13 Best Firewall Management Software Tools for Rules and Policies

Firewall management is one of the most challenging aspects of enterprise network security. The main issue is that many enterprise networks are complex, they contain a blend of many different vendors and technologies and this makes it time-consuming and difficult to maintain and support.

The big hardware firewall vendors (like Cisco, Checkpoint, Fortinet, Palo Alto etc) offer their own firewall management software for centralized control of configurations, updates, policy management etc.

This is because going through your every firewall device one-by-one to configure and manage is extremely time-consuming and inefficient.

There are networks however with a mixture of different firewall vendors which makes it difficult to manage from a single central console. This is where specialized firewall management and orchestration tools come into play.

If you’re struggling with firewall management, then have a look at our list of 13 best firewall management solutions.

These let you control your firewalls from a single pane of glass, and most of these platforms also let you oversee security policies as well for multi-vendor environments.

Read on to find more about our suggestions below.

Note that the list below is in no particular order.

1. Tufin SecureTrack

Tufin offers a wide range of network management tools. For us, of most interest is SecureTrack – Tufin’s firewall management solution.

Part of the Tufin Orchestration Suite, SecureTrack offers real-time insight into firewall and security changes.

Not only that, but it provides alerts for potential security risks and keeps you up-to-date on the state of your network.

What’s also remarkable about SecureTrack is that it lets you keep track of security policy changes and violations, which is really nice in enterprise settings.

SecureTrack also lets you generate automated audit reports that are compliant with GDPR, SOX, PCI-DSS, NERC-CIP, HIPAA, and not only.

SecureTrack also lets you control all your firewall rules across the entire network from a single location. Thanks to the advanced troubleshooting, path analysis, and topology modeling features, SecureTrack lets you quickly fix issues and deploy changes in the network too.

All in all, Tufin SecureTrack is an excellent choice for large-scale and multi-vendor enterprise networks. It integrates seamlessly with technologies from various manufacturers, and it lets you control and monitor everything from a single location.

Vendors supported include Cisco, Checkpoint, F5, Fortinet, Juniper, Palo Alto, Cloud services (AWS, Azure) etc.

2. ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer

ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer offers the following features:

• Control over your entire firewall ruleset.
• Detect anomalies in your firewall network.
• Receive insight into how to improve your firewall network and enhance performance by changing rule order.
• Find out how a new rule will impact your existing ruleset.
• And much more

Firewall Analyzer also fetches configuration changes from all firewall devices from the network and lets you know who, when, and why made the changes.

What’s nice about Firewall Analyzer too is that it automatically sends notifications to your mobile device when a change happens.

Firewall Analyzer also generates log reports, allowing you to identify threats, monitor existing vulnerabilities, plan network bandwidth, and much more.

I like the fact that the tool contains also log analysis functionality with log reports to show you important intelligence about your network such as possible virus infections, security attacks, detailed traffic reports, VPN usage etc.

3. FireMon

FireMon offers a comprehensive suite of security management tools, such as:

• FireMon Automation.
• Security Manager.
• Global Policy Controller.
• Policy Planner.
• Policy Optimizer.
• Risk Analyzer.

The purpose of these solutions is pretty clear, except for Lumeta. Lumeta’s purpose is to help you identify vulnerabilities and risks in your network. Not only that, but it lets you monitor shadow clouds, network infrastructure, and endpoints.

All in all, FireMon tools provide you with complete control over your network security with a comprehensive suite of multiple tools and products. FireMon lets you plan, implement, optimize, and monitor policies, detect security threats, and analyze existing security risks.

For example, the Policy Planner product offers a workflow and provisioning tool that makes it easy to request, approve and then implement security policies in firewall devices and other network equipment.

4. AlgoSec

AlsoSec is a full network security policy management solution designed with enterprises in mind. It lets you control all aspects of your network security, including on-premise firewalls, cloud services, SDN platforms etc.

As it pertains to firewalls, AlgoSec offers firewall auditing, compliance, and policy optimization features. In the long term, the AlgoSec package allows you to keep track of your firewall security and implement policy changes on the fly. Not only that, but AlgoSec makes firewall deployment easier.

Aside from firewalls, AlgoSec lets you map and manage application connectivity within your business. The proactive risk management tools also allow you to assess policy changes to prevent threats and keep your security tight.

5. Cisco Firepower Management Center

Cisco Firepower Management Center (FMC) is the centralized solution for enterprise networks built on Cisco network equipment.

Like AlgoSec, this is again a complete management solution intended to help you manage your entire network.

As a network management solution, Cisco Firepower Management Center provides you with tools for centralized network monitoring, lets you have an in-depth look into all components of your network, and makes identifying and preventing threats very easy.

Cisco Firepower MC additionally has AMP and sandboxing functionalities to let you track malware infections and address unknown attacks.

Thanks to its security automation, this Cisco solution can also prioritize attacks, letting your team more efficiently allocate resources for solving the issue.

FMC comes as an appliance device or Virtual machine. The different appliance models (e.g FMC1600, FMC2600, FMC4600) support different number of sensors and have varying storage capacities and security events capabilities.

FMC devices can manage policies and collect events from the following security infrastructure:

• ASA with Firepower
• Firepower NGFW
• Firepower NGIPS
• Advanced Malware Protection (AMP)
• Threat Defense for ISR

6. Palo Alto Panorama

Similar to the previous management solution, Panorama from Palo Alto is also a vendor-specific firewall management platform.

Palo Alto Panorama allows you to set up automated security workflows via REST APIs for prompt threat response. Not only that, but Panorama provides in-depth insights into network security of the whole environment.

Panorama offers excellent flexibility in deployment as well – it may be set up as hardware on-premises, and it may also be implemented virtually or in public cloud environments.

Palo Alto offers a number of firewalls as well. Palo Alto firewalls are remarkable in that they are advertised as the first machine-learning firewalls in the world. So if you happen to have network hardware from this company, Panorama will be an excellent choice.

7. SolarWinds Network Firewall Security Management Software

Network Firewall Security Management Software from SolarWinds is specifically tailored for monitoring multi-vendor firewalls.

The Security Event Manager – a component of this solution – provides real-time insight into firewall activity and lets you identify anomalies and potential threats.

Aside from that, Security Event Manager helps you ensure that only authorized firewall administrators can make changes to existing firewall policies.

To let you understand what is happening in your enterprise network, Network Firewall Security Management software also has a set of filters that highlight specific events.

8. Firewall Browser

If you want something simpler, then Firewall Browser might be a good option for you. Firewall Browser is a lightweight software firewall manager that doesn’t require too much effort for setup.

Needless to say, Firewall Browser isn’t as flexible as some of the previous solutions, but it should work wonderfully in small networks.

Firewall Browser is optimized for Cisco, Netscreen, or Check Point firewalls. This solution lets you filter out objects and rules to monitor your network, and it also allows you to handle change requests efficiently.

Firewall Browser additionally allows you to quickly deploy complex rules in your network for added protection.

9. Skybox

Skybox is a nice choice for physical, virtual, and cloud-based firewalls, so it can work in pretty much any network environment.

Additionally, Skybox automatically collects data to provide you with a centralized location for keeping an eye on your network security.

Skybox provides assistance with implementing DISA STIGs and CIS benchmarks too so that you can make sure that your firewalls are ready to ensure network security at all times.

This solution also analyzes configuration data against Skybox’s intelligence feed, letting you spot and eliminate threats and vulnerabilities early.

If you have complex and possibly redundant firewall policy rules, the tool can help you declutter and optimize the policy rules in order to have a clean and efficient firewall device.

10. SonicWall Capture Security Center

Capture Security Center is a cloud-based management system that boasts scalability and excellent performance.

Thanks to its cloud environment, SonicWall Capture Security Center may be deployed in just four steps as well, saving you hours and letting you get started with improving your firewall security nearly immediately.

Capture Security Center is also capable of quickly discovering and evaluating threats. Based on the data provided by this solution, you may allow or block policies in real time.

The customizable reports also allow you to have an in-depth look at your network security. The graphical approach of Capture Security Center’s reports makes things very easy as well.

The tool supports SonicWall security products such as firewalls, WAF, email security products, end-point security etc.

11. AWS Firewall Manager

Part of the AWS ecosystem, Firewall Manager is an excellent choice if your business workflows are primarily or fully based on AWS. Not only that, but AWS Firewall Manager might be one of the most advanced cloud firewall management solutions out there.

Firewall Manager seamlessly integrates with Managed Rules for AWS WAF, allowing you to quickly deploy preconfigured WAF rules. What’s also nice about AWS Firewall Manager is that it lets you apply policies hierarchically – some rules may be managed centrally, while others may be delegated.

The detailed and visual dashboard also gives you insight into compliance with policies, and it also lets you identify non-compliant resources.

12. SolarWinds Firewall Browser

The Firewall Browser is a simpler alternative to the SolarWinds Network Firewall Security Management Software overviewed earlier. Not only that, but the Firewall Browser is completely free!

The Firewall Browser allows you to test and verify firewall rules, and it also lets you search rules and objects based on port, service, name, or IP address on Cisco, Checkpoint and Netscreen vendors.

Needless to say, the Firewall Browser’s functionality is greatly inferior to that of Network Firewall Security Management Software.

Among the things that the Firewall Browser doesn’t have are firewall auditing, automation of firewall configuration changes, integration with other network management solutions, and firewall configuration backup.

13. Firewall Builder

Lastly, we have the Firewall Builder, which is yet another super-simple solution for firewall management.

Firewall Builder allows you to manage multiple firewalls from a single graphical location, and it also lets you validate and implement rules.

An interesting feature of Firewall Builder is the automatic configuration generator. This feature understands the differences between firewall types and versions and generates proper commands for each of your firewalls.

There are some predefined rules for common scenarios as well, allowing you to get started quicker.