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View AlgoSec s press releases to stay on top of the latest company announcements Press releases Filter by release year AlgoSec Horizon A33.30 eliminates security silos, accelerates application delivery, automates policy management and continuously reduces cyber risk July 22, 2026 Horizon unifies application connectivity governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments through AI-powered automation 2026 AlgoSec Posts 37% YoY new Business Growth in 2025 as Enterprises Prioritize Application-Centric Security February 18, 2026 Over 90% gross dollar retention and 37% year-over-year new business growth reflect demand for visibility across complex hybrid environments 2024 AlgoSec’s 2026 State of Network Security Report Reveals Rising Demand for Consolidation and Control February 4, 2026 One of the market’s most comprehensive annual vendor-agnostic studies found that rapid cloud expansion, distributed workloads, and AI-driven traffic patterns are driving increased demand for unified policy control and end-to-end transparency 2024 AlgoSec Security Management Solution A33.20 removes network security change friction across hybrid and multi-cloud networks January 22, 2026 The new capabilities empower teams to move faster with clarity, control, and business-aligned risk prioritization 2024 AlgoSec’s Horizon Platform Fuels Company Growth and Global Application-Centric Security September 9, 2025 A gross dollar retention rate of over 90% and 36% year-over-year new business growth highlight adoption across industries 2025 AlgoSec Security Management solution A33.10 delivers new compliance reporting and precise discovery of application connectivity May 20, 2025 The new product version release provides extended multi-cloud hybrid network visibility, reduces risk exposure and addresses new compliance regulations in a unified platform 2024 AlgoSec Wins SC Award for Best Security Company, Global InfoSec Award for Best Service Cybersecurity Company May 14, 2025 These award wins follow a year of double-digit year-on-year annual recurring revenue growth and the launch of the AlgoSec Horizon Platform 2024 AlgoSec’s 2025 State of Network Security Report Reveals Growing Adoption of Zero-Trust Architecture and Multi-Cloud Environments April 3, 2025 Annual vendor-agnostic research found businesses continue to prioritize multi-cloud environments, with Cisco, Microsoft Azure, AWS, Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet leading the way 2024 AlgoSec Achieves Strong Growth in 2024, Expands Customer Partnerships and Services Driven by Application-Centric Vision March 20, 2025 Continued growth underscores AlgoSec’s commitment to innovation and leadership in application-centric security to drive business value 2024 2023 AlgoSec Horizon A33.30 eliminates security silos, accelerates application delivery, automates policy management and continuously reduces cyber risk Date Horizon unifies application connectivity governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments through AI-powered automation AlgoSec Posts 37% YoY new Business Growth in 2025 as Enterprises Prioritize Application-Centric Security Date Over 90% gross dollar retention and 37% year-over-year new business growth reflect demand for visibility across complex hybrid environments AlgoSec’s 2026 State of Network Security Report Reveals Rising Demand for Consolidation and Control Date One of the market’s most comprehensive annual vendor-agnostic studies found that rapid cloud expansion, distributed workloads, and AI-driven traffic patterns are driving increased demand for unified policy control and end-to-end transparency AlgoSec Security Management Solution A33.20 removes network security change friction across hybrid and multi-cloud networks Date The new capabilities empower teams to move faster with clarity, control, and business-aligned risk prioritization AlgoSec’s Horizon Platform Fuels Company Growth and Global Application-Centric Security Date A gross dollar retention rate of over 90% and 36% year-over-year new business growth highlight adoption across industries AlgoSec Security Management solution A33.10 delivers new compliance reporting and precise discovery of application connectivity Date The new product version release provides extended multi-cloud hybrid network visibility, reduces risk exposure and addresses new compliance regulations in a unified platform AlgoSec Wins SC Award for Best Security Company, Global InfoSec Award for Best Service Cybersecurity Company Date These award wins follow a year of double-digit year-on-year annual recurring revenue growth and the launch of the AlgoSec Horizon Platform AlgoSec’s 2025 State of Network Security Report Reveals Growing Adoption of Zero-Trust Architecture and Multi-Cloud Environments Date Annual vendor-agnostic research found businesses continue to prioritize multi-cloud environments, with Cisco, Microsoft Azure, AWS, Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet leading the way AlgoSec Achieves Strong Growth in 2024, Expands Customer Partnerships and Services Driven by Application-Centric Vision Date Continued growth underscores AlgoSec’s commitment to innovation and leadership in application-centric security to drive business value 2022 AlgoSec Horizon A33.30 eliminates security silos, accelerates application delivery, automates policy management and continuously reduces cyber risk Date Horizon unifies application connectivity governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments through AI-powered automation AlgoSec Posts 37% YoY new Business Growth in 2025 as Enterprises Prioritize Application-Centric Security Date Over 90% gross dollar retention and 37% year-over-year new business growth reflect demand for visibility across complex hybrid environments AlgoSec’s 2026 State of Network Security Report Reveals Rising Demand for Consolidation and Control Date One of the market’s most comprehensive annual vendor-agnostic studies found that rapid cloud expansion, distributed workloads, and AI-driven traffic patterns are driving increased demand for unified policy control and end-to-end transparency AlgoSec Security Management Solution A33.20 removes network security change friction across hybrid and multi-cloud networks Date The new capabilities empower teams to move faster with clarity, control, and business-aligned risk prioritization AlgoSec’s Horizon Platform Fuels Company Growth and Global Application-Centric Security Date A gross dollar retention rate of over 90% and 36% year-over-year new business growth highlight adoption across industries AlgoSec Security Management solution A33.10 delivers new compliance reporting and precise discovery of application connectivity Date The new product version release provides extended multi-cloud hybrid network visibility, reduces risk exposure and addresses new compliance regulations in a unified platform AlgoSec Wins SC Award for Best Security Company, Global InfoSec Award for Best Service Cybersecurity Company Date These award wins follow a year of double-digit year-on-year annual recurring revenue growth and the launch of the AlgoSec Horizon Platform AlgoSec’s 2025 State of Network Security Report Reveals Growing Adoption of Zero-Trust Architecture and Multi-Cloud Environments Date Annual vendor-agnostic research found businesses continue to prioritize multi-cloud environments, with Cisco, Microsoft Azure, AWS, Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet leading the way AlgoSec Achieves Strong Growth in 2024, Expands Customer Partnerships and Services Driven by Application-Centric Vision Date Continued growth underscores AlgoSec’s commitment to innovation and leadership in application-centric security to drive business value Choose a better way to manage your network Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... 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Protect and manage hybrid network environments with effective security strategies, ensuring seamless integration, visibility, and compliance across diverse infrastructures. Securing & managing hybrid network security ---- ------- Schedule a Demo Select a size ----- Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

Learn about firewall rule automation and change management to streamline processes, reduce human error, and enhance network security with effective change controls. Firewall rule automation & change management explained Overview In today’s IT environment, the only constant is change. Not only is change rampant, but it often occurs at breakneck speed. Rapid business growth from mergers and acquisitions, development of new and de-commissioning of old applications, new users, micro-segmentation, cloud migrations and more make for a dynamic environment that poses new security challenges all the time. Schedule a Demo Introduction In today’s IT environment, the only constant is change. Not only is change rampant, but it often occurs at breakneck speed. For a variety of reasons – rapid business growth from mergers and acquisitions, development of new applications, de-commissioning of old applications, new users, evolving networks and evolving cyberthreats – business needs change and, as they do, so must security policies. But change comes with challenges, often leading to major headaches for IT operations and security teams. The headaches sometimes develop into huge business problems: Manual workflows and change management processes are time-consuming and impede IT from keeping up with the necessary business agility Improper management of even minor changes can lead to serious business risks as benign as blockage of legitimate traffic all the way to putting the entire network offline Some organizations have grown so wary of change control and its potential negative impact that they resort to network freezes during peak business times rather than attempt to implement an urgent change in their network security policies. AlgoSec has another point of view. We want to help you embrace change through process improvement, identifying areas where automation and actionable intelligence can simultaneously enhance security and business agility – without the headaches. Herein, you will learn the secrets of how to elevate your firewall change management from manual labor-intensive work to a fully automated change management process. Schedule a Demo Why is it so hard to make changes to network policies? Placing a sticky note on your firewall administrator’s desk and expecting the change request to be performed pronto does not constitute a formal policy. Yet, shockingly, this is common practice. A formal change request process is in order. Such a process dictates clearly defined and documented steps for how a change request is to be handled, by whom, how it is addressed within a specified SLA, and more. Using IT ticketing systems Popular IT ticketing systems, like ServiceNow and Remedy, are a good place to manage your firewall change requests. However, these system are built for tracking general requests and were never designed for handling complex requests such as opening the network flow from server A to server B or revising user groups. Informal change processes Having a policy state “this is what we must do” is a start, but without a formal set of steps for carrying out and enforcing that policy, you still have a long way to go in terms of smoothing out your change processes. In fact, the majority of challenges for managing network security devices include: Time-consuming manual processes Poor change-management processes Error-prone processes Firewall change management requires detailed and concise steps that everyone understands and follows. Exceptions must be approved and documented, continuously improving the process over time. Communication breakdown Network security and operations staff work in separate silos. Their goals, and even their languages, are different. Working in silos is a clear recipe for trouble. It is a major contributor to out-of-band (unexpected) changes which are notorious for resulting in “out-of-service.” In many large companies, routine IT operational and administrative tasks may be handled by a team other than the one that handles security and risk-related tasks. Although both teams work toward the same goal – smooth operation of the digital side of the business – decisions and actions made by one team may lead to problems for the other. Sometimes, these situations are alleviated in a rush with the good intention of dealing with security issues “later.” But this crucial “later” never arrives and the network remains open to breaches. In fact, according to a large-scale survey of our own customers, out-of-process firewall changes resulted in system outages for a majority of them. In addition, our customers pointed out that out-of-process changes have caused them exposure to data breaches and costly audit failures. How will you know if it’s broken? It’s imperative to know what the business is up against from the perspective of threats and vulnerabilities. What’s often overlooked, however, is the no-less-devastating impact of poorly managed firewall changes. Without carefully analyzing how even the most minor firewall changes are going to impact the network environment, businesses can suffer dramatic problems. Without thoughtful analysis, they might not know: What does the change do to vital visibility across the network? Which applications and connections are broken by this change? Which new security vulnerabilities are introduced? How will performance be affected? A lot of money and effort is put into keeping the bad guys out, while forgetting that “we have seen the enemy and he is us.” Network complexity is a security killer Renowned security expert, Bruce Schneier, has stated, “Complexity is the worst enemy of security.” The sheer complexity of any given network can lead to a lot of mistakes, especially when it comes to multiple firewalls with complex rule sets. Simplifying the firewall environment and management processes is necessary for good management. Did you know? Up to 30 percent of implemented rule changes in large firewall infrastructures are unnecessary because the firewalls are already allowing the requested traffic! Under time pressure, firewall administrators often create more rules which turn out to be redundant given already-existing rules. This wastes valuable time and makes the firewalls even harder to manage. Schedule a Demo Mind the gap? Not if you want a good change management process The introduction of new things opens up security gaps. New hires, software patches, upgrades and network updates all increase risk exposure. The situation is further complicated in larger organizations which may have a mixed security estate comprising traditional, next-generation and virtualized firewalls from multiple vendors across clouds and on-premise data centers, all with hundreds of policies and thousands of rules. Who can keep track of it all? What about unexpected, quick-fixes that enable access to certain resources or capabilities? In many cases, a fix is made in a rush (after all, who wants a C-level exec breathing down their neck because he wants to access the network from his new tablet RIGHT NOW?) without sufficient consideration of whether that change is allowable under current security policies, or if it introduces new exposures. Sure, you can’t predict when users will make change requests, but you can certainly prepare the process for handling these requests whenever they arise. Bringing both IT operations and security teams together to prepare game plans for these situations – and for other ‘knowns’ such as network upgrades, change freezes, and audits – helps to minimize the risk of security gaps. What’s more, there are solutions that automate day-to-day firewall management tasks and link these changes and procedures so that they are recorded as part of the change management plan. In fact, automated technologies can help bridge the gap between change management processes and what’s really taking place. They enhance accuracy, by removing people from the equation to a very large degree. For example, a sophisticated firewall and topology-aware workflow system that is able to identify redundant and unneeded change requests can increase the productivity of the IT staff. IT operations and security groups are ultimately responsible for making sure that systems are functioning properly so that business goals are continuously met. However, these teams approach business continuity from different perspectives. The security department’s number one goal is to protect the business and its data whereas the IT operations team is focused on keeping systems up and running. It is natural for these two teams to clash. However, oftentimes, IT operations and security teams align their perspectives because both have a crucial ownership stake. The business has to keep running AND it has to be secure. But this kind of alignment of interests is easier said than done. To achieve the alignment, organizations must re- examine current IT and security processes. Let’s have a look at some examples of what happens when alignment is not performed. Schedule a Demo Real-life examples of good changes gone bad Example 1 A classic lack of communication between the IT operations and security groups put XYZ Corporation at risk. An IT department administrator, who was trying to be helpful, took the initiative to set up (on his own, with no security involvement or documentation) an FTP share for a user who needed to upload files in a hurry. By making this off-the-cuff change, the IT admin quickly addressed the client’s request and the files were uploaded. However, the FTP account lingered unsecured well beyond its effective “use by” date. By the next day, the security team noticed larger spikes of inbound traffic to the server from this very FTP account. Hackers abound. The FTP site had been compromised and was being exploited to host pirated movies. Example 2 A core provider of e-commerce services to businesses in the U.S. suffered a horrible fate due to a simple, but poorly managed, firewall change. One day, all e-commerce transactions in and out of its network ceased and the entire business was taken offline for several hours. The costs were astronomical. What happened? An out-of-band (and untested) change to a core firewall broke the communication between the e-commerce application and the internet. Business activity ground to a halt. Executive management got involved and the responsible IT staff members were reprimanded. Hundreds of thousands of dollars later, the root cause of the outage was uncovered: IT staff, oblivious to the consequences, chose not to test their firewall changes, bypassing their “burdensome” ITIL-based change management procedures. Tips from your own peers Taken from The Big Collection of Firewall Management Tips Document, document, document … And when in doubt, document some more! “It is especially critical for people to document the rules they add or change so that other administrators know the purpose of each rule and whom to contact about it. Good documentation can make troubleshooting easy. It reduces the risk of service disruptions that inadvertently occur when an administrator deletes or changes a rule they do not understand.” – Todd, InfoSec Architect, United States “Keep a historical change log of your firewall policy so you can return to safe harbor in case something goes wrong. A proper change log should include the reason for the change, the requester and approval records.” – Pedro Cunha, Engineer, Oni, Portugal Schedule a Demo Taking the fire drill out of firewall changes Automation is the key. It helps staff disengage from firefighting and bouncing reactively between incidents. It helps them gain control. The right automation solution can help teams track down potential traffic or connectivity issues and highlight areas of risk. Administrators can get a handle on the current status of policy compliance across mixed estates of traditional, next-generation and virtualized firewalls as well as hybrid on-prem and cloud estates. The solution can also automatically pinpoint the devices that may require changes and show how to create and implement those changes in the most secure way. Automation not only makes firewall change management easier and more predictable across large estates and multiple teams, but also frees staff to handle more strategic security and compliance tasks. Let the solution handle the heavy lifting and free up the staff for other things. To ensure a proper balance between business continuity and security, look for a firewall policy management solution that: Measures every step of the change workflow so you can easily demonstrate that SLAs are being met Identifies potential bottlenecks and risks BEFORE changes are made Pinpoints change requests that require special attention Tips from your peers Taken from The Big Collection of Firewall Management Tips “Perform reconciliation between change requests and actual performed changes. Looking at the unaccounted changes will always surprise you. Ensuring every change is accounted for will greatly simplify your next audit and help in day-to-day troubleshooting.” – Ron, Manager, Australia “Have a workflow process for implementing a security rule from the user requesting change, through the approval process and implementation.” – Gordy, Senior Network Engineer, United States Schedule a Demo 10 steps to automating and standardizing the firewall change-management process Here is the secret to getting network security policy change management right. Once a request is made, a change-request process should include the following steps: Clarify the change request and determine the dependencies. Obtain all relevant information in the change request form (i.e., who is requesting the change and why). Get proper authorization for the change, matching it to specific devices and prioritizing it. Make sure you understand the dependencies and the impact on business applications, other devices and systems, etc. This usually involves multiple stakeholders from different teams. Validate that the change is necessary. AlgoSec research has found that up to 30% of changes are unnecessary. Weeding out redundant work can significantly improve IT operations and business agility. Perform a risk assessment. Before approving the change, thoroughly test it and analyze the results so as not to unintentionally open up the proverbial can of worms. Does the proposed change create a new risk in the security policy? You need to know this for certain BEFORE making the change. Plan the change. Assign resources, create and test your back-out plans, and schedule the change. Part of a good change plan involves having a backup plan in case a change goes unexpectedly wrong. This is also a good place in the process to ensure that everything is properly documented for troubleshooting or recertification purposes. Execute the change. Backup existing configurations, prepare target device(s) and notify appropriate workgroups of any planned outage and perform the actual change. Verify correct execution to avoid outages. Test the change, including affected systems and network traffic patterns. Audit and govern the change process. Review the executed change and any lessons learned. Having a non-operations-related group conduct the audit provides the necessary separation of duties and ensures a documented audit trail for every change. Measure SLAs. Establish new performance metrics and obtain a baseline measurement. Recertify policies. While not necessary for every rule change, part of your change management process should include a review and recertification of policies at an interval that you define (e.g., once a year). Oftentimes, rules are temporary – needed only for a certain period of time – but they are left in place beyond their active date. This step forces you to review why policies are in place, enabling you to improve documentation and to remove or tweak rules to align with the business. In some cases (e.g., data breach) a change to a firewall rule set must be made immediately, where, even with all the automation in the world, there is no time to go through the 10 steps. To address this type of situation, an emergency process should be defined and documented. Schedule a Demo Key capabiities to look for in a firewall change management solution Your workflow system must be firewall- and network-aware. This allows the system to gather the proper intelligence by pulling the configuration information from the firewalls to understand the current policies. Ultimately, this reduces the time it takes to complete many of the steps within the change process. In contrast, a general change management system will not have this integration and thus will provide no domain-specific expertise when it comes to making firewall rule changes. Your solution must support all of the firewalls and routers used within your organization. With the evolution of next-generation firewalls and new cloud devices, you should also consider how your plans fit into your firewall change-management decisions. In larger organizations, there are typically many firewalls from different vendors. If your solution cannot support all the devices in the environment (current and future), then this isn’t the solution for you! Your solution must be topology-aware. The solution must:Understand how the network is laid out Comprehend how the devices fit and interact Provide the necessary visibility of how traffic is flowing through the network Your solution must integrate with the existing general change management systems. This is important so that you can maximize the return on previously made investments. You don’t want to undergo a massive retraining on processes and systems simply because you have introduced a new solution. This integration allows users to continue using their familiar systems, but with the added intelligence from having that firewall-aware visibility and understanding that the new solution delivers. Your solution must provide out-of-the-box change workflows to streamline change-management processes as well as be highly customizable since no two organizations’ network and change processes are exactly the same. Key workflow capabilities to look for in a solution:Provide out-of-the-box change workflows to help you quickly tackle common change-request scenarios Offer the ability to tailor the change process to your unique business needs by: Creating request templates that define the information required to start a change process and pre-populate information where possible Enabling parallel approval steps within the workflow — ideal when multiple approvals are required to process a change Influencing the workflow according to dynamic information obtained during ticket processing (e.g., risk level, affected firewalls, urgency, ) Ensuring accountability and increasing corporate governance with logic that routes change requests to specific roles throughout the workflow Identify which firewalls and rules block requested traffic Detect and filter unneeded/redundant requests for traffic that is already permitted Provide “what-if” risk-analysis to ensure compliance with regulations and policies Automatically produce detailed work orders, indicating which new or existing rules to add or edit and which objects to create or reuse Prevent unauthorized changes by automatically matching detected policy changes with request tickets and reporting on mismatches Ensure that change requests have actually been implemented on the network, preventing premature closing of tickets Schedule a Demo Out-of-the-box workflow examples The best solutions allow for: Adding new rules via a wizard-driven request process and flow that includes impact analysis, change validation and audit Changing rules and objects by easily defining the requests for creation, modification and deletion, and identifying rules affected by suggested object modifications for best impact analysis Removing rules by automatically retrieving a list of change requests related to the rule-removal request, notifying all requestors of the impending change, managing the approval process, documenting and validating removal Recertifying rules by automatically presenting all tickets with deadlines to the responsible party for recertification or rejection and maintaining a full audit trail with actionable reporting Quantifying the ROI on firewall change-control automation Schedule a Demo Cut your costs Manual firewall change management is a time-consuming and error-prone process. Consider a typical change order that requires a total of four hours of work by several team members during the change lifecycle, including communication, validation, risk assessment, planning and design, execution, verification, documentation, auditing and measurement. Based on these assumptions, AlgoSec customers have reported significant cost savings (as much as 60%) achieved through: Reduction of 50% in processing time using automation Elimination of 30% of unnecessary changes Elimination of 8% of changes that are reopened due to incorrect implementation Schedule a Demo Summary While change management is complex stuff, the decision for your business is actually simple. You can continue to slowly chug along with manual change management processes that drain your IT resources and impede agility. Or you can accelerate your processes with an automated network change- management workflow solution that aligns the different stakeholders involved in the process (network operations, network security, compliance, business owners, etc.) and helps the business run more smoothly. Think of your change process as a key component of the engine of an expensive car (in this case, your organization). Would you drive your car at high speed if you didn’t have tested, dependable brakes or a steering wheel? Hopefully, the answer is no! The brakes and steering wheel are analogous to change controls and processes. Rather than slowing you down, they actually make you go faster, securely! Power steering and power brakes (in this case, firewall-aware integration and automation) help you zoom to success. Let's start your journey to our business-centric network Schedule a Demo Select a size Overview Introduction Why is it so hard to make changes to network policies? Mind the gap? Not if you want a good change management process Real-life examples of good changes gone bad Taking the fire drill out of firewall changes 10 steps to automating and standardizing the firewall change-management process Key capabiities to look for in a firewall change management solution Out-of-the-box workflow examples Cut your costs Summary Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

Cisco awards AlgoSec with EMEA Co-Sell Partner of the Year and Cisco Meraki Marketplace Tech Partner of the Month based on the company’s continued innovation and dedication to application security AlgoSec Wins Two Cisco Partnership Awards, Recognizing the Value for Securing Application Connectivity Across Hybrid Networks Cisco awards AlgoSec with EMEA Co-Sell Partner of the Year and Cisco Meraki Marketplace Tech Partner of the Month based on the company’s continued innovation and dedication to application security November 20, 2024 Speak to one of our experts RIDGEFIELD PARK, NJ, November 20, 2024 – Global cybersecurity leader AlgoSec announced it was named November 2024’s Cisco Meraki Marketplace Tech Partner of the Month. AlgoSec received the award for its Secure Application Connectivity platform, which transforms network security policy management by intelligently automating and orchestrating security change processes. Cisco’s cloud-managed Meraki platform enables users to centrally manage and configure security solutions, bridging the gap between hardware and the cloud to deliver a high-performance network. When integrated with AlgoSec’s secure application connectivity platform, joint customers can achieve holistic visibility across their Cisco and multivendor network, expedite security policy changes, reduce risks, prevent outages and ensure continuous compliance. “We are thrilled to be recognized as a value-added partner by Cisco,” said Reinhard Eichborn , Director of Strategic Alliances at AlgoSec. “In the current security landscape, embracing automation to eliminate human errors, misconfigurations and prolonged outages is vital. Our partnership with Cisco enables us to do this by giving customers a holistic view of how applications operate within their network, removing the need for manual monitoring and data processing. It’s a single source of truth for application security management that helps sustain business-critical operations and limit the threat of a potential data breach." AlgoSec has been recognized by winning Cisco’s Co-Sell Partner of the Year EMEA award for its collaborative efforts to jointly market and sell complementary solutions alongside Cisco to allow joint customers to secure their complex networks by focusing on the applications that run their businesses. The dynamic partnership focuses on improving visibility, automating application connectivity changes and easily discovering and managing risks by integrating the AlgoSec platform with Cisco’s network solutions. The awards program honors top-performing partners that have introduced innovative processes, seized new opportunities and adopted sales approaches that achieve substantial business outcomes for customers. In today’s threat environment, innovative security measures that prioritize security at the application level have become essential. Further underscoring AlgoSec’s commitment to application security, the company was recently recognized by Cyber Defense Magazine’s Top InfoSec Innovator 2024 awards as a winner in the Hot Company Application Security and Most Innovative Network Security and Management categories. The program awards companies that demonstrate understanding of tomorrow’s threats, today, providing a cost-effective solution and innovating in unexpected ways that can help mitigate cyber risk and get one step ahead of the next breach. To find out more visit https://www.algosec.com/cisco-algosec/ . About AlgoSec AlgoSec, a global cybersecurity leader, empowers organizations to secure application connectivity and cloud-native applications throughout their multi-cloud and hybrid network. Trusted by more than 1,800 of the world’s leading organizations, AlgoSec’s application-centric approach enables secure acceleration of business application deployment by centrally managing application connectivity and security policies across the public clouds, private clouds, containers, and on-premises networks. Using its unique vendor-agnostic deep algorithm for intelligent change management automation, AlgoSec enables the acceleration of digital transformation projects, helps prevent business application downtime and substantially reduces manual work and exposure to security risks. AlgoSec’s policy management and CNAPP platforms provide a single source for visibility into security and compliance issues within cloud-native applications as well as across the hybrid network environment, to ensure ongoing adherence to internet security standards, industry, and internal regulations. Learn how AlgoSec enables application owners, information security experts, DevSecOps and cloud security teams to deploy business applications up to 10 times faster while maintaining security at https://www.algosec.com . 

Learn how firewall rules secure your network from cyber threats. Explore types, best practices, and management strategies to optimize your firewall security. Firewall rules & requirements (inbound vs. outbound) ---- ------- Schedule a Demo Select a size ----- Get the latest insights from the experts Use these six best practices to simplify compliance and risk mitigation with the AlgoSec platform White paper Learn how AlgoSec can help you pass PCI-DSS Audits and ensure continuous compliance Solution overview See how this customer improved compliance readiness and risk management with AlgoSec Case study Choose a better way to manage your network

AlgoSec vs Tufin vs FireMon ---- ------- Schedule a Demo Select a size ----- Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

Learn the key features of secure cloud technologies, from access control and encryption to visibility, governance, and hybrid cloud policy management. What are the key features of secure cloud technologies? ---- ------- Schedule a Demo Select a size ----- Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

Boost Cisco ACI adoption with AlgoSec. Simplify security management, enhance visibility, and streamline policy automation for your ACI environment. Increasing Cisco ACI adoption with AlgoSec ---- ------- Schedule a Demo Select a size ----- Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

Organizations transitioning to the cloud require robust security concepts to protect their most critical assets, including business... Cloud Security Top Two Cloud Security Concepts You Won’t Want to Overlook Rony Moshkovich 2 min read Rony Moshkovich Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 11/24/22 Published Organizations transitioning to the cloud require robust security concepts to protect their most critical assets, including business applications and sensitive data. Rony Moshkovitch, Prevasio’s co-founder, explains these concepts and why reinforcing a DevSecOps culture would help organizations strike the right balance between security and agility. In the post-COVID era, enterprise cloud adoption has grown rapidly. Per a 2022 security survey , over 98% of organizations use some form of cloud-based infrastructure. But 27% have also experienced a cloud security incident in the previous 12 months. So, what can organizations do to protect their critical business applications and sensitive data in the cloud? Why Consider Paved Road, Guardrails, and Least Privilege Access for Cloud Security It is in the organization’s best interest to allow developers to expedite the lifecycle of an application. At the same time, it’s the security teams’ job to facilitate this process in tandem with the developers to help them deliver a more secure application on time. As organizations migrate their applications and workloads to a multi-cloud platform, it’s incumbent to use a Shift left approach to DevSecOps. This enables security teams to build tools, and develop best practices and guidelines that enable the DevOps teams to effectively own the security process during the application development stage without spending time responding to risk and compliance violations issued by the security teams. This is where Paved Road, Guardrails and Least Privilege could add value to your DevSecOps. Concept 1: The Paved Road + Guardrails Approach Suppose your security team builds numerous tools, establishes best practices, and provides expert guidance. These resources enable your developers to use the cloud safely and protect all enterprise assets and data without spending all their time or energy on these tasks. They can achieve these objectives because the security team has built a “paved road” with strong “guardrails” for the entire organization to follow and adopt. By following and implementing good practices, such as building an asset inventory, creating safe templates, and conducting risk analyses for each cloud and cloud service, the security team enables developers to execute their own tasks quickly and safely. Security staff will implement strong controls that no one can violate or bypass. They will also clearly define a controlled exception process, so every exception is clearly tracked and accountability is always maintained. Over time, your organization may work with more cloud vendors and use more cloud services. In this expanding cloud landscape, the paved road and guardrails will allow users to do their jobs effectively in a security-controlled manner because security is already “baked in” to everything they work with. Moreover, they will be prevented from doing anything that may increase the organization’s risk of breaches, thus keeping you safe from the bad guys. How Paved Road Security and Guardrails Can Be Applied Successfully Example 1: Set Baked-in Security Controls Remember to bake security into reusable Terraform templates or AWS CloudFormation modules of paved roads. You may apply this tactic to provision new infrastructure, create new storage buckets, or adopt new cloud services. When you create a paved road and implement appropriate guardrails, all your golden modules and templates are already secure from the outset – safeguarding your assets and preventing undesirable security events. Example 2: Introducing Security Standardizations When creating resource functions with built-in security standards, developers should adhere to these standards to confidently configure required resources without introducing security issues into the cloud ecosystem. Example 3: Automating Security with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) IaC is a way to manage and provision new infrastructure by coding specifications instead of following manual processes. To create a paved road for IaC, the security team can introduce tagging to provision and track cloud resources. They can also incorporate strong security guardrails into the development environment to secure the new infrastructure right from the outset. Concept 2: The Principle of Least Privileged Access (PoLP) The Principle of Least Privilege Access (PoLP) is often synonymous with Zero Trust. PoLP is about ensuring that a user can only access the resources they need to complete a required task. The idea is to prevent the misuse of critical systems and data and reduce the attack surface to decrease the probability of breaches. How Can PoLP Be Applied Successfully Example 1: Ring-fencing critical assets This is the process of isolating specific “crown jewel” applications so that even if an attacker could make it into your environment, they would be unable to reach that data or application. As few people as possible would be given credentials that allow access, therefore following least privilege access rules. Crown jewel applications could be anything from where sensitive customer data is stored, to business-critical systems and processes. Example 2: Establishing Role Based Access Control (RABC) Based on the role that they hold at the company, RBAC or role-based access control allows specific access to certain data or applications, or parts of the network. This goes hand in hand with the principle of least privilege, and means that if credentials are stolen, the attackers are limited to what access the employee in question holds. As this is based on users, you could isolate privileged user sessions specifically to keep them with an extra layer of protection. Only if an administrator account or one with wide access privilege is stolen, would the business be in real trouble. Example 3: Isolate applications, tiers, users, or data This task is usually done with micro-segmentation, where specific applications, users, data, or any other element of the business is protected from an attack with internal, next-gen firewalls. Risk is reduced in a similar way to the examples above, where the requisite access needed is provided using the principle of least privilege to allow access to only those who need it, and no one else. In some situations, you might need to allow elevated privileges for a short period of time, for example during an emergency. Watch out for privilege creep, where users gain more access over time without any corrective oversight. Conclusion and Next Steps Paved Road, Guardrails and PoLP concepts are all essential for a strong cloud security posture. By adopting these concepts, your organization can move to the next stage of cloud security maturity and create a culture of security-minded responsibility at every level of the enterprise. The Prevasio cloud security platform allows you to apply these concepts across your entire cloud estate while securing your most critical applications. Schedule a demo Related Articles Q1 at AlgoSec: What innovations and milestones defined our start to 2026? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Learn what firewall policy drift is, why rules move away from approved intent, and how to detect, remediate, and prevent drift across hybrid networks. What is firewall policy drift and how do you prevent it? ---- ------- Schedule a Demo Select a size ----- Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

Firewalls form the first line of defense against intrusive hackers trying to infiltrate internal networks and steal sensitive data. They... Firewall Change Management 5 Types of Firewalls for Enhanced Network Security Asher Benbenisty 2 min read Asher Benbenisty Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 10/25/23 Published Firewalls form the first line of defense against intrusive hackers trying to infiltrate internal networks and steal sensitive data. They act as a barrier between networks, clearly defining the perimeters of each. The earliest generation of packet-filter firewalls were rudimentary compared to today’s next-generation firewalls, but cybercrime threats were also less sophisticated. Since then, cybersecurity vendors have added new security features to firewalls in response to emerging cyber threats. Today, organizations can choose between many different types of firewalls designed for a wide variety of purposes. Optimizing your organization’s firewall implementation requires understanding the differences between firewalls and the network layers they protect. How Do Firewalls Work? Firewalls protect networks by inspecting data packets as they travel from one place to another. These packets are organized according to the transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP), which provides a standard way to organize data in transit. This protocol is a concise version of the more general OSI model commonly used to describe computer networks. These frameworks allow firewalls to interpret incoming traffic according to strictly defined standards. Security experts use these standards to create rules that tell firewalls what to do when they detect unusual traffic. The OSI model has seven layers: Application Presentation Session Transport Network Data link Physical Most of the traffic that reaches your firewall will use one of the three major Transport layer protocols in this model, TCP, UDP, or ICMP. Many security experts focus on TCP rules because this protocol uses a three-step TCP handshake to provide a reliable two-way connection. The earliest firewalls only operated on the Network Layer, which provides information about source and destination IP addresses, protocols, and port numbers. Later firewalls added Transport Layer and Application Layer functionality. The latest next-generation firewalls go even further, allowing organizations to enforce identity-based policies directly from the firewall. Related Read : Host-Based vs. Network-Based Firewalls 1. Traditional Firewalls Packet Filtering Firewalls Packet-filtering firewalls only examine Network Layer data, filtering out traffic according to the network address, the protocol used, or source and destination port data. Because they do not inspect the connection state of individual data packets, they are also called stateless firewalls. These firewalls are simple and they don’t support advanced inspection features. However, they offer low latency and high throughput, making them ideal for certain low-cost inline security applications. Stateful Inspection Firewalls When stateful firewalls inspect data packets, they capture details about active sessions and connection states. Recording this data provides visibility into the Transport layer and allows the firewall to make more complex decisions. For example, a stateful firewall can mitigate a denial-of-service attack by comparing a spike in incoming traffic against rules for making new connections – stateless firewalls don’t have a historical record of connections to look up. These firewalls are also called dynamic packet-filtering firewalls. They are generally more secure than stateless firewalls but may introduce latency because it takes time to inspect every data packet traveling through the network. Circuit-Level Gateways Circuit-level gateways act as a proxy between two devices attempting to connect with one another. These firewalls work on the Session layer of the OSI model, performing the TCP handshake on behalf of a protected internal server. This effectively hides valuable information about the internal host, preventing attackers from conducting reconnaissance into potential targets. Instead of inspecting individual data packets, these firewalls translate internal IP addresses to registered Network Address Translation (NAT) addresses. NAT rules allow organizations to protect servers and endpoints by preventing their internal IP address from being public knowledge. 2. Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) Traditional firewalls only address threats from a few layers in the OSI model. Advanced threats can bypass these Network and Transport Layer protections to attack web applications directly. To address these threats, firewalls must be able to analyze individual users, devices, and data assets as they travel through complex enterprise networks. Next-generation firewalls achieve this by looking beyond the port and protocol data of individual packets and sessions. This grants visibility into sophisticated threats that simpler firewalls would overlook. For example, a traditional firewall may block traffic from an IP address known for conducting denial-of-service attacks. Hackers can bypass this by continuously changing IP addresses to confuse and overload the firewall, which may allow routing malicious traffic to vulnerable assets. A next-generation firewall may notice that all this incoming traffic carries the same malicious content. It may act as a TCP proxy and limit the number of new connections made per second. When illegitimate connections fail the TCP handshake, it can simply drop them without causing the organization’s internal systems to overload. This is just one example of what next-gen firewalls are capable of. Most modern firewall products combine a wide variety of technologies to provide comprehensive perimeter security against comprehensive cyber attacks. How do NGFWs Enhance Network Security? Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) : NGFWs go beyond basic packet filtering by inspecting the content of data packets. They analyze the actual data payload and not just header information. This allows them to identify and block threats within the packet content, such as malware, viruses, and suspicious patterns. Application-Level Control : NGFWs can identify and control applications and services running on the network. This enables administrators to define and enforce policies based on specific applications, rather than just port numbers. For example, you can allow or deny access to social media sites or file-sharing applications. Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) : NGFWs often incorporate intrusion prevention capabilities. They can detect and prevent known and emerging cyber threats by comparing network traffic patterns against a database of known attack signatures. This proactive approach helps protect against various cyberattacks. Advanced Threat Detection: NGFWs use behavioral analysis and heuristics to detect and block unknown or zero-day threats. By monitoring network traffic for anomalies, they can identify suspicious behavior and take action to mitigate potential threats. U ser and Device Identification : NGFWs can associate network traffic with specific users or devices, even in complex network environments. This user/device awareness allows for more granular security policies and helps in tracking and responding to security incidents effectively. Integration with Security Ecosystem : NGFWs often integrate with other security solutions, such as antivirus software, intrusion detection systems (IDS), and security information and event management (SIEM) systems. This collaborative approach provides a multi-layered defense strategy . Security Automation : NGFWs can automate threat response and mitigation. For example, they can isolate compromised devices from the network or initiate other predefined actions to contain threats swiftly. In a multi-layered security environment, these firewalls often enforce the policies established by security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) platforms. Content Filtering : NGFWs can filter web content, providing URL filtering and content categorization. This helps organizations enforce internet usage policies and block access to potentially harmful or inappropriate websites. Some NGFWs can even detect outgoing user credentials (like an employee’s Microsoft account password) and prevent that content from leaving the network. VPN and Secure Remote Access : NGFWs often include VPN capabilities to secure remote connections. This is crucial for ensuring the security of remote workers and branch offices. Advanced firewalls may also be able to identify malicious patterns in external VPN traffic, protecting organizations from threat actors hiding behind encrypted VPN providers. Cloud-Based Threat Intelligence : Many NGFWs leverage cloud-based threat intelligence services to stay updated with the latest threat information. This real-time threat intelligence helps NGFWs identify and block emerging threats more effectively. Scalability and Performance : NGFWs are designed to handle the increasing volume of network traffic in modern networks. They offer improved performance and scalability, ensuring that security does not compromise network speed. Logging and Reporting : NGFWs generate detailed logs and reports of network activity. These logs are valuable for auditing, compliance, and forensic analysis, helping organizations understand and respond to security incidents. 3. Proxy Firewalls Proxy firewalls are also called application-level gateways or gateway firewalls. They define which applications a network can support, increasing security but demanding continuous attention to maintain network functionality and efficiency. Proxy firewalls provide a single point of access allowing organizations to assess the threat posed by the applications they use. It conducts deep packet inspection and uses proxy-based architecture to mitigate the risk of Application Layer attacks. Many organizations use proxy servers to segment the parts of their network most likely to come under attack. Proxy firewalls can monitor the core internet protocols these servers use against every application they support. The proxy firewall centralizes application activity into a single server and provides visibility into each data packet processed. This allows the organization to maintain a high level of security on servers that make tempting cyberattack targets. However, these servers won’t be able to support new applications without additional firewall configuration. These types of firewalls work well in highly segmented networks that allow organizations to restrict access to sensitive data without impacting usability and production. 4. Hardware Firewalls Hardware firewalls are physical devices that secure the flow of traffic between devices in a network. Before cloud computing became prevalent, most firewalls were physical hardware devices. Now, organizations can choose to secure on-premises network infrastructure using hardware firewalls that manage the connections between routers, switches, and individual devices. While the initial cost of acquiring and configuring a hardware firewall can be high, the ongoing overhead costs are smaller than what software firewall vendors charge (often an annual license fee). This pricing structure makes it difficult for growing organizations to rely entirely on hardware devices. There is always a chance that you end up paying for equipment you don’t end up using at full capacity. Hardware firewalls offer a few advantages over software firewalls: They avoid using network resources that could otherwise go to value-generating tasks. They may end up costing less over time than a continuously renewed software firewall subscription fee. Centralized logging and monitoring can make hardware firewalls easier to manage than complex software-based deployments. 5. Software Firewalls Many firewall vendors provide virtualized versions of their products as software. They typically charge an annual licensing fee for their firewall-as-a-service product, which runs on any suitably provisioned server or device. Some software firewall configurations require the software to be installed on every computer in the network, which can increase the complexity of deployment and maintenance over time. If firewall administrators forget to update a single device, it may become a security vulnerability. At the same time, these firewalls don’t have their own operating systems or dedicated system resources available. They must draw computing power and memory from the devices they are installed on. This leaves less power available for mission-critical tasks. However, software firewalls carry a few advantages compared to hardware firewalls: The initial subscription-based cost is much lower, and many vendors offer a price structure that ensures you don’t pay for resources you don’t use. Software firewalls do not take up any physical space, making them ideal for smaller organizations. The process of deploying software firewalls often only takes a few clicks. With hardware firewalls, the process can involve complex wiring and time-consuming testing. Advanced Threats and Firewall Solutions Most firewalls are well-equipped to block simple threats, but advanced threats can still cause problems. There are many different types of advanced threats designed to bypass standard firewall policies. Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) often compromise high-level user accounts and slowly spread throughout the network using lateral movement. They may move slowly, gathering information and account credentials over weeks or months before exfiltrating the data undetected. By moving slowly, these threats avoid triggering firewall rules. Credential-based attacks bypass simple firewall rules by using genuine user credentials to carry out attacks. Since most firewall policies trust authenticated users, attackers can easily bypass rules by stealing user account credentials. Simple firewalls can’t distinguish between normal traffic and malicious traffic by an authenticated, signed-in user. Malicious insiders can be incredibly difficult to detect. These are genuine, authenticated users who have decided to act against the organization’s interest. They may already know how the firewall system works, or have privileged access to firewall configurations and policies. Combination attacks may target multiple security layers with separate, independent attacks. For example, your cloud-based firewalls may face a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack while a malicious insider exfiltrates information from the cloud. These tactics allow hackers to coordinate attacks and cover their tracks. Only next-generation firewalls have security features that can address these types of attack. Anti-data exfiltration tools may prevent users from sending their login credentials to unsecured destinations, or prevent large-scale data exfiltration altogether. Identity-based policies may block authenticated users from accessing assets they do not routinely use. Firewall Configuration and Security Policies The success of any firewall implementation is determined by the quality of its security rules. These rules decide which types of traffic the firewall will allow to pass, and what traffic it will block. In a modern network environment, this is done using four basic types of firewall rules: Access Control Lists (ACLs). These identify the users who have permission to access a certain resource or asset. They may also dictate which operations are allowed on that resource or asset. Network Address Translation (NAT) rules. These rules protect internal devices by hiding their original IP address from the public Internet. This makes it harder for hackers to gain unauthorized access to system resources because they can’t easily target individual devices from outside the network. Stateful packet filtering . This is the process of inspecting data packets in each connection and determining what to do with data flows that do not appear genuine. Stateful firewalls keep track of existing connections, allowing them to verify the authentication of incoming data that claims to be part of an already established connection. Application-level gateways. These firewall rules provide application-level protection, preventing hackers from disguising malicious traffic as data from (or for) an application. To perform this kind of inspection, the firewall must know what normal traffic looks like for each application on the network, and be able to match incoming traffic with those applications. Network Performance and Firewalls Firewalls can impact network performance and introduce latency into networks. Optimizing network performance with firewalls is a major challenge in any firewall implementation project. Firewall experts use a few different approaches to reduce latency and maintain fast, reliable network performance: Installing hardware firewalls on high-volume routes helps, since separate physical devices won’t draw computing resources away from other network devices. Using software firewalls in low-volume situations where flexibility is important. Sometimes, being able to quickly configure firewall rules to adapt to changing business conditions can make a major difference in overall network performance. Configuring servers to efficiently block unwanted traffic is a continuous process. Server administrators should avoid overloading firewalls with denied outbound requests that strain firewalls at the network perimeter. Firewall administrators should try to distribute unwanted traffic across multiple firewalls and routers instead of allowing it to concentrate on one or two devices. They should also try reducing the complexity of the firewall rule base and minimize overlapping rules. Schedule a demo Related Articles Q1 at AlgoSec: What innovations and milestones defined our start to 2026? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... 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Manage multi-cloud security with effective policy and configuration strategies to ensure compliance, optimize performance, and protect your network infrastructure. Multi-Cloud Security Network Policy and Configuration Management Overview Taking advantage of cost and performance improvements, enterprises are extending their networks far beyond the traditional perimeter to incorporate multiple public and private clouds. Migration of applications to clouds has become an indispensable strategy for enterprises as clouds deliver many financial, performance and other advantages. Public clouds have become part of the computing fabric of millions of enterprises. Schedule a Demo Introduction Digitally transforming their businesses with numerous new applications, mobility and big data, enterprises are rapidly expanding their networks. Taking advantage of cost and performance improvements, enterprise networks extend way beyond the traditional perimeter and now incorporate software-defined networks (SDN), micro-segmentation and multiple clouds. The typical medium or large enterprise now manages a dynamic heterogeneous network that includes: Data centers Public clouds Private clouds Traditional network security policy management within the data center has always been challenging enough. Multiple firewalls from different vendors, thousands of rules and hundreds of weekly or monthly changes call for their own careful management and automation. But as the network estate becomes even wider and more complex, coherent security policy now has to extend across the entire heterogeneous network that includes multiple public clouds (e.g., AWS, MS Azure, Google Cloud Platform), each with its own language and methods. In the world of multi-cloud deployments, the need for cloud vendor-agnostic, holistic security policy automation becomes essential. In this paper, we will discuss the major security policy issues that concern enterprises as they expand their networks across multiple clouds. We will explain how AlgoSec delivers a comprehensive, unified, vendor-agnostic automation solution that enables security managers to reduce risk, improve compliance and boost efficiency across the heterogeneous network including multi-clouds. Schedule a Demo Where the data center meets the cloud In the data center, AlgoSec automates network security policy in device vendor-agnostic fashion—that is, it provides a unified console from which security teams can holistically manage security policy across multiple data centers and network segments that include many firewalls and other network devices. The AlgoSec solution is vendor-agnostic, enabling security teams to use a common security interface to handle policy management regardless of type of network device. The AlgoSec solution is able to tie security-policy management to business processes and applications, proactively assessing risk, and ensuring continuous compliance in addition to quick provisioning, change, migration and decommissioning of network connectivity for business applications. That businesses are migrating applications to private and public clouds doesn’t change anything for AlgoSec. Neither do virtualization nor multi-cloud deployments. In fact, the accelerating deployment of heterogeneous networks greatly increases the need for an automated Network Security Policy Management (NSPM) solution like AlgoSec. Schedule a Demo Migration to the cloud and virtualization – a growing trend The network landscape of today differs radically from what we knew only a few years ago. For a variety of quantifiable reasons that include productivity, agility and costs, enterprises are migrating their applications to public and private clouds. Public clouds Migration of applications to public clouds has become an indispensable strategy for enterprises as public clouds bring a great many advantages. The most popular of the public clouds, AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, have become part of the computing fabric of millions of enterprises. Because of the proliferation of easy-to-use and cost-effective public clouds, enterprises leverage multiple cloud vendors. IDC estimates that nearly 80 percent of IT organizations are currently deploying, or are planning to deploy, multi-cloud environments. A study conducted by Microsoft and 451 Research, The Digital Revolution Powered by Cloud, stated that nearly a third of organizations already work with three or four cloud vendors. The embracing of the multi-cloud environment can be attributed to the advantages each cloud vendor has to offer such as unique functions, proximity and pricing models. Since application requirements can vary greatly and require specific functions and capabilities to operate optimally, matching them to specific cloud vendors is important. Various cloud environments offer the functions and tools that deliver the best capabilities for each application. Some public clouds excel in cost advantages, others in availability, still others in compute power. Businesses evaluate the advantages of each cloud to take advantage of the functions that will best support each application. Enterprises also worry about lock-in—a commitment to a single cloud vendor—that might turn them into a captive customer allowing that vendor to dictate the terms of service and costs. Businesses avoid lock-in by deploying applications across multiple clouds. Private clouds As enterprises transform digitally, their data and applications grow exponentially. Network managers are constantly challenged to re-consider the network infrastructure that will best support business needs now and into the foreseeable future. Today, private cloud is one of their main considerations. Private cloud is a type of cloud computing that delivers advantages similar to public cloud, including scalability and self-service, but through a proprietary architecture that the enterprises maintain themselves. While public clouds deliver services to any number of enterprises, a single enterprise establishes its own private cloud dedicated to its own needs. Therefore, private cloud is the best choice for enterprises who wish to control all the aspects of their computing and where it is easier to manage security and regulatory compliance. According to Market Research Future, the global private cloud market, although not as widely adopted as the public cloud, is still expected to grow explosively at 26% CAGR between 2017 and 2023 and reach a valuation of more than USD 50B by 2023. Get a demo Hybrid networks As a result of the distinct advantages and disadvantages of each type of cloud implementation, most enterprises utilize two or three types of environments: traditional data center processing, private clouds and public clouds; and in many cases, employing multiple vendors for the cloud environments. Taken together, they give rise to the heterogeneous network environment or hybrid network . Schedule a Demo Network security challenges in the hybrid network Running applications across the hybrid network can prove eminently useful for business teams but extraordinarily challenging for security teams. The complexity of the heterogeneous environment introduces a new level of security policy management challenges. We identify seven major challenges that must be addressed to ensure security and compliance across hybrid networks. 1. Visibility The more heterogenous the network, the more complex it becomes. Complexity is the enemy of security. Across the vast landscape of physical equipment, virtual firewalls, and public-cloud network security groups, security teams find it difficult to obtain a clear picture of application-connectivity requirements and overall network security. You can’t protect what you can’t see. Visibility is essential to security and rapid incident response. Obtaining full visibility across the entire hybrid network requires a deep understanding of the hybrid network’s topology and the flows between: On-premise networks and cloud providers Multiple public cloud environments VPCs and v-NETs Regions within the same cloud providers Cloud environments and the internet A study sponsored by Forbes surveyed professionals in enterprise IT departments about their cloud infrastructures. More than one-third said they lack visibility into their application operations in the public cloud. The independent market research company, Vanson Bourne, conducted a survey to investigate the state of network security. In Hide and Seek: Cybersecurity and the Cloud , two-thirds of respondents cited network “blind spots” as a major obstacle to effective data protection. Ixia’s recent survey of senior IT staff in various organizations regarding their cloud security concerns concurred. The top concern with cloud adoption was the ability to achieve full visibility. 2. Maintaining compliance posture Put bluntly, compliance is absolutely necessary for the business but is a nuisance for the IT staff. With the recent introduction of the GDPR and the growing body of legal and industrial regulations, compliance is taking up more and more effort and time from IT departments and especially security staff. Keeping up with the numerous regulations that are found in a growing number of geographies and industries is challenging enough in a single-cloud-provider environment. Compliance challenges multiply rapidly in heterogeneous environments due to: The need to apply compliance processes for each regulation for each network entity Service contract terms and SLAs across the estate Compliance methodologies that work for one cloud vendor don’t necessarily work for another Audits are point-in-time exercises, but most regulations require continuous compliance, tough to achieve in a dynamic environment Compliance needs to be documented for every entity and vendor, very tedious and time-consuming, and a drain on scant resources The essence of information security regulations such as PCI-DSS, GLBA and HIPAA is to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive information. While these regulations are addressed by the best practices that IT departments have continuously implemented for years, the challenges are rapidly expanding in the heterogeneous environment. Due to the chronic lack of IT and security staff, teams are incessantly pulled in different directions. In many cases, it’s gotten to the point where IT staff are busy putting out security and operational fires and have little time to perform critical strategic work such as addressing compliance issues at the network and cloud level. Multiple clouds just make the task that much harder. 3. Identifying and mitigating risks Due to the dynamic nature of the hybrid (on-prem and cloud) network, numerous changes to security policies are likely to ensue. These changes will be implemented on all the devices that direct traffic and will likely be performed by the multiple stakeholders involved in the hybrid network such as application developers and DevOps in addition to cloud and security teams. The ever-transforming environment necessitates close attention as risk may be introduced inadvertently by these changes. The risks within the complex hybrid-cloud estate will likely be too numerous and complex to be identified manually. Therefore, it’s imperative to obtain a dashboard that depicts all risks on a single screen. This dashboard should indicate the severity, the affected devices and rules, and the changes required to remediate each risk. The dashboard also requires the ability to notify pro-actively (via alarm) whenever the network is exposed to new risks. 4. Managing application connectivity The growing body of applications requires a complex, multi-tiered, distributed and interconnected architecture supported by elaborate communication paths that cross other applications, servers and databases. A Symantec analysis found that while most CIOs think their organizations use only 30 or 40 cloud applications , in fact, most have adopted an average of 928! Even if they get a grip on their current application volume, network and security teams can’t consider themselves in control. There are constant upgrades and changes, as well as new applications to deploy, connect and secure. Business users demand that they be up and running immediately while security is hard-pressed to keep up. Trying to manage application connectivity across on-premise, private and public clouds, each with multiple vendors, is prohibitively expensive in time and effort. 5. Managing policies Maintaining a clean set of firewall rules is a critical network-management function. Difficult enough in the data center, things really get out of hand when networks cross borders into the cloud. Private clouds add unique security controls such as ACI contracts and distributed firewalls. And each public cloud has its unique security controls such as cloud-native security groups, cloud-vendor firewalls (e.g., Azure firewall and AWS WAF), and 3rd-party cloud firewalls by the traditional firewall vendors (e.g., CloudGuard from Checkpoint and Palo Alto Networks’ VM series). The proliferation of security controls that make up the hybrid, multi-cloud network multiplies policy-management complexity. Maintaining a clean set of firewall rules is a critical firewall management function. Difficult enough in the data center, things really get out of hand when networks cross borders into the cloud. Adding more than one cloud further multiples the policy-management complexity. Unwieldy rulesets are not just a technical nuisance, they also introduce business risks, such as open ports, unneeded VPN tunnels and conflicting rules that create the backdoor entry points that hackers love. Bloated rulesets significantly complicate auditing processes that require the careful review of each rule and its related business justification. Examples of firewall rules that institute problems include: Unused rules Shadowed rules Expired rules Unattached objects (rules that refer to non-existent entities such as users who have left the company) Rules that are not ordered optimally (e.g., the rule that is “most hit” is near the bottom of the rule list) These problems drive organizations to take on ad hoc firewall “cleanup” or “recertification” projects. The problems are magnified in enterprises with: A large number of traditional physical firewalls Firewalls from multiple vendors (Checkpoint, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks) Different types of platforms (on-prem, private cloud, public cloud) Different types of security controls (traditional firewalls, security groups, etc.) Such complexities contribute to a lack of visibility, poor accountability, and undetected network breaches. They accumulate unnecessary costs for the business and waste precious IT time. Enterprises across the board are well aware of the need to get a handle on security controls. Research by ESG indicates that 70 percent of organizations plan to unify security controls for all server workloads across public clouds and on-premises resources over the next two years. 6. Enforcing security-policy consistency The only constant in today’s IT environment is change. Today, change occurs at a breakneck pace. As business needs transform (due to rapid business growth, mergers and acquisitions, new applications, decommissioning of old applications, new and departing users, evolving networks, new cyber threats), so must security policies—and fast. Managing change can lead to major headaches for IT, security and cloud management teams who try to enforce consistent security policies across the heterogenous network. Maintaining consistency across the hybrid and multi-cloud network meets with many problems such as: Each security entity has a different method of managing policy changes. Lack of intricate understanding of the proper management of changes for each security entity can lead to critical business risks as benign as legitimate traffic blockage all the way to the entire business network going offline. Manual workflows and change management processes that are unique for each security entity can substantially slow down the change process, impeding IT agility. Some enterprises with a very complex heterogeneous network are so concerned about change control and its potential negative impact that they may resort to network freezes during peak business times so as not to suffer inexplicable outages. Changes are slow. It can take several days—sometimes weeks—to process a single change in a complex enterprise environment. Enterprises may implement hundreds of changes each month. It’s difficult to assess the risk of a proposed change. The change process in a hybrid network involves disparate teams (security, networking, cloud, business owners). These teams speak different languages and have different objectives. They lack a unifying factor. 7. Handling multiple management consoles Each cloud vendor provides its own console that facilitates the day-to-day management of its cloud accounts and provides services such as monitoring cloud-resource usage, calculating current costs and managing security credentials. In addition, each firewall vendor offers its own unique management console for managing all of its devices. Each vendor’s console comes with its own language and GUI. To make network-wide policy changes that span firewalls and clouds, security staff must access multiple consoles forcing enterprises to employ a legion of experts just to implement even a simple change. Changes have to be meticulously coordinated across the many management consoles slowing down progress and introducing potential for errors. 8. Lack of skilled staff with cloud-security knowledge Despite all the advancements we have made in network security in recent years, enterprises still endure regular cyberattacks that continue to cause billions of dollars in damages. Effective network security professionals are now more important than ever. Yet, despite the urgent need (and handsome salaries), the world suffers from a severe scarcity in able and certified personnel. According to a recent McAfee study titled The ramifications of the skills shortage on cloud security, IT leaders need to increase their security staffs by 24% to adequately manage their current threat landscape. But these people are simply not available. The absence of adequately trained security professionals leaves gaps in many aspects of modern-day security infrastructure. In their report on security deficiencies , ESG found that 33% of responders indicated that their biggest deficiency was cloud security specialists followed by 28% who pointed to a deficiency in network security specialists and 27% who suffer a shortage of security analysts. A security officer with expertise in any cloud environment needs to be familiar with the best practices of incident response and must also be proficient in cloud security practices such as identity access management (IAM), deployment automation and cloud regulatory compliance. The requisite qualifications are amplified when the same officer needs to manage multiple cloud vendors. As security varies with each vendor, the multi-cloud security officer must know the security nuances of each cloud vendor and stay up to date with the ongoing security advancements of each. It is practically impossible to find such people. Many network and cloud security positions remain unfilled forcing organizations to compromise. Schedule a Demo The AlgoSec solution for heterogeneous environments AlgoSec delivers business-driven security management across on-premise, SDN, hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud environments. With AlgoSec, enterprises maintain a uniform security policy across their entire network estate. From a single console, security teams can see across their on-prem and virtual networks and into all their clouds. They obtain accurate policy change automation across their physical and virtual firewalls as well as into their public cloud deployments. The AlgoSec approach bestows numerous critical benefits on the enterprise: Visibility across the hybrid cloud and multi-cloud from a business-application perspective Uniform security policy across complex hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments Compliance assurance across the hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments Hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud security policy change automation with zero touch Increased agility and responsiveness to business needs Accelerated application delivery Optimal training of security personnel—one console, one language—for the entire heterogeneous network Schedule a Demo Executive summary AlgoSec delivers the acute visibility, automation and unified solution for managing the entire volume of hybrid-cloud security policies, configurations and controls to achieve and maintain security and compliance. Maintaining a robust security posture in such a complex environment that includes on-premise network equipment from multiple vendors, SDN, virtual, private and public cloud infrastructures necessitates automation . AlgoSec is the leading automation solution for network security policy management. Used by 1,800 customers in over 80 countries, AlgoSec delivers end-to-end visibility and analysis of the hybrid network security infrastructure (including real and virtual firewalls, routers and cloud security groups), as well as business applications and their connectivity flows—across cloud, SDN and on-premise enterprise networks. AlgoSec automates time-consuming and error-prone manual security-policy changes with zero touch, proactively assessing risk and ensuring continuous compliance. AlgoSec quickly provisions, modifies, migrates and decommissions network connectivity for business applications. To discover more about AlgoSec’s business-driven security management solution, visit www.algosec.com , or click here to request a demo. Schedule a Demo Select a size Overview Introduction Where the data center meets the cloud Migration to the cloud and virtualization – a growing trend Network security challenges in the hybrid network The AlgoSec solution for heterogeneous environments Executive summary Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network