Application Connectivity-Aware: Firewall Management – Part 2

In my previous post, I shared some of my experiences from the SecureApp launch which encompassed 12 presentations in 12 different cities across two continents. One of my biggest take-aways was that network security teams have had a wide set of pains behind a wide set of application management issues for quite some time, many of which were impacting firewall teams that network security teams have had a wide set of pains behind a wide set of application management issues for quite some time, many of which were impacting firewall teams. That’s how we came up with the concept for SecureApp. SecureApp is a management console that sits above the firewall layer – above the network stack entirely – to separate application requirements from the hundreds of rules dispersed across multiple firewalls on the network. SecureApp enables network managers and application owners to work together to define, manage and update application connectivity requirements. It also provides a dedicated database for application connectivity data, meaning that data will finally be stored in a central repository instead of Excel spreadsheets, Word docs or firewall rule comments fields. SecureChange acts as both the underlying engine and the means through which that abstracted data connects back to the network.

Firewall management cannot be completely automated without SecureApp. Not only does it reduce the number of changes that need to be redone, but the time (and associated cost) saved by not having to chase down data sitting in disparate devices is significant. We are confident that SecureApp will provide significant ROI, in addition to what can be achieved with SecureTrack and SecureChange.

So far, the response to SecureApp has been great. The question we get is not “how is this different than a Next Generation Firewall,” but “how much will it cost us?” My answer is usually “how much is it costing you NOT to have something like SecureApp?”