Rule Your Network! Streamlined Network Security Management Reduces Duplication and Errors

Network security management is a critical aspect of any security deployment. However, most administrators would agree that configuring and managing a complete security network could at best be described as a nightmare.

According to AlgoSec, 64% of organizations are consumed with complex management, such as time consuming manual processes, obscured security policies, poor change management, and more. Manual processes also mean a greater likelihood of human error. According to Infonetics, 25% of security network outages are directly related to human error — a scary statistic.

Most security vendors don’t pay much attention to streamlining and simplifying the network configuration and management aspects of deployment. In fact, most security deployments are separate from each other, with differing management consoles and independent rule bases, lacking the ability to communicate with each other.

Ask yourself the following questions to understand if you are spending too much time managing your security deployment:

• How many UIs and security rule-bases (URL filter, IPS, firewall, etc) do I manage to keep my network security current?
• Can I manage my distributed security network from a central location, or do I need local administrators for each firewall?
• What tools do I have that help with reducing manual processes during network configuration or policy development?
• Does my security network structure match my organizational structure for a more logical deployment of security policies, or is it unnecessarily complex?

At Palo Alto Networks, network security management is a critical part of a security deployment. This translates not only into efficient management of individual firewalls but also of large distributed networks using our Panorama network security management solution.

Palo Alto Networks next generation security platform offers the convenience of a single user interface, as well as a single security rule-base that can be used to manage security policies for your application control, threat prevention, URL filtering, and more. This significantly streamlines policy management.

Panorama also offers tools that help reduce manual tasks and human errors such as the utilization of template stacks that eliminate manual replication of configuration elements across a distributed network. The ability to import existing firewall configurations with the click of a few buttons eliminates manual re-typing of configurations.

Other focus areas include intuitive network and policy management that enables you to deploy a security network that matches your organizational structure, making management of the security deployment significantly easier and logical.

Click here to learn more about Palo Alto Networks network security management capabilities.

Joerg Sieber

[Palo Alto Networks Blog]