AlgoSec Reviews

We use AlgoSec AFA (AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer). We use the solution to configure the firewall rules automatically. 

We have two data centers where we use Check Point and Palo Alto and about 30 percent of our operation is on AWS and about another 30 percent is on Azure.

Before AlgoSec, an analyst had to configure the rules one by one but now, when rules are needed, they are configured automatically.

Another benefit is that it has reduced the time it takes to implement firewall rules. That's why we bought it. We used to have two or three people just configuring rules and now we only have one. It has saved us two FTEs. I'm also completing requests faster. Before, I used to take three, four, or even five days to do one request, but now it's half a day or less.

It helps us maintain compliance very well because everything is automated, meaning that everything should be right. When there are humans doing things, there can be mistakes.

Another reason we chose AlgoSec was that it integrates well with multiple solutions. We have Check Point and Palo Alto, and it's better using AlgoSec to automate things.

Rule configuration is the most valuable feature.

It also provides very good visibility into the risk involved in firewall change requests and that is very important to us.

I've been using AlsoSec for about a year or a little bit more.

The stability of the solution is good. I never have problems with it.

Their tech support is okay.

Positive

This is our first automation solution. We went with AlgoSec after asking partners and other companies and everybody said, "Use AlgoSec."

Deploying it is easy. We spent some time on it because, in the beginning, we didn't have a lot of guys to work on AlgoSec. But when we designated one guy to do it, it took him about two weeks or three weeks.

It's worth the cost. But it's not just the cost. I'm faster than I was and that's what matters to me.

The pricing could be better.

We work on the support side, and our customers use AlgoSec, primarily via on-prem deployments. They use the solution to analyze and engage firewall policies, increase their security, and receive advice for firewall optimization. 

The solution component we use is AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer. We have a customer who uses FireFlow, and we carried out a POC of AppViz, which some of our customers may want to implement in the next year.  

AlgoSec reduced the time it takes to implement firewall rules for our organization. 

The product helps us prepare for audits and ensure firewalls are in compliance; we can check the security and firewall rating points and advise our customers on optimizing their firewall and security rules. 

AlgoSec helped simplify the job of our security engineers, primarily through the advice it provides to admins managing the firewalls, which is essential. It also made them more efficient at their jobs.   

The Firewall Analyzer component has excellent compatibility with the solution, and it's highly useful and easy to manage.

Our customers find the Intelligent Policy Tuner very helpful, and it was useful for us during the POC because it was a significant selling point for our clients; they liked it and wanted to use it.

The solution provides excellent visibility into our network security policies, especially when we set the log options to ''extensive''; this gives us a lot of visibility for reports and change notifications. 

AlgoSec provides complete visibility into the risk involved in firewall change requests, which is especially important when presenting security reports to upper management.  

The solution's automation helped to reduce human error and misconfigurations; if the tool detects a drop in security and firewall policy points, it notifies admins via email of a potential misconfiguration, allowing us to fix the issue and raise the points again.  

More scope for editing alerts would be a welcome change. 

The solution has visibility and compatibility issues with Palo Alto firewalls, which makes it challenging to provide reports. The reports rely on logging, and the product has problems with Palo Alto's logging. Better compatibility with Palo Alto firewall reports is a must.

Some of our customers want to see AlgoSec with a user-based policy that can advise on user policy rules and be compatible with identity awareness.

I've been using the solution for over eight years across two companies.

The stability is good; there's no problem with it. 

The customer service is responsive and reliable enough, and most of our cases are solved within a day or two.

Positive

The setup is very straightforward; we use VMs, so our customers don't need appliances. We can set up a VM and install AlgoSec in 15-30 minutes, then further configuration such as DNS, names, IP addresses, and adding the firewalls takes two to three hours.

The upgrade process is also straightforward; when the upgrade package is released, we download it, import it to a machine, and implement it with one SSH command. The solution doesn't require any further maintenance. 

I'm not involved in the financial aspect, but I understand the platform to be expensive, though I need to find out how it compares to competitors like Tufin, for example.

I rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

Some of our customers work with different security vendors, including FortiGate, Palo Alto, and Check Point, and integration with their firewalls is straightforward when using AlgoSec.  

We are also a supporter of Tufin in Turkey, and there are some advantages to using AlgoSec, as it's more useful in specific ways. With the latter, it's quick and easy to get reports, and AlgoSec has lower spec requirements for new installs. It requires a maximum of 16-32 GB of memory and 500 GB to one TB of storage, but Tufin requires 60 GB of memory and one to two TB of storage. AlgoSec is more straightforward and user-friendly; the options are named clearly, so it's easy to add identities or active directories.

The product is suitable for small, medium, and large businesses; they could all find a use for it. 

I recommend the solution; I've been using it for eight years, and it's more user-friendly and useful than other products.

We help deploy solutions to customers around Africa and Nigeria. We deploy it, then we also provide local support to our customers. We do PoCs, deploy solutions, and provide support whenever we have the opportunity to provide solutions which solve problems of one or two customers.

Most of our clients just want to stick with AFA. Most times, we just work around AFA and do a lot of things with it. We are quite conversant with AFA's portfolio.

AlgoSec provides our customers with full visibility into the risk involved in firewall change requests. Most of our customers are in the financial industry. AlgoSec can analyze existing policies that you have set up on your devices, gauging the risk. For example, with PCI requirements, there needs to be a description for each firewall rule change as to why it was made. Therefore, if a change was made by one of our clients, who was unable to put a description or comment against that rule, then automatically I would need to flag that.

ActiveChange integrates with your change workflow and ticketing system. For example, a change request is made to open port 8080. Then, if the guy who was supposed to implement that change mistakenly opened port 80, then ActiveChange will say, "What was approved was 8080, but what you actually opened was 80." That actually helps to fix human errors. It helps to check everything that is being done. You can go through the analysis and see changes that were made, and AlgoSec is able to alert you immediately. Whenever there is a change, notifications are sent to the administrators because it gives you that real-time alerting and change. 

The most valuable features are:

• Compliance reporting
• Their immediate support team
• Maps: You can trace the traffic and what firewall is blocking what connections, services, and websites.
  

You don't need to be tech-oriented to work with AlgoSec.

One of the beautiful things about AlgoSec is that it gives you templates. There are quite a number of compliance templates, depending on the industry that you are in. For example:

• The ISO number system
• The information security - ISMS management system
• PCI DSS
• FISMA Compliance. 

For our clients, they especially have to maintain ISMS and PCI DSS, as these are the two compliance regulations that they have to maintain. You can run analysis or reporting based on the templates. Within minutes, you get into the report, can see your compliance status, and what exactly you need to fix. You can clearly see what parts of the requirements you are not meeting and where you are falling short within standards. It is very clear and visible. We can customize all of this with the reporting, however the client wants it. This is one of the critical parts for most of our clients.

In late December or early January, we were trying to add another solution, but it wasn't working because there was no support for the version that we were running at that point. After they released the hotfix, that took care of this issue. That particular device was then supported. So, it has been very stable and working fine since then.

I have been using it for about three years now.

The stability is excellent.

There have been some recent updates and hotfixes that have been released. These have taken care of a number of things, which include support for some particular firewalls.

The scalability is good. We have had to scale for some of our clients who have about 10 firewalls or 10 network devices, and they wanted to have more. All we had to do was acquire more licenses, then we just scaled. It is quite seamless.

I have worked with AlgoSec for about three years. Before COVID-19 struck, the technical support used to be 10 of 10. You would make a support call, someone would join you on a session, and you would get help almost instantly. Since COVID-19, a number of the technical support team members have been working from home or remotely. So, we haven't gotten to support people right when we need them. Sometimes, it takes a couple of hours or even days for us to get that instant support that we used to get. I think they are working on it. The last time that I had a support session with them, which was about two months back, I saw some relative improvements.

We have been using the OVA file on a virtual box. Once we slam it on the VM, it is quite straightforward. Once you are done with that, then you define the IPs.

We have had quite a number of our prospective clients have come to us, and say, "Hey guys, we want AlgoSec," but one of their turn-offs has been the pricing. I would like it if AlgoSec would review their pricing and come down on it. The solution is quite amazing and versatile, so we would really appreciate it if the pricing could be reviewed for Nigeria because we definitely would get more sales if that happened. 

In Nigeria, quite a number of industries have been hit hard by COVID-19 and we are not a high income generating country, so a lot of people want to cut costs. When it comes to the security, companies would rather settle for less and take a step back because of the cost. They might even put infrastructures off. However, if the pricing is reasonable and affordable for people in this part of the world, then our company will definitely see more sales.

AlgoSec is 10 out of 10 compared to FireMon. Compared to any other solution that does firewall analysis and policy management, AlgoSec deserves 10 out 10 because of:

• Its simplicity: Virtually everything about AlgoSec is straightforward.
• Versatility, as far as the reporting and alerting.
• Support, which is quite amazing.

If you are looking for a tool that will provide you clear visibility into all the changes in your network and help people prepare well with compliance, then AlgoSec is the tool for you. Don't think twice - AlgoSec is the tool for any company that wants clear analysis into their network and policy management.

Anybody can use AlgoSec once they take all the training.

Compared with other tools on the market, the solution is 10 out of 10.

My primary use case to use this solution was to get visibility into my multi-vendor network environment into a single pane of glass making it easy to have compliance and audits done seamlessly. 

Also, it is letting me know if any changes are required over different network devices if I bring a certain new application in the environment (discovering its dependencies) and then push the changes from the single console. Also, it needed to verify if there are any unnecessary rules with the attribute "any" over all the firewalls that the solution was able to cover.

It helped me in managing the multi-vendor network devices with also mapping the required network level prerequisites for my application to be able to handle their network needs in an automated and seamless manner. It also removed the need for multiple approvals with Fireflow. 

It also made compliance and audits very easy for my organization. It was able to give visibility of the changes on the firewall with a who-when-what scenario. It helped me to document all the risks related to any change request that I made.

The way the solution helps in managing, reporting and seamless security policy change automation for the connectivity between the network devices and the applications is great. 

The visibility provided by the single pane of glass for managing multi-vendor firewalls is excellent and then pinpointing network connectivity issues is certainly on a very good level. 

The majority of the value comes with automating of the entire security - i.e., the policy change process from design and submission to proactive risk analysis, implementation and auditing.

They need to improve the web interface to be a little more interactive and friendly. It's still not bad, yet it could improve. 

They could improve AlgoSec academy, as there are some bugs when it comes to advancing resources. When trying to do the certification, I got stuck in one module, which prevented me from completing the certification. 

The only downside of AlgoSec is that it seems to need some updates as it relates to UX and potentially some more outlined integrations. Specifically with cloud platforms and tools.

I have been using the solution from the last six months and have been quite happy with it.

This was my first solution and I have been continuing with this solution only for future needs until it satisfies all of my use cases.

I evaluated other options as well, however, where their capability ended, i.e. firewall analyzing capability, AlgoSec provides much better capabilities.

AlgoSec was used as a firewall setting, but we had issues with change management, approvals, and the workflow to deploy firewall rules. The tool covers the technology and intelligence, but we had a lot of manual work to convince sponsors and correlated areas that used AlgoSec or needed to open a firewall rule.

AlgoSec has a feature that provides intelligence on which rules are correct. It was crucial in helping us understand which rules were important and which ones could be turned off or removed, simplifying the structure. It helps prioritize actions and performance needs. The performance boost we had was huge. We were considering buying new firewall structures, but with AlgoSec, we just organized the rules and avoided spending more money on the environment. 

We faced internal challenges with our services and the process. If we had a closer approach from AlgoSec with instructions on how to build or change the management process, how to improve our environment, it would have been better. The big problem was more about the approval and request roles, and bureaucratic side of things.

I left the company a couple of years ago. I bought AlgoSec in 2022, and after a few months, I left the company and joined a different one that already had AlgoSec infrastructure in place.

The technical support was really technical and had a more technological view of the problem. Here in Brazil, we have a lot of discussions, conversations, and meetings, so the technology didn't resolve the problem we had like that. 

Positive

I wouldn't recommend AlgoSec for environments with fewer than 500 rules or without multiple offices, as the solution is quite complex to deploy and engage teams. It's more suitable for larger enterprises with complex environments. If you have a complex environment, AlgoSec is a good choice, but for smaller or medium-sized companies with fewer firewalls, it's easier to manage with the console provided by the vendor. If your site has complexities and you deal with multiple firewall vendors, AlgoSec simplifies management. However, if you only have one vendor, it's better to avoid adding more consoles. For environments with multiple vendors and many rules, AlgoSec or any firewall management tool would help.

Overall, I would rate AlgoSec ten out of ten, considering the complexities of the companies I've worked with. The tool needs to be managed by expert teams who understand both the technology and the change process.

The company has a lot of sites that are involved in food production and has locations with on-premises firewalls and a data center. There is a cloud in Asia as well.

Right now, AlgoSec is being used to optimize the firewall and the firewall policies, and to clean up any unused rules or those that are too open.

We have 10 to 15 users.

I like that the firewall will analyze the tools within the risk profiles and the policy optimizations within the AFA. This can also be used to create reports for the customer with the risk profiles to optimize the firewall rules.

I think it's a powerful tool that gives good visibility. One of AlgoSec's nice features is the map of your entire environment. When you need to change something, you can see the whole path for the traffic, that is, where you need to implement the change, where the traffic is blocked, and where it's allowed.

AlgoSec provides full visibility into the risks involved in firewall change requests. This is important because when your environment grows to a certain scale, it becomes harder and harder to get the full overview of all your firewalls and rule sets.

AlgoSec can reduce the time it takes to implement firewall rules. I tried the FireFlow module in a course with AlgoSec. With active implementation, it smooths out the process so much more. If you have two or three firewalls that you need to implement, AlgoSec does everything for you. It reduces the time in terms of both looking through your environment to see where you would need the firewall rules and implementing them as well.

If you're just looking at your firewalls, you might not notice all the security risks and open rules. AlgoSec's automation helped to reduce human error and misconfigurations. It helps with cleanup and keeps your firewall as tight as possible. It helped to simplify the job of our security engineers.

Our organization works in multiple environments, and the firewalls are located across the globe. This solution enables us to manage these multiple or dispersed environments in a single pane of glass.

I'm responsible for the maintenance of the server, that is, patching and upgrading, and it's straightforward. It cleans itself up with the retention and everything you configure on it. 

All our firewalls were renamed, and AlgoSec saw these devices as new devices. As a result, all the reports from the same device but with the old hostname were no longer connected. AlgoSec did not clean up the old reports as well. After a few days, it depleted its own storage, and then, the server became inaccessible. 

There's no fail-safe for AlgoSec to not stop creating reports if its own storage is at 98% or 99% capacity because the server becomes inaccessible when it reaches 100%.

I've also been fighting an issue with the Chisel service running on the server regarding AlgoCare for some time now. I have been in contact with AlgoSec's technical support regarding this, and they've been helpful and responsive.

I've been using AlgoSec for six months, but the organization has been using it for some time.

When it doesn't fill its own storage and kills itself, the stability is fine. It has only happened one time; the ms-metro service went down, so the web GUI became inaccessible. All in all, though, the stability is good.

AlgoSec's technical support is swift, knowledgeable, and professional. We had some issues when we upgraded from A32.10 to A32.20, and they helped us to get it up and running again. All the contact I've had with them has been very positive, and I'd give them a ten out of ten.

Positive

Consider whether your infrastructure needs this solution. The organization should be a specific size before this product will come in handy for you. If you are a large enterprise with a lot of sites and a large infrastructure, then you should certainly consider using AlgoSec. I've loved working with it and would rate it a ten on a scale from one to ten.

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.

AlgoSec enables organizations to have end-to-end visibility and control over application connectivity across complex hybrid IT environments spanning data centers, cloud, containers, and legacy systems. This allows organizations to automate analysis of how applications interconnect and depend on each other as well as the underlying infrastructure. 

When new applications are deployed, or existing ones are migrated, AlgoSec can rapidly determine the minimal policy changes required to maintain security and compliance.

While AlgoSec already provides substantial capabilities around managing security policies and compliance, there is an opportunity to further enhance its intelligence to take a more proactive security posture. Specifically, AlgoSec could look to incorporate advanced machine learning techniques to analyze network traffic, application logs, and user behavior to detect anomalies and identify emerging threats. 

Going beyond just mapping the authorized connectivity, AlgoSec could leverage unsupervised ML clustering algorithms and deep learning models to find high-risk anomalies and subtle attacks.

It allows organizations to identify risks, reduce attack surfaces, and streamline policy changes required to deploy or migrate applications safely and quickly. 

With ever-changing infrastructure and threats, keeping security policies optimized is extremely challenging. AlgoSec's continuous monitoring capabilities allow organizations to maintain proper controls and compliance coverage as the application landscape evolves. No longer are security changes made blindly. 

AlgoSec gives organizations the visibility and intelligence needed to make application connectivity changes confidently while managing risk and compliance. Having all these capabilities seamlessly integrated into one platform makes AlgoSec a powerful tool for digital transformation initiatives involving constant application change.

While AlgoSec provides comprehensive visibility and management of security policies across hybrid environments, there is an opportunity to further expand its intelligence capabilities. 

Specifically, AlgoSec could look to incorporate more machine learning to analyze network traffic patterns and application behavior to detect anomalies indicative of emerging threats and policy violations. Going beyond just mapping connections, it can automatically flag high-risk flows and unusual events for further investigation.

I've been using the solution for more than a year.

We've used Cisco Tetration in the past.

The price is not the lowest, however, it is reasonable and offers good ROI.

We also evaluated Tufin.

We hope, in the future, to have more flexible pricing plans.