A firewall is the perimeter-level security of an enterprise and is one of the most complicated security aspects to configure, manage, and maintain. Anything that affects it can affect the network, security, and systems processes which is why network administrators have to stay more focused in managing them more effectively. Yet many enterprises fail to manage it effectively because of lack of best practices or because of over reliance on manual methods to manage it. All this makes firewall management an erroneous and time-consuming backend process.
Why is ServiceNow ITOM the Best Bet for Firewall Management?
The Firewall Audit and Reporting application powered by ServiceNow ITOM allows IT teams to take control of all the physical and virtual firewalls. The application allows managing all the firewall policies, their firmware versions, and other hardware aspects centrally. It can be managed at the same place where the rest of the IT infrastructure is managed.
Significance of the ServiceNow ITOM Paris Release
The ServiceNow ITOM Paris release saw the introduction of a workflow solution to support a centralized tracking of all types of firewalls in an organization’s IT ecosystem. It aims to bring more efficiency and acceleration in the firewall management framework. This was achieved by centralizing the tracking process of firewall policies and by automating the firewall audit of policies.
The firewall inventory and audit store application digitized the entire process of managing firewall change requests through the ServiceNow Service portal solution.
The ServiceNow ITOM Platform enables automated workflows for security incident response that will help the firewall security team to adhere to the standard regulations.
The ServiceNow ITOM Paris release introduced an automated audit framework to supervise all the firewall policy ownerships. An automated firewall audit framework can also adjudge the necessity to introduce firewall policies for different departments.
How does the ServiceNow ITOM Paris Release Support Firewall Inventory and Audit?
Using the established processes and abilities of ServiceNow ITOM, enterprises can witness more efficiency and structure in their firewall management. On this note, here’s a look at the benefits of implementing ServiceNow ITOM’s Firewall Audit and Reporting application:
Complete View of the Firewall Ecosystem
The ServiceNow discovery feature automatically locates the firewall ecosystem. Currently, it is programmed to discover Palo Alto Network firewalls, however, its built-in pattern framework allows to discover firewalls constructed by other vendors. This feature allows the IT team to configure new firewall patterns for IP-enabled devices requiring very minimum or no coding. The discovered firewalls, along with the relevant firewall policies and other hardware attributes are automatically routed to the ServiceNow CMDB. The entire process is accurately documented to support firewall security audit report. A ServiceNow CMDB is typically built on a constant data model enabling a unified access to all the firewalls.
Self-service Firewall Request Management
The Firewall Audit and Reporting application allows a user to raise any firewall-related requests on ServiceNow Service Catalog. They can then submit and track the request through the ServiceNow Service Portal. Such a self-service tool expedites the whole process of changing firewall rules as it reduces the dependence on a third-party. Meanwhile, for the network firewall team, it offloads the task of responding manually to each request. The team can now utilize the time manage firewalls with a renewed focus.
Add Speed and Reduce Risks in Firewall Policy Workflows
ServiceNow ITOM’s Firewall Audit and Reporting application automatically directs all the firewall requests to the security team who weighs in the risk and gives an approval. Post the approval, the system triggers an automatic change request and routes it the network firewall team who takes it over from there. The firewall audit and reporting application would automatically associate the policy change number to the owner who had requested the change, the application service, and other entities in the ServiceNow CMDB.
Cost Optimization while Improving Audit Scopes and Coverage
The Firewall Audit and Reporting application creates a detailed and accurate report on firewall policies and other related processes data. This enables an enterprise to be audit ready. It takes away the need to gather additional which involves heavy cost and is prone to errors. It also allows admins to conduct ad-hoc audits to keep a track of the firewall network health.
A Unified Dashboard Makes Tracking Easy
The Firewall Audit and Reporting application provides a unified dashboard that helps to get a 360-degree visibility on the entire firewall change request process. This includes the historical data of firewall changes as well as the present change requests. Not only change requests, but the dashboard also helps to monitor any potential loopholes in the firewall network such as orphaned policies.
How Can We Help You Implement ITOM ServiceNow Modules in Your Operational Ecosystem?
To make the most out of the Firewall Inventory and Audit application for the ServiceNow ITOM platform, an organization has to make substantial changes in their IT operation and assets.
Our expert’s handhold you through the process of implementing and fully utilizing the new ITOM ServiceNow modules in your operation.
To begin with, we install and activate a set of plugins which are the ITOM Visibility, Discovery, and Configuration Management for Scoped Apps (CMDB) plugins. We ensure that the plugins are upgraded to the latest ServiceNow ITOM release.
We assign a Discovery admin who helps scheduling the discovery of Palo Alto Networks firewalls. The admins can be scaled up to discover firewalls built by other vendors, once the Firewall Inventory and Audit application is updated. On request, the discovery admin can set default policy owner groups to expedite firewall rule tasks approval process.
We enable the data archiver plugin to archive all the firewall change and audit requests. This shifts data that is no longer required on the primary data tables. The archive requests are done based on specific archive rules chosen and set.
Assigning role-based admins is a crucial part of our Firewall Inventory and Audit application for you. We assign firewall admins who are authorized to see and edit the unified dashboard. They can initiate an audit, edit the audit tasks.
Who Are We and Why Are We Considered as An Industry Authority?
FlatworldEdge’s ServiceNow IT operations management aims to provide you with a complete visibility on your IT infrastructure. We analyze the potential areas of your IT operations that can be automated to bring more efficiency in your operation. Our experts will constantly guide you through the complete ServiceNow ITOM modules implementation in your organization. It starts with consultation, IT ecosystem analysis, implementing the tools, administration, and maintenance.
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