachable from within the external zone, are needed for each SRM Gate server.
This architecture also allows customers to be compliant with the PCI (Payment Card Industry) Data Security Standard requirement named Installing and maintaining a firewall configuration to protect cardholder data. The purpose of a firewall is to scan all network traffic and block untrusted networks from accessing the system. In SRM architecture, the untrusted network is the external zone.
Figure 1. SRM deployment architecture