The company recently launched AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer (AFA) 5.0, which features a new technology called Matrix Analysis, a tiered firewall-specific analysis that provides better management and visibility into multi-firewall, multi-vendor environments based on their relative hierarchy in the network.

 

Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC (News - Alert)) recently caught up with Yuval Baron, CEO and co-founder of AlgoSec, to discuss the latest trends in the industry. Our exchange follows.

TMC: What are the new trends in firewall segment?

YB: Customers are focused now on operational efficiency and are increasingly seeking to consolidate their servers and firewalls to save space, energy, and simplify manageability. Additionally, we are seeing an increasing demand by companies to further leverage their past CAPEX investment by expanding the lifespan of their existing firewalls. Finally, they expect flexibility in terms of delivery options and pricing models to meet their budget constrains. AlgoSec helps them achieve their missions.

TMC: What are your company's strengths?

YB: AlgoSec’s strengths reside in 3 areas: a) Unique technology for business-focused solutions, b) Channel strategy c) Customer focus.

 

a) The patented foundation of the AlgoSec product suite was purpose built to allow security and IT operations managers to improve their operational effectiveness while easily obtaining a comprehensive view of their potential risk exposure. AlgoSec solutions use intelligent algorithms that automatically learn the routing table of firewalls and routers - even in hierarchical multi-vendor environments -- and understand the actual behavior of the devices. This profound and unique understanding is used to provide customers with superior operational efficiency as well as unprecedented visibility, security, and governance.

b) AlgoSec does not overwhelm the market with dozens of channel partners that may compete with each other for the same business. Rather, we are highly selective with our channel partners and work only with those dedicated to providing their customers with trusted advisors armed with the knowledge, resources and training to meet all of their security management needs. We have chosen a limited number of Certified and Gold channel partners. We commit to developing lasting relationships with these select partners through an attitude of mutual trust and unwavering support. With these partners, AlgoSec invests in comprehensive training and marketing and sales support programs with the ultimate goal of making them as successful as possible, by making their customers as happy as possible. To this end, AlgoSec recently formalized our enhanced channel partner plan. Thanks to this new plan, many of our partners have already witnessed noticeable growth and success.

 

c) For AlgoSec, an absolute customer focus is not just a lofty ideal that we hope and strive for; it is guarantee we make to every company we do business with. AlgoSec is founded on the principle of total customer satisfaction. We do not rest until every customer is fully happy and we put money and our reputation behind every sales agreement. Our customers really appreciate this effort and reward us through loyalty and referrals to colleagues in other companies. The security market is a small community after all. The word spreads fast.

 

YB: AlgoSec’s patented algorithms and unique ability to look at the various routing tables of the security devices to deliver unprecedented insight and analysis provide AlgoSec clear and sustainable advantages over the competition.

 

Unlike vendors that develop solutions for one brand and try to convert it to others, AlgoSec was built from the outset to equally support the leading firewall brands.

 

Additionally, because AlgoSec’s Firewall Analyzer functions from any laptop - consultants are increasingly using our solutions because of the added flexibility this offers them, and because it helps them bring a more knowledgeable service to their customers.

 

AlgoSec’s Matrix Analysis technology provides tiered firewall-specific analysis giving unprecedented insight into multi-firewall and multi-vendor environments based on their relative hierarchy in the network.

 

Also unique to AlgoSec is the way in which our technology is “made to order” depending on the specific needs and requirements of each enterprise network. Available to businesses and organizations worldwide in multiple form factors, AlgoSec technology can be provisioned via the SaaS (News - Alert) model or in a virtualized environment or as software, and soon as an appliance. In addition to license purchase, customers can also rent the AlgoSec solutions for a limited period or per project. An important part of our revenues come from Term subscriptions.

Let me pick an example:
According to industry data, 20 to 30 percent of firewall rule changes are not necessary. Not only do unneeded changes translate to wasted man-hours, but they also result in decreased network performance, poor resource manageability, and increased security and compliance risk.

With Algosec, enterprise customers and MSPs avoid all of the issues thanks to our unique ability to automate the discovery and analysis of the routing tables of all firewalls, and thus instantly determine whether or not a change is needed, and if so, what effect that change will have. When changes are required, AlgoSec technology automatically identifies the specific firewall policy requiring a change and assists in optimal change planning. In some cases, it will be enough to modify an existing rule rather than add a new one. Network Operations teams love this capability because it saves an incredible amount of time compared to the traditional manual process of combing through countless rules and objects. This is all possible because only AlgoSec can identify where a firewall resides within a network.

 

YB: Our strategy is based on equally supporting the leading and most widely used firewall technologies on the market. This allows us to offer top-flight, extremely comprehensive solutions rather than taking a shotgun approach that sacrifices quality for quantity of vendors supported.

 

In addition, we’ve created a new technology known as Matrix Analysis to fundamentally change the way multi-firewall, multi-vendor firewall environments are managed and secured. Matrix Analysis was introduced two months ago with the rollout of the AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer 5.0. The technology provides hierarchical view of all firewalls, regardless of platform, so that IT managers as well as consultants and MSPs, have complete visibility and insight across the entire firewall landscape of a network through a proprietary tiered firewall-specific analysis.

 

YB: In light of the current economic climate, organizations are seeking ways to increase their operational effectiveness. IT organizations, in particular, are demanding greater output without increasing headcounts. Optimizing firewall operations management is more important than ever.

 

Consider that organizations that manage 50 firewalls and 200 servers are likely to execute between 600-3000 rule changes annually. This translates to an average expenditure of roughly $600,000, and as we discussed earlier, since 20-30 percent of rule changes are not even necessary, this is part of area ripe for optimization of operations management.

For these reasons, we are seeing several trends in firewall management:
-- Automation: Enterprises are seeking ways to automate their firewall management and policy change processes which has traditionally been a manual and labor intensive process.

 

-- Flexibility: Enterprises and the partners that provide them with firewall security solutions do not want to be shoehorned into using one specific technology -- they want a proven solution flexible to their needs, not the other way around. The want a core technology that can be provisioned in a multitude of ways, whether that means as software, hardware, VMware or as a SaaS solution.

 

-- Compliance: Many organizations are now faced with compliance requirements such as PCI DSS, ISO 27001, Basel II, SOX, J-SOX and ITIL, they want firewall management solutions that provide this - right out of the box.

-- Full Spectrum (News - Alert) Security: Today’s enterprises do not want a point solution, they need end to end security management that provides accountability across the entire lifecycle of firewall changes and new technologies deployed.

YB: In today’s market, companies are considering only “must have” solutions. Certainly, automation that increases operational efficiency falls under this category. IT organizations are also looking at extending the lifespan of existing security devices, and consolidations to save space, energy and simplify manageability.

 

YB: This is a very exciting period for AlgoSec. We recently launched version 5.0 of the AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer. It includes exciting capabilities that took two calendar years to develop such as Matrix Analysis for analyzing several firewalls together based on their relative hierarchy in the network ensuring tighter security without false positives. It also includes Parallelization for enabling multiple analyses to be run in tandem. Powerful new optimization features including identifying unused objects within rules and the ability to detect rules that are covered not only by earlier rules but also by subsequent rules, Enhanced User Experience including Group Dashboards, superior topology diagram, and robust Web GUI functionality.

We’ve also just announced that in addition to software, we are now offering hardware appliances for both our products.

AlgoSec FireFlow is another brand new exiting product that has been very well received by dozen of leading enterprise customers and managed service providers world-wide.

During this year we will announce new, disruptive solutions and exciting offerings to strengthen our market leadership and keep all our customers happy.

YB: As part of our dedication to our customers, we’ve always made it policy to solicit feedback about what we can do to save them time and money. The recent release of the AFA 5.0 was a perfect example of what that dialogue can produce: a great product that answers the needs of our customers. In fact, I recently spoke with a large Australian service provider, who is an AlgoSec customer. The client complimented us by saying: “we are glad that you listened to our needs”.

 

And recently after presenting AlgoSec and the AFA to a major client prospect in Europe they answered with “where do I have to sign?” before we even left the meeting room. We’ve also seen a large number of North American clients that have joined our “Early Availability” programs after they saw the recent innovations in the AFA 5.0.

Thanks to our unique technology that is used to provide unique business-focused solutions, successful channel strategy and customer focus – major customers, channel partners and leading network security analysts view AlgoSec products as offering quantifiable returns on their investments.

 

Despite the economic climate we expect 2009 to be our best year ever.