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Network security has never been more critical in the era of digital transformation. With cyber threats on the rise, enterprises require robust network security policy management solutions to protect their valuable data and infrastructure. Conducting a technical evaluation is essential to ensure that your chosen solution aligns with your organization’s security requirements and overall strategy. In this blog post, we’ll outline our three-step process for carrying out a comprehensive technical evaluation of FireMon. 

Step 1: Define Your Objectives 

Before diving into the evaluation, identify your organization’s network security objectives and requirements. These may involve: 

• Achieving continuous compliance 
• Risk reduction strategies 
• Improving operational efficiencies and reducing costs 

Step 2: Develop Success Criteria 

Work with your FireMon Sales Engineer (SE) to create a list of success criteria that will help you assess FireMon’s technical capabilities. FireMon will provide a workbook to simplify this process. Consider the following factors: 

• Ease of integration with existing infrastructure (firewalls, firewall management stations, layer 3 devices, load balancers, proxies, clouds, etc.) 
• Reporting and analytic capabilities, accuracy, and timing 
• Policy enforcement and monitoring 
• Scalability and performance 
• User interface and usability 
• Workflow optimization 
• Support for multi-cloud and hybrid environments 

Step 3: Conduct a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) 

A PoC is a critical step in the evaluation process, as it enables you to test FireMon in your environment, providing valuable insights into FireMon’s fit within your organization.  

To conduct a successful FireMon PoC: 

• Work with your FireMon SE to define clear objectives, timelines, milestones, and success criteria. We aim to conduct all PoC’s within 14 days. 
• Agree upon a deployment option to ensure the recommended architecture is set up in advance of the PoC (e.g., necessary server size and recommended specs) 
• Engage relevant stakeholders, such as IT, security, and compliance teams 
• Conduct a pre-installation check with our provided checklist to ensure a seamless process 
• Set up a testing environment that simulates your production environment 
• Test FireMon’s key features, such as compliance reporting and alerting, network mapping and traffic simulation, policy vulnerability analysis, automation, as well as rule creation, cleanup, and optimization  

A thorough technical evaluation is crucial to selecting the right network security policy management solution for your organization. By following these steps, you can ensure that FireMon aligns with your security objectives and provides a strong foundation for maintaining a secure and compliant network environment. 

If you are looking to learn more or get in touch with an NSPM expert, contact FireMon for a complimentary call. 

After conducting a technical analysis and deciding on which NSPM solution is right for you, you may be wondering, “what now?”. Planning for an installation may seem like a daunting task, but thankfully you’re not alone in this process. This is where FireMon’s Professional Services team comes into play.  

FireMon’s Professional Service team guides our clients through each phase of implementation, ensuring the service is set up and integrated quickly and efficiently. With over 2,000 implementations over 20+ years, FireMon Professional Services has a proven implementation process focused on delivering outcomes and optimizing your time to value. In this blog post, we will outline FireMon’s deployment process. 

What to Expect through Implementation 

With several service offerings of Professional Services implementation to choose from, you’ll be sure to find the right fit for your organization. Implementation will typically take between 9-13 weeks depending on your environment and the availability of the required resources in your organization. FireMon will coordinate with your team to confirm scope, timelines, and implementation readiness. From there, we’ll assist with planning, scheduling, developing, executing, and reporting on your custom implementation plan. 

1. Initiation – FireMon will provide a technical consulting session to review, provide guidance, and assist in planning your installation of FireMon software in your deployment environment.

2. Environment Prep – FireMon will provide an Implementation Readiness Checklist in advance of this phase. If you opt for a distributed architecture, you will need to provision the deployment environment in accordance with FireMon’s requirements.

3. Install Software – FireMon will review your self-installation to verify core functionality of the FireMon software, including, by way of example: Retrievals functioning correctly / Configurations normalizing correctly / Receiving usage via syslog/LEA/hit counters / Verifying change detection is configured correctly / Authentication configured (i.e., LDAP, RADIUS) / User group permissions are properly defined / Validate SMTP is configured correctly / Backup process configured / Zones and network segments imported.

4. Demo and Deploy – FireMon will provide an additional session to review the configuration and demonstrate the prioritized use case(s) in the deployment environment to the business owner to ensure the desired outcomes are achieved and that they can begin to use the solution immediately. FireMon will provide additional technical consulting session(s) for the configuration and operation of FireMon software as needed.

5. Closeout – This includes a Health & Architecture Review and FireMon Runbook. The Health and Architecture Review is a snapshot of the current health / configuration of your current deployment of FireMon, including System Inventory, Health Assessment, Commands, and Server Health.

The FireMon Runbook is a reference document that outlines tasks and troubleshooting to ensure FireMon and device health: / Daily Tasks / Weekly Tasks / Monthly Tasks / Quarterly Tasks / Basic Troubleshooting

6. Operational Transition – Our team will ensure a smooth transition to support / CXM, while you take advantage of the benefits FireMon has to offer.

In conclusion, deploying a network security policy management solution like FireMon involves several steps, including initiation, environment preparation, software installation, deployment, closing out, and operational transition. Each step is critical to the success of the deployment and requires careful attention to detail. By following these steps, your organization can ensure the effective deployment of FireMon and better protect your data and assets from cyber threats. 

If you are looking to learn more or get in touch with FireMon’s Professional Service team, contact us today. 

In today’s fast-paced world, network security has become a top priority for organizations of all sizes. As the number and complexity of cyber threats continue to grow, it’s essential to have a robust and reliable Network Security Policy Management (NSPM) solution in place. However, with so many options available, selecting the right NSPM solution can be a daunting task. In this blog post, we will discuss the critical requirements to consider when purchasing an NSPM solution. 

1. Compatibility with your network infrastructure 

Before purchasing an NSPM solution, it’s essential to ensure that it’s compatible with your organization’s network infrastructure whether it’s on-premises, in the cloud, or a mix of both. The solution should support and help you manage the devices and vendors that you use in your network from a single pane of glass. This ensures that the NSPM solution can effectively streamline managing your network security policies and processes without disrupting your existing network operations.  

2. Scalability 

As your organization grows, so will your network infrastructure. Therefore, it’s vital to select an NSPM solution that can scale to accommodate the changing needs of your organization. The solution should be able to scale to meet your needs without running into technological caps that slow things down or simply won’t operate. Large enterprises typically need the ability to support thousands, if not 10’s of thousands of devices and rules in the millions. You many not need those numbers today, but the pace of new technologies can quickly add complexity to your network that you didn’t foresee today. Additionally, the NSPM solution should support multi-tenancy, allowing you to manage multiple networks from a single platform. 

3. Automation and Workflows 

Managing network security policies manually is time-consuming and error prone. Therefore, it’s crucial to select an NSPM solution that offers automated policy management which reduces manual intervention. The solution should provide a user-friendly interface that allows you to create, modify and delete policies quickly across your entire environment on any device and integrate easily into your existing workflows and ITSM platforms. Additionally, the NSPM solution should automate compliance checks, security audits, policy enforcement, and offer rule recommendations and custom alerting. All of which reduce the risk of non-compliance and security breaches. 

 4. Reporting and Analytics 

Visibility into your network security policies is essential to identify potential vulnerabilities and compliance gaps. Therefore, it’s important to select an NSPM solution that provides comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities. The solution should provide real-time insights into your network security posture, highlighting policy violations, non-compliance issues, and potential security threats. Additionally, the NSPM solution should offer both out-of-the box, and easily customizable reports, allowing you to create reports tailored to your specific needs without the need for excessive professional services fees. 

 5. Integration with third-party solutions 

Firewall and cloud support is crucial to a security policy management platform, but so is integrating into your security operations environment. Therefore, it’s essential to select an NSPM solution that can integrate with a large number of third-party solutions. The solution should have an API-first approach, that easily connects with various security tools, such as vulnerability scanners, SIEM, SOAR, threat intelligence platforms, ITSM integrations, and incident response systems. This ensures that you can quickly detect and respond to potential security threats, reducing the risk of data breaches and cyber-attacks. 

 6. Ease of Use and Management 

The NSPM solution should have a user-friendly interface that is easy to use and manage. The solution should provide a centralized dashboard that allows you to manage your network security policies and processes from a single platform. Additionally, the NSPM solution should provide real-time data access, and contextual help and support, making it easy for you to troubleshoot issues and perform tasks. 

7. Support and Maintenance 

Selecting an NSPM solution is not a one-time investment. Once up and running, the solution will require ongoing support and maintenance to ensure that it continues to meet your organization’s changing needs. Therefore, it’s essential to select a proven and time-tested NSPM solution that provides world-class reliable support and maintenance services. The solution provider should offer ongoing regular updates, patches, and bug fixes to keep the solution up-to-date and secure. Additionally, the NSPM solution provider should provide training, certification programs, and ongoing education, allowing your team to stay up to date with the latest features and capabilities. 

Keeping these 7 critical requirements in mind while considering NSPM solutions will ensure that you select the right solution for your organization. Each requirement plays a particular role in this buying process and it is important that each one is thoroughly considered and inspected. To learn more about FireMon’s recommended requirements or to speak with an expert, contact us today. 

As organizations continue to expand their digital footprints, it’s essential to secure their infrastructure to avoid the exposure of sensitive data and financial losses. While the firewall investment is a costly one, it is imperative that enterprises have a policy management tool to help maximize your security investments, manage compliance, manage policy related risk, and quickly and accurately make rule changes. That being said, accumulating the funds and convincing your team that your organization needs a solution that will provide ROI isn’t an easy task. This is why here at FireMon we’ve done the hard work for you and have outlined how to make these needs clear to your team to help accelerate the project through the approval process. We’ve seen this business justification approach help many organizations build the case to invest in an NSPM solution which we have outlined in this blog for our readers. 

Here are some steps to get you started: 

1. Identify the problem
   To build a strong business case for FireMon, you will need to identify the problems that you need solved. Start by looking at your organization’s current network security infrastructure. Are there any gaps in your security measures? Are there any redundancies or inefficiencies in your firewall management processes? Are you able to effectively monitor and control your firewalls? Are processes taking longer than they need to? Are you doing work that could be sped up by automation? These are some of the questions that can help you identify the problem.
2. Define the solution
   Once you’ve identified the problem, you need to define the solution. FireMon provides a centralized platform for firewall management, allowing organizations to gain complete visibility into their network security infrastructure. FireMon also provides advanced analytics and reporting tools that can help organizations identify and mitigate security risks quickly.
3. Outline the benefits
   After defining the solution, it’s important to outline the benefits of implementing FireMon, including: 
   1. Decrease Operational Costs: Our customers have experienced steep cost savings by automating the day-to-day management of their network security policies with FireMon, allowing valuable resources to focus on other important projects. Some statistics we’ve gathered from our customers to help your business case: 
      • $1.8M estimated operational savings a year 
      • 450% reduction in annual operational costs 
      • $450K reduction in staffing costs
   2. Reduce Time Spent on Manual Tasks: We enable customers to increase the time spent on strategic projects while simultaneously decreasing the time spent on manual reviews and updates. Our customers no longer spend thousands of hours on manual firewall changes, months to analyze and review their current rule base or weeks to prepare compliance reports. Our customers have also found: 
      • 90% reduction in managing day to day policies 
      • 97% reduced time to review and make a safe firewall rule change from 90 minutes to 3 minutes 
      • 75% decreased change process time with FireMon’s automation capabilities
   3. Reduce Security Related Risks: FireMon’s complete visibility offering into all on premises and cloud firewalls has vastly reduced security risks caused by misconfigurations, leak paths, and human error. Our single pane of glass approach allows our customers to see all of their firewall rules, when changes are made and by whom, and scans for policy related vulnerabilities. FireMon customers have benefited from: 
      • $1.2M saved in prevention of future breaches
      • $500K estimated savings in case of a breach or downtime event
      • $400K saved for every hour a system is offline due to an attack
4. Calculate the ROI
   Once you’ve outlined the benefits of implementing FireMon, you’ll want to calculate the ROI. In order to determine the financial benefit implementing an NSPM solution like FireMon you will need to gather the following information:
   1. Calculating ROI for Audits & Compliance  
      • Number of firewalls in your environment 
      • Amount of time spent manually auditing each firewall 
      • Average weighted cost of staff responsible for manually auditing firewalls
        Once you’ve gathered this information, you can begin your ROI calculations by: 
      • Multiply the number of firewalls by the number of hours spent on each firewall 
      • Multiply the weighted cost of staff responsible for performing these manual tasks by the total number of hours spent working on each firewall
   2. Calculating ROI for Change Management 
      • Number of firewalls in your environment 
      • Number of changes on average made to each firewall over the course of a week/month 
      • Amount of time spent manually processing each firewall change 
      • Average weighted cost of staff responsible for performing tasks
        Once you’ve gathered this information, you can begin your ROI calculations by: 
      • Multiply the number of firewalls by the number of hours spent processing changes on each firewall 
      • Multiply the weighted cost of staff responsible for performing the audit by the total number of hours spent implementing changes on each firewall
   3. Calculating ROI for Risk Reduction
      While it is difficult to quantify in terms of ROI, a security incident like a breach can be extremely costly. With the average cost of a data breach in 2022 being 4.35M and an average breach cost savings of 2.10M at organizations that use risk quantification techniques versus those that don’t (IBM Security: Cost of a Data Breach Report, 2022), the cost savings your organization would accrue from implementing a risk reduction solution is a no-brainer. 
      • Annualized rate of risk occurrence  
      • Expected monetary loss for single event 
      • Reduction in probability of risk occurrence with the implemented control 
      • Cost of the risk reduction solution
        Once you’ve gathered this information, you can begin your ROI calculations by: 
      • Multiply your annualized rate of risk occurrence by expected monetary loss for a single event by reduction in probability of risk occurrence with the implemented control 
      • Subtract the number you gathered from step 5 by the cost of the risk reduction solution  
      • Divide the number gathered from step 6 by the cost of the risk reduction solution
        
        Here is a great example of how you can determine the ROI for Risk Reduction from The Center for Internet Security 
        1. Annualized rate of occurrence = 5 per year
        2. Expected monetary loss for a single vent $35,000 
        3. Reduction in probability of risk occurrence with implemented control = -85% 
        4. Cost of the risk reduction solution = $25,000 
           1. Reduction in risk: 5 x $35,000 x 0.85 = $148,750 
           2. ROI: ($148,750 – $25,000) / $25,000 = 4.95 
           3. Savings per year: $25,000 x 4.95 = $123,750
5. Present the business case
   Finally, it’s time to present the business case. When presenting the business case, be sure to focus on the benefits of implementing FireMon and how it can help address the identified problem. Use data and metrics to support your case, including the ROI calculations you’ve discovered in step 4.  

Hopefully with this information gathered and your business justification pitched, your team will clearly understand how they would benefit by investing in an NSPM solution like FireMon. If you are looking to build a business case with the help of an NSPM expert, contact FireMon for a complimentary call to help create your proposal and ROI analysis.