What is our primary use case?
The primary use case is monitoring routers, switches, firewalls, but mostly routers and firewalls.
We are just using SecureTrack, either version 18-2 or 18.3.
How has it helped my organization?
We use it to aid with firewall reviews. We don't have SecureChange active, but we can take the info and use it to help. We have found a lot to work with.
Tufin has been helpful with making sure all parts of our organization are following change management:
- If you are changing rules, then you have tickets, and there is the approval process associated with it.
- Seeing people are sticking with those temp rules, if they end up staying there for awhile.
- Sometimes, there are just bad rules where something that should've been "deny" and should not be allowed.
Those are more direct examples without getting too far into the weeds.
It is greatly aided in helping us meet our compliance mandates. There used to be manual reviews for certain compliance requirements. Now, this solution helps automate a lot of that, and even the parts which are still manual. It's a lot more comprehensive than trying to read raw text files of the configs and making sense of those.
The solution helps us ensure that security policy is followed across our entire hybrid network. It is like a centralized single pane of glass where comprehensively shows things, especially coupled with the Network Topology piece that they have. You can say, "Here's where the DMZ is, and here's that. These are the amount of firewalls crosses this through." Whereas before, it was this big spreadsheet of all the firewalls and zones. Except for like two or three legacy knowledge people, no one really understood how it flowed before Tufin.
It has helped us troubleshoot, e.g., why isn't this still working? "Oh, they put it on the wrong firewall or they typoed it." The solution has helped with that.
The firewall reviews for compliance used to be a more labor intensive process. It used to take a few months, and now, it's down to just a couple of weeks.
What is most valuable?
It provides a comprehensive overview of what our network looks like in terms of what is allowed and what is not, then how the traffic' is flowing with the Network Topology Map.
With the Unified Security Policy, the more you improve it, the more you will get out of it.
For the things that Tufin is able to work with, it is really great. It sort of provides a comprehensive view. It is easier to explain to people who don't really work with firewalls everyday:
- Why this is an issue.
- Why certain things are an issue.
- Why some things are the way they are.
What needs improvement?
I wish they had a credentials vault or something. Right now, you have to manually add a username and password per device, and if they are using something like in a centralized, like an AD account, that password rotates eventually. Now, I have to go back and change information for all these hundreds of devices. Whereas, if they just had some credentials vault for credential one, two, and three, then you could just reference them per device and change it in one place. It would make our lives a lot easier.
I wish there was a read-only admin option. I don't like that you have to be a full admin just to see the Network Topology Map. That option is great out there if you are a user, multi-domain user, etc. However, that piece is very helpful for us, but I also don't want to be handing out admin access to every single person so they can see that network tab.
Tufin covers a lot of vendors, but there are still some that they don't, like Radware. Some of these vendors that they don't cover are at critical points in our company, as far as explaining the full picture of our routing. Since it can't show the full picture, it can't support that.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is pretty good. We have run into repeat issues with Palo Alto Panorama, where it doesn't seem to play nice if we change the vice group names in Palo Alto or if one of the Palo Alto servers is down, but it is in Panorama, because we're pulling everything through Panorama. Sometimes, it'll freak out and cause everything else to stay and be unable to get configed. Then, our Palo Alto products will sort of cease, usually a good majority of them, which is not ideal.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
So far, scalability has been doing well.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is very good. They respond pretty fast. They are always available whenever I need it. It is usually my fault when there are delays because I just don't respond to an email. I forget, then a few days go by and email again like, "Oh, shoot." The technical support has always been on top of things.
How was the initial setup?
Someone before me had stood up the actual server on the network. They had one device, and it was monitoring. Then, I took it over. I've expanded it out to over 400 devices.
They made getting new monitoring devices in pretty easy. From the monitoring devices tab, it was pretty straightforward. You pick the vendor, then under there, this is a drop-down. I struggled a bit under the Cisco tab where they have a router, then a Nexus router. They have a lot of different vendors, and figuring out which category it falls under was confusing. The help docs don't exactly specify between the two or what commands it will be running. This is usually more for our older devices.
What about the implementation team?
We had Professional Services hours. However, as far as getting the actual devices and scaling it out, that was all just me.
What other advice do I have?
Understand your DNS or network segment. What all these different subments and how they will fit into what categories, because you are going to directly take that info when you build out your USP. If it's too messy, your USP is not really going to do anything. You need to have a good dictionary for the USP to follow.
We aren't really using the cloud-native security features in our current environment.
*Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.