AlgoSec Reviews

We use the solution for rule optimization. We had almost 100+ firewalls in our network. AlgoSec helps us to manage the firewalls more effectively.

AlgoSec made our work simple in managing the multivendor firewall rule. Audit-ready reporting is an awesome feature.

The most valuable aspects of the solution include policy optimization, rule cleanup, and network discovery.

They need to do some improvements in multi-vendor firewall policy migration. They need improvements in network discovery. The solution could fix some bugs in the A32. Fireflow needs to be a little more user-friendly.

I've used the solution for the past four years.

The scalability is good.

We previously used Firemon. AlgoSec has more functionality and is user-friendly to manage our firewall more effectively.

The initial setup is good.

The ROI is good.

AlgoSec provided the best price and the team helped effectively with the support and A32 migration.

We did look into Tufin.

The solution is the best in the market.

We have around 200 firewalls that we manage through AlgoSec. We use it for automation purposes in certain cases. We have 10 to 12 team members who use AlgoSec.

We have around 100 plus on-premises devices. However, we are moving over to the cloud. At present, we mainly have Microsoft Azure, and we are going to deploy AWS and Google Cloud soon.

We use AlgoSec FireFlow as well. 

The amount of time spent on doing simple tasks, such as adding a particular rule or giving access to a particular person, or doing the same repetitive task has been reduced. We don't have to manually look into duplicate rules or look into traffic that is not getting hits. It will be automatically taken into consideration by AlgoSec, and the information will be given to us so that we can take action on that part. It saved us a lot of time.

When the staff is doing the same repetitive task all the time, there will be errors. AlgoSec helped to reduce human error and misconfigurations to a great extent.

One of the features that I like about AlgoSec is the topology table. It helps us understand where the traffic flows through, where it gets interconnected, and how the traffic flows from our device to the other device.

The other good feature that I have come across is that it suggests best practices. For example, we had a case where there was a legacy rule that was a wide-open rule. AlgoSec identified what IP traffic got hit and based on that suggested allowing those particular IPs instead of maintaining a wide-open rule.

In terms of the overall visibility that AlgoSec gives into our network security policies, I like the best practice assessment in terms of compliance. It helps us deal with wide-open rules and duplicates, and provides suggestions on how the rules can be written, restructured, and reordered.

AlgoSec reduced the time it takes to implement firewall rules. Also when it is upgraded, which we are in the process of doing, when a user tries to raise a ticket, that ticket will be associated with AlgoSec FireFlow. Then, the user will be able to access it themselves.

We work with multiple security vendors, but not all vendors integrate with AlgoSec. As a result, our team has both AlgoSec and Tufin. In terms of integrations, it's going well so far.

AlgoSec helped to simplify the job of our security engineers. For example, a new user who tries to gain access will have to raise a case, and automation will take that into consideration. It helped us to disable rules that are not being utilized, merge any duplicate rules, and reorder rules based on traffic hits to have a good flow. Any rule works from top to bottom, and AlgoSec will place the major items at the top. These helped to reduce latency as well.

Certain firewalls don't integrate with AlgoSec, and it would be great if this bug could be fixed.

AlgoSec looks into compliance and is helpful. However, it would be nice to have validations that can run before the changes are posted and implemented. Now, if something goes wrong the user would need to reach out to us, and then we would have to troubleshoot. Instead of that, if there are validations for simple tasks, it would be great.

I've also heard from our AlgoSec vendor about a feature that is coming up in the future. With the topology table, we can see the interconnected devices to understand the traffic flow. I was told that with this new feature, if we find a blockage, maybe on a firewall, that we would be able to go to that firewall and allow traffic through a specific rule. This would be done just by right-clicking on that particular device and getting the change implemented through automation. This would be a helpful feature.

I've been using AlgoSec for about a year.

The stability has been okay so far. There are a few bugs, but no device is perfect.

We previously used FireMon and switched to AlgoSec because we were not satisfied with it. FireMon was good but was not user-friendly.

I recommend AlgoSec because it has good features and is more user-friendly than FireMon. AlgoSec has fewer options in terms of tabs, so you'll be able to navigate and explore everything. From a technical point of view, AlgoSec is good for a newcomer. Therefore, I would give AlgoSec an overall rating of eight on a scale from one to ten.

AlgoSec provides a secure connection between applications and helps customers maintain regulatory compliance.

The benefit depends on the type of client. Our banking customers are impressed with the compliance features, automatic policy installation, and FireFlow. They also realize performance improvements of approximately 20 percent. 

AlgoSec has simplified the work of security engineers. If I had to give that a grade, I would give it a nine out of ten. We used the solution to implement and manage micro-segmentation initiatives. Still, it has been limited since this is a private cloud version, and many of our customers use regular firewalls. 

We deal with customers with a mixture of environments, including private cloud, public cloud, and on-premises. Many of them have on-premises and private cloud environments. AlgoSec provides a single pane of glass for managing these mixed environments, making management more effortless. 

The most valuable feature of AlgoSec is integration because it needs the be integrated with vendors' firewalls and other security products. AlgoSec has intelligent policy tuners. 

It's easy to integrate AlgoSec with solutions from other vendors. It's currently integrated with the products of three or four vendors. We integrate AlgoSec with AppViz and other products to get complete visibility into our network policies, and FireFlow helps us manage risks from firewall change requests. It has reduced the time it takes to implement firewall rules by about 20%, according to the ROI calculator on the AlgoSec website. It varies, depending on the structure of the customer's environment. 

AlgoSec also helps us audit complex environments to ensure firewalls are in compliance. The benefit is marginal if there is only one firewall and a few policies, but it's significant when you have three firewall clusters and 60 devices. 

The documentation could be better. 

I've been using AlgoSec for six years.

AlgoSec is stable.

It's a scalable solution but there is room for improvement in that area. It has a high-availability structure, but some features need to be distributed using a collector, for example.

I rate AlgoSec's support eight out of ten. I don't use it much, but it has improved greatly in the last two years. 

Positive

Setting up AlgoSec isn't complicated. You can install it in half an hour, but the configuration time depends on the environment. Sometimes, it takes a day, but it could take up to a week to analyze the files, etc. We have a two-person team responsible for deployment and maintenance, but we also have partners. In all, we have about 10 technicians supporting our customers.

I don't know about pricing because I'm a technical guy. I can say the licensing model is straightforward and should be in the future. It isn't an issue for our customers. 

I rate AlgoSec an eight out of ten. I would recommend AlgoSec, depending on the client's structure and requirements. It's a good solution for regulatory compliance and analytics. 

We use the solution for firewall management (with AFA - AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer) and application network visibility (with AppViz).  

We are running multiple firewalls and hundreds of users who request firewall connectivity.  

When it comes to a large organization with many vendors/partners, our firewalls are more easily managed using the AlgoSec AFA component.  The ease of use, visibility, compliance, and efficiency is unmatched in the industry. 

We have used AlgoSec AFA to have more visibility into the network and know what firewalls to activate. 

AlgoSec AFA has great search tools and firewall cleanup functionality. 

The Algsec AppViz is a newer Algosec element that we will use to improve application security and visibility in our complex network.

The firewall management tool and AppViz for application visibility and security in the network are great. 

The user-friendliness, visibility, compliance and efficiency are unparalleled in the industry. We have more visibility into the network and now we know what firewalls to activate. 

AlgoSec AFA has great search tools.

The firewall cleanup functionality is helpful. 

We also enjoyed the use of AlgoCare which speeds up the ticket troubleshooting process with AlgoSec Support.

I would say that the cases opened with AlgoSec could be solved faster or escalated sooner to the senior engineers/2nd or 3rd tier. AlgoSec Support is very good at responding very fast (faster than the required SLA) and very timely. Their engineers are based either in India or Israel. Each region has its sales person and technical engineer person.  

Another pet peeve is that there are hotfixes for new issues or bugs at least once a month, if not more frequently.  Overall, AlgoSec is trying to improve its case-resolution support team and process, and we are optimistic that our issues or bugs will be fixed much timelier.

We've used the solution for over three years.

It is a very stable product.

The solution is very scalable.

Customer service and support are very prompt, always complying with SLAs. However, the time to resolution can be improved.

Neutral

We did not use a different solution previously.

The initial setup is very straightforward, and the online documentation and AlgoSec engineer support are more than adequate.

We set up the solution in-house.

I am not privy to the financial benefits or ROI for this product.

I am not privy to the cost of the product, as I am a Network Specialist.

The AlgoSec solution was selected before I joined the organization.

We use FireFlow, AppViz, and AppChange. We use them mainly to visualize our firewalls.

We have three data centers, but we are also providing the public cloud as well.

We implemented it to get a better, clearer view. It has supported us very well.

The solution provides us with full visibility into the risk involved in firewall change requests. This is very important for us because we are regulated according to the FDA. It shows us which changes have been made and why. So, it has worked very well for our compliance needs.

AlgoSec is a tool that really supports our work in compliance and our customers' requirements, fulfilling their FDA requirements.

Our security has been stronger due to AlgoSec. We don't have human errors.

The most valuable feature is its ease of use.

It provides a very good, clear view. I really love the product. 

Overall, it gives a better overview of our firewalls. This is a tool that we cannot live without because it is easy to view and maintain.

I have been using this solution for four years.

Overall, the stability is good. It supports our work. We are happy and our customers are happy.

It has very good scalability.

The technical support is fast and very good. I would rate the support as six or seven out of 10.

Neutral

We have seen ROI on time. AlgoSec has reduced the time it takes to implement firewall rules in our organization. It used to take around an hour, and we can now implement them in 20 minutes.

It is a good investment due to the losses that a customer will have if they are not aligning with the FDA. That would be in the millions, so it is a good investment from our side and the customer's side.

Quality has a price. 

We have tried other vendors. This is the best solution that we came up with due to our requirements and demands.

It is good for integrating with leading security vendors.

I would rate the solution as eight out of 10. If you have requirements with very strict alignment for firewall rule processes, then I would really recommend this product.

My main use case is as a firewall analyzer module where it can be further broken down as follow: 

1) Network topology visualization: visualizes a network traffic path during troubleshooting

2) Policy optimization: uses optimization and clean-up recommendations to perform annual housekeeping of the firewall

3) PCI DSS compliance: follow the out-of-the-box checklist to prepare for a PCI DSS audit

4) Risk reduction: uses the recommendation of the risky rules to address all the critical and high-risk rules

5) Monitor changes:  monitor for firewall-config changes in real-time via email alerts

The solution has improved our organization in multiple ways. We can:

• Easily understand and provision application connectivity to accelerate application delivery and minimize outages

• Process firewall changes 4x faster, and eliminate misconfigurations and rework

• Proactively assess the impact of network changes to ensure security and continuous compliance

• Simplify and automate internal and regulatory firewall audits, and reduce time and costs

• Streamline communication across the application, network and security teams

• Deliver a tighter security policy that provides better protection against cyber-attacks

The product is great for:

1) Network topology visualization: reduces network troubleshooting effort which contributes to quickly restoring network or application outage.

2) Policy optimization: reduce/consolidate the number of rules created prior to the existence of AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer in order to free up hundreds of rule capacity before reaching the max rule limit of the firewall.

3) PCI DSS compliance: helps to highlight the area which firewall admin need to take note and address in a streamlined and structured manner.

4) Risk reduction: helps to quickly identify the risk that exists in existing rules and provide useful recommendations that help the firewall admin to remediate with ease.

5) Monitor changes: helps firewall admin to comply with security requirements of providing real-time security alert whenever a change is made, with detailed info on what was the value before and after.

The FireFlow's out-of-the-box workflow configuration/customization wizard could be improved to be more user-friendly and have a shorter learning curve. The current configuration wizard is quite complex and complicated, which will result in the need to engage with an AlgoSec professional services team to perform even the simplest workflow adjustment.

I had tried AlgoSec's direct competitor's workflow configuration wizard and found it to suit most organization requirements even though the customization capability may not be as advanced as AlgoSec.

I've used the solution for six years. 

The setup is fairly straightforward.

We did also consider Tufin.

We use AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer and AppViz. We have bought the FireFlow license, but we do not use it currently. We plan to use it, but we are not using it right now. 

Firewall Analyzer is helpful for network assurance and meeting some requirements of PCI DSS. 

We use it to manage only our on-prem environment. Our network environment is mostly on-prem. We do not use cloud networking. We have an internal cloud, which is hosted in the Netherlands, but it is like a private cloud.

It gives us a pretty good understanding of what's going on in our network in terms of network security policies. In terms of the overall visibility that it gives into our network security policies, I would rate it a nine out of 10.

For preparing for audits and ensuring that our firewalls are in compliance, Firewall Analyzer gives a great overview of what's going on with the firewalls in terms of rules, etc. It offers a great input for auditors or for reporting to auditors.

We use Firewall Analyzer in order to monitor the PCI DSS network area. It is helpful for meeting some requirements of PCI DSS.

We work with multiple security vendors. It works when it comes to integrating it with the leading vendors. We didn't have any problems integrating with the solutions of our top three vendors.

Firewall Analyzer and AppViz are the most important features because they provide a lot of information regarding network segmentation. For us, this is a valuable input in order to provide network segmentation for various applications that we have developed in-house or that we bought from vendors. Our network is not properly segmented right now, but we plan to do it using AlgoSec. This is the most important feature for us right now. We also plan to use FireFlow in order to automate the firewall change management.

The Firewall Analyzer module can be improved to implement a vulnerability management solution, or they can link Firewall Analyzer with a vulnerability management solution in order to get a better overview of what's going on in our network in terms of vulnerabilities.

We started implementing AlgoSec in April this year.

So far, so good. We didn't have any problems. It is pretty stable.

From what I've heard and what I've read on their portal, it is pretty scalable. There are no issues around this.

We have not opened any tickets on the portal. We have a dedicated support person who assists us in the deployment. They are pretty fast to react. If I ask them a question today, they will respond very quickly.

We didn't have a different solution.

It was pretty straightforward. We started implementing AlgoSec in April this year. We are not fully into production, but we have been using it since May. Technically, it took less than a month, but we still have to do some paperwork in terms of security procedures, security monitoring, etc. So, it has been all paperwork from May till today.

The patching process of this solution is also pretty straightforward. They provide monthly patches, and it doesn't take a whole bunch of people to maintain it. Just one or two people can do the job.

Even though we had a reseller involved in this process, we did it on our own but with a little help from AlgoSec.

We have not yet seen an ROI. We are currently at the beginning of implementing the solution, and there is still a lot of time before we see a return on investment.

Price is not my concern. If a tool does its job, it is not my concern to obtain a good price for it. If a tool is needed, we are going to buy it.

We evaluated other solutions such as Skybox, Tufin. We found the graphical user interface of AlgoSec to be very user-friendly. It provides the information that you need. The information that you need is very well organized as compared to other solutions.

It depends on your needs. If you want to have a better overview of your network, AlgoSec is a tool that you can rely on. You can have an overview of your network by using your own equipment, but you have to dig in deeper. AlgoSec provides better visibility with a little amount of effort.

We haven't had any breaches in the past. We have not used it to implement and manage microsegmentation initiatives. We use it for network segmentation, which is done at the network level which includes firewalls, switches routers, and so on. Network segmentation is an ongoing process. 

I would rate it a nine out of 10.

We have actually played around quite a bit with the network flow piece of it (with the routers). That has helped us troubleshoot a few things with data flow and where it might be stopped or redirected to an incorrect location.

We use the following components of AlgoSec: AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer (AFA), FireFlow, and AppViz. We have a very limited cloud deployment at the moment.

We have a very complex network environment. It requires very specific compliance protocols to be put in place, including HIPAA compliance, PCI compliance, and HITRUST compliance. Therefore, we have very specific rules that we have to adhere to. We have 13 sites with very complex setups at each site to allow for redundancy and security, utilizing multiple vendors and technologies to achieve that. 

We are currently developing and going to have a hybrid deployment for the cloud and on-prem. Right now, 98% of our stuff is on-prem, and that will change. We are probably going to be about 75% on-prem and 25% in the cloud, which is very complex. This will allow our external vendors and external clients in as well as all our internal resources.

They have compliance rules built right into the system. Right out-of-the-box, you can run a compliance check against your environment that tells you exactly what needs to be fixed and why. Their compliance check is phenomenal. They even have a base compliance check. So, you can set your own standards to make sure that all your equipment meets those base compliances that you have for internal standards.

AlgoSec has reduced the time it takes to implement firewall rules in our organization. While our usage of it has been fairly limited to what we have tested so far, it has probably reduced the time by about 30%.

It gives us 100% visibility into our network security policies. It has given us a couple of surprises. Over the years, the network that we are administrating has been subject to people who have an idea of how a network should be set up. That differs from technician to technician or engineer to engineer. So, we are finding little pockets of hidden little self-engineered configurations and the way things were done that nobody knew about. Once the engineer left, the knowledge of that setup disappeared. You don't know about those until something either goes wrong, or you get something like AlgoSec to discover it for you, and it says, "Hey, there is this going on over here." 

It has helped us figure out how it was set up and why it was set up that way, then allowed us to engineer it so it fits a little better into our standards. We found a couple of secrets in our network that nobody would have known about. If we had an outage on those, nobody would have been able to figure them out without a tool like AlgoSec. This would have been a complete outage for our organization. Since we are healthcare insurance, that is a significant amount of money.

It has helped to simplify the job of our security engineers. We have a snapshot of where we are at with the correct data that we need to be able to fix the issues that we have. We keep finding little secret pockets of out-of-standard configurations that need to be addressed.

AlgoSec absolutely provides us with full visibility into the risk involved in firewall change requests. There is a risk analysis piece of it that allows us to go in and run that risk analysis against it, figuring out what rules we need to be able to change, then make our environment a little more secure. This is incredibly important for compliance and security of our clients. We deal a lot with patient health information that needs to be secure for physicians who are dealing with it and the patients themselves.

The most valuable for us so far has been the firewall rule analysis. Just to be able to get to a point where our infrastructure is secure and stable. The analysis runs everything that we actually need. When we run a report, we need to look at the report, then go back to the analysis because the analysis has all the information for us. We just have to match up the analysis to the report.

We have a security vendor who runs an analysis on the logs that we send them. We have multiple vendors who come in and do an annual security assessment. We have multiple vendors who come in and do an annual penetration test. We have vendors who deal with the end clients as well as vendors who deal with the servers for security, in addition to our firewalls, routers, and public interfaces. AlgoSec takes all of the information on our network, puts it into one single pane of glass where we can go and request what we need from the vendors. Plus, there are reports in AlgoSec that we can run and send out to our vendors so they have an eye into what we are looking at.

The reports are lacking information when they come out. They will not pull the URL or application information from Cisco FTDs. I know this works for Palo Alto Firewalls, which we currently do not have. If they could improve the integration with Cisco FTDs as a whole, that would be immensely helpful.

We are actually in the process of purchasing AlgoSec. We have gone through a proof of concept with them. Right off the bat, running through that proof of concept with them was absolutely fantastic. Usually, they have an offsite proof of concept server that you connect up to, then kind of take a look at their technology to see how everything works and if you like it. However, we have a different setup onsite for some of our firewall rules. We wanted to make sure that their application/appliance worked on our internal environment. They were more than willing to set up an onsite PoC for us so we could make sure everything did work.

The stability is fantastic. We haven't had an issue with stability at all.

Two people are needed for maintenance (someone for backup plus me). Maintenance on it is fairly limited. It is very automated in the way that it handles all our data and firewall needs.

The scalability is easy, just add more licenses if needed, then turn up another virtual machine. It is pretty straightforward.

There will probably be a dozen of us actually utilizing AlgoSec. This will mainly be the network and security team, then the security team themselves.

During deployment, the technical support fixed our issue within 30 minutes of the phone call.

We are in the process of doing microsegmentation right now. That is one of the reasons why we started looking into a utility like this because we needed to get that current snapshot of where we are at and where we need to go. AlgoSec is beyond phenomenal for helping to create and manage this type of initiative. With the automation piece and the fact that we can take a look at the traffic that is currently running through our firewalls and automate the rules being created for that. This will take a lot of manual work off of our shoulders that would have taken many man-hours to be able to implement.

We ran into some errors/issues, so it probably took us a week to fully deploy it. The process was straightforward except for the typos that we had in the programming. Without those typos, it would have been up within half a day.

We had an implementation strategy that we laid out beforehand and went forward with that.

James, the AlgoSec engineer who was working with me, spent about two weeks on and off with me trying to get the solution up and running, and he was successful at it. This was so we could utilize their proof of concept in our environment to make sure that it would fit our needs.

Because we went from having no unified tool to having AlgoSec, it has improved our security platform by probably 80% in just the short time that we have had and used it. It is invaluable. There is no question in my mind that it is a tool for anybody who has multiple sites, firewalls, and routers. It is something that everybody needs to look into getting because it is invaluable.

Even if we were to pay the first quote that we got, AlgoSec would be worth it. Just having the automation and that overall look into your security platform, you can't be without it.

We are working with our finance department right now to be able to purchase it. The AlgoSec team is doing everything that they can in their power to get the costs down to where our budget is. They have worked a lot on it. They have cut the cost in half for us so far by questioning, "This is in the quote. Is this something that is actually needed?" They have pulled some stuff out and cut our costs down by 50% for the product itself.

There were four of us involved in the evaluation of the product.

We compared this tool to two other different tools. Even with their higher-end solution, when we had the full budget for this, AlgoSec was less expensive than some of the other top tools. We looked at FireMon and Tufin. The reason why we said, "No," when we had budget to FireMon and Tufin is because they were not pulling in the application data or URL data. 

AlgoSec actually pulls application data and URL data in. AlgoSec is a little easier to use than the other solutions. Cisco recommended AlgoSec to us.

Don't trust what you think you know about your network. There are surprises everywhere, and sometimes it takes a utility like this to find those.

Don't don't hesitate. Go get it. If somebody came and asked me for an analysis tool, AlgoSec would be at the top of my list.

The integration is fine.

Migration to the cloud is on our roadmap. 

We have not set up any automation quite yet, but that is on the roadmap. That will make the tool even better.

I would rate this solution as a nine (out of 10).