I have been working with Algosec AFA a lot these past few years on some pretty big projects. As far as a firewall policy compliance tool, it is the best out there by far (and I have used several over the years). One of the biggest advantages right off the bat is how Algosec provides you all of the information that you need in one report. With other competitor’s products you spend a ton of time setting up individual reports for each firewall.
Competitor’s Product:
- Want to see risky rules? That’s its own report.
- Want to track rules for improvements? That’s its own report.
- PCI? That’s another report.
- Rule Changes. Another report.
- And on and on and on….
Algosec:
- One report
Once you get a customer login to the Algosec portal, you will see that they offer several free classes online as well as the initial certification: CASU (Certified Algosec Security User). The online course took several hours to complete, and I thought it was really well written and up to date. When you take the exam, you will want to have a copy of Algosec AFA running for a reference. A lot of the questions are pretty hard and it definitely helps to have the interface handy. You can download an eval and have AFA up and running and analyzing firewalls and network gear in about 30 minutes. The results that you see in the first few hours are extremely useful. If you want to see where the security holes are in a hybrid environment, Algosec is the way to go.
*Full disclosure: I own a reseller that sells Algosec as part of a total architecture. I get to choose the products I want to work with, and since I have had such great success with AFA in previous engagements (before I ever sold product) I reached out to Algosec and made sure they were on my list of “have to haves.”