A highly customizable tool that significantly reduces human error
What is our primary use case?
We use app flow, Firewall Analyzer, and FireFlow. We use AlgoSec to gain visibility on firewall rules and for gap-cleaning projects to clean up the firewalls. We also use the solution as a firewall assurance tool to stay clean, have an optimized set of firewalls, and then automate firewall rules deployed from start to finish.
We have on-prem data centers and 180 sites all over the world.
Additionally, we use cloud services, infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, and software as a service. The majority of it is standardized on Cisco networking with Fortinet security solutions, except for the data centers, which are Check Point.
The purpose is to gain visibility into firewall rules. We used it to go through a gap-cleaning project to clean up the firewalls. We also use the solution as a firewall assurance tool to stay clean and to have optimized firewall rules. In addition, we use the solution to automate firewall rule deployment from start to finish, so we have a complete change process in FireFlow and can automatically deploy the firewalls on appliances. For that, we also built a connection with BMC Remedy because that's the main tool used for change management.
How has it helped my organization?
AlgoSec has improved our organization through a safer firewall rule base and better time-to-market IT services provided to the rest of the organization. Those are the two main improvements. In general, AlgoSec has provided a better security posture.
What is most valuable?
Customizability is AlgoSec's best feature. You can customize everything and build anything you like, and that's a feature we missed in competitors' solutions.
What needs improvement?
AlgoSec is not a tool where people with little knowledge of security or IT can find their way around. AlgoSec has a less user-friendly interface compared to competitors, but it is comparatively more customizable. As such, the interface is more on the complex side.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using AlgoSec for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
AlgoSec is a stable solution. There are bugs, but those do not affect the system's stability. We have not had any unplanned downtime since we started.
We use the solution 24x7 to record cyber rules, with about 50 changes per week.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable and we have approximately 50 users.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment was complex because we were integrating with ITIL systems since we had integrated with BMC Remedy. The integration with Check Point was complex because we were on the wrong version. We had to go through various administrative processes to update Check Point. If AlgoSec was more flexible in the ways one could integrate and the versions one could integrate it with, that would help.
A team of ten people handled the deployment, including testers, and they took approximately three months. The end-to-end deployment took just over two years. We did not migrate from a previous solution.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on investment only with efficiency gains and improved security posture. That might transfer to a monetary value, but we haven't assessed that.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I find the price too expensive. It looks a bit like SAP, so it does have standard functionality out of the box, but you will spend a lot of money if you want to customize it. However, the price is not as extreme as SAP or Oracle, but the actual implementation does turn out to be expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We finally chose AlgoSec over Skybox for its customizability, the options for integration, and the workflows. Though Skybox was much more user-friendly, it was weaker when it came to integration options and customizability.
What other advice do I have?
In our organization, we work with multiple security vendors, and integrating with leading vendors for the most part is easy, but there are some exceptions. The solution made integration with the majority of devices really easy, but it was really cumbersome with some devices.
The solution has massively reduced human error through automation by about 95%.
As far as multiple environments are concerned, we have a private cloud, which is just a data center hosted by an external party. We have a public cloud, multiple vendors, and multiple regions. We also have decentralized data centers throughout the world.
We're investigating combining the solution with Cisco ACI.
The cost versus the achieved business goals is in balance.
I recommend that new users do a proof-of-concept before choosing AlgoSec. I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.
A solution with a good interface that can be used for firewall policy management
What is our primary use case?
We use AlgoSec for firewall policy management.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of AlgoSec is its firewall analyzer. AlgoSec also has a better interface.
What needs improvement?
AlgoSec's audit management is not good enough and can be improved. Also, AlgoSec should be made more scalable.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using AlgoSec for around one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
AlgoSec is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
AlgoSec is not a scalable solution. Only I use AlgoSec in our company to do firewall management.
How was the initial setup?
It is moderately easy to set up AlgoSec.
What about the implementation team?
Two staff were involved in AlgoSec's deployment, which took around three hours.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing AlgoSec, we evaluated Tufin as an option. We chose AlgoSec because it has a better interface.
What other advice do I have?
AlgoSec is a good firewall management tool for organizations with multiple firewall levels. If you only have two or three firewall levels, then AlgoSec is not worth investing in.
Overall, I rate AlgoSec an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Algosec Firewall Analyzer
What do you like best about the product?
Algosec Firewall Analyzer is used to monitize firewalls policy and rules. It will also used to mature your network policies. If a policy is already defined it highlights that policy and you can merge the policy.
What do you dislike about the product?
User creation and assigning roles is little bit difficult. While upgrading we have to upload packages files which can be downloaded from algosec website but downloading takes time.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Algosec Firewall Analyzer is used to monitize firewalls policy and rules. It will also used to mature your network policies. If a policy is already defined it highlights that policy and you can merge the policy.
useful tool when you deal with multivendor complex firewall environment
What do you like best about the product?
Comprehensive network visibility: AlgoSec provides a holistic view of the network, which makes it easier to identify and manage potential security risks.
Efficient security policy management: With AlgoSec, it's possible to manage security policies across multiple platforms from a single console. This makes it much easier to enforce consistent security policies across the network.
Simplified auditing and compliance reporting: AlgoSec makes it easy to generate detailed reports on network activity, which is important for compliance with industry regulations and audits.
Automated risk analysis and prioritization: AlgoSec uses machine learning algorithms to analyze network data and identify potential risks. This enables IT teams to focus their efforts on the most critical issues.
What do you dislike about the product?
For some of my colleagues it took time to get onboarded...but its worth it
Also we had a bit strugle introducing some of our multi-context firewalls. But fixed that eventually with support of algosec
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
AlgoSec is solving several problems related to network security management that can benefit organizations in various ways.
For us main benefit was single pane of glass over all policies over whole network as well as documented and automated policy deployment tool.
Powerful product to optimize FWs
What do you like best about the product?
I had to compare several products in the market mainly to keep our firewalls clean and optimized. Algosec was the best in my shortlist concerning correct reports and recommendations. It has powerful tools on top of FW optimization, which is traffic simulation query.
What do you dislike about the product?
It doesn't optimize NAT rules and VPN access rules/lists in Cisco ASAs.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It can keep track of traffic and hits on access rules, giving us the proper recommendations for tweaking and removing unused objects. Nice to have it to remove unused or unattached objects. Policy Optimization is the place that I mostly use in day-to-day work.
It's been a wonderful experience using algosec. Navigation around the solution has been seemless
What do you like best about the product?
Report generation has been great and helpful
What do you dislike about the product?
Some devices are not discoverable. Like Sophos
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Firewall device analysis and risk and risky rules compliance
Excellent product for multiple firewall manage in one pain of window.
What do you like best about the product?
Algosec Recommend policies according to various compliance bodies like HIPPA / PCIDSS
What do you dislike about the product?
Fireflow flow needs to improve to enhance workflow
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Algosec helps to manage multi vendor firewall under one roof so for an engineer becomes easy to manage multi firewall from single pain of glass.
You can have better perfomance on your devices by trusting the recomendations made on Algosec.
What do you like best about the product?
You can have better performance on your devices by trusting the recommendations made on Algosec. When you have FWs full of configuration, you can relay on algosec to make better use of the devices.
What do you dislike about the product?
So far, we don't have dislikes on this solution; We would like easier to search documentation.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We have FWs that have very granular configurations, so sometimes we reach configuration capability limits which can be solved by reducing it and making a better configuration based on Algosec recommendations.
powerfull tool with easy integration
What do you like best about the product?
Integration with multiple vendors is easy to use and not only Firewalls can be integrated even network devices, data center switch, web proxy, load balancer etc.
What do you dislike about the product?
the Zone matric is very powerful but unfortunately there is no graphical representation.
Could be expensive if you want to integrate many routers and VRF. Confusing why router and vrf are separate licenses.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Troubleshooting can be easier when someone uses the orchestration solution AFA, AFF and AppViz.
Also, documentation can improve for orchestration end-customers.
Very good experience using Algosec
What do you like best about the product?
I really like using Algosec Firewall Analyzer in addition to its very easy to understand use, Algosec Firewall Analyzer also has a Web GUI that is very easy to operate. AFA is also capable of automatically detecting if there are vulnerabilities in our devices. This really helps us to find if there are any vulnerabilities in the policies we create.
What do you dislike about the product?
There may be a bit of a problem where sometimes if we want to do a session tshoot at a support time of sometimes 30 minutes, that's too short in my opinion. maybe it can be reimprovised again about the timing
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
The workings of the AlgoSec Security Management Solution (ASMS) are to collect and analyze routing table, ruleset, hit counter, log files, and topology information of each routing table. analyze routing tables, rulesets, hit counters, log files, and topology information from each of the Network Security Network Security devices, such as Firewalls, Routers, and others. AlgoSec Security Management Solution (ASMS) is able to integrate and pull information from Vulnerability Assessment scanners, and application connectivity needs from the CMDB (Configuration Management Database), spreadsheets, and Firewall rules. Using this information, the AlgoSec Security Management Solution (ASMS) can build and maintain a dynamic network topology map, and can simulate the dynamic network topology map, and can simulate network traffic and understand its impact on application connectivity. understand its impact on application connectivity.
