The correct answer is A. integrated IPS.

A traditional firewall provides:

Stateful inspection

Basic ACL filtering

NAT

Sometimes VPN services

A Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) adds advanced capabilities such as:

Integrated Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)

Application awareness and control

Advanced malware protection

Integrated IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) is a defining feature of NGFWs.

It allows the firewall to:

Detect and block known and unknown threats

Perform deep packet inspection

Stop attacks in real time

This capability is not part of traditional firewalls, which only inspect traffic based on state and basic rules.

B. Stateful firewall policies This is a core feature of traditional firewalls, not unique to NGFWs.

C. SSL VPN VPN functionality exists in both traditional and next-generation firewalls.

D. NAT NAT is a basic firewall/network feature, not exclusive to NGFWs.

Remember the distinction:

Traditional Firewall → Stateful filtering, NAT, VPN

Next-Generation Firewall → Adds IPS + Application Awareness + Advanced Security

NGFW = Traditional Firewall + Advanced Threat Protection