3 Tips To Make Firewall Migration Process Easier
To have a secure network without the risk of unauthorized access is the cornerstone of any organization today. Every business owner demand for having a secure access to its corporate data, critical security updates needs to be installed so that connecting to the data centre both for external and internal user can be secured. Thus there are many firewall systems that have been designed all intended to prevent unauthorized access and attacks from and to the private networks.
Available both in hardware & software form sometimes in a collection of both, firewalls prevent access of unauthorized internet users accessing private networks connected to the internet, especially intranets. Messages and communication entering or leaving the particular local network must pass through the firewall, if installed and connected. The firewall examines each block of communication and decides accordingly.
Migration of your current security policy to a new platform:
With so many distributed data centres across the world, nothing in technology is ever constant. Things are changing time by time so everything is updated and new features are included. And so transition from existing and traditional firewall to the next generation of firewall need to take place once technology offers new things. This migration can be simple or a lot more complicated, depending upon the skills one may have. These simple tips may assist one well in his/her firewall migration process.
Firewall and Security Visibility Map:
During the process of migration from one generation to the next, it may require a proper plan for both current and future needs. All the aspects of the firewall must be documented and planned well before the process. For the purpose of extreme safety during the process, one must try to gather information by creating a visual & dynamic map of the firewall architecture and traffic. The whole technical connectivity of data must be highlighted as well.
Understand, Document & Prepare Policy Migration:
Once the firewall map is prepared & the rest of documentation is ready, next step is to keep looking under the cover. There isn’t just a single security appliance for the whole network. There must be multiple security vendors living under the same roof in modern data centres. Thus you need to document all the security policies, services and network algorithms for each firewall end-point
Business Impact and Migration Path:
Firewall migration has an impact, business-wide & this impact need to be the least minimal. A clear understanding of how the entire business model interacts with the firewall and security technologies, need for the migration to be effective. One must not forget any area associated with one’s business, and must observe every single department well.
A good approach would be to prepare a questionnaire or checklist with few core questions before initiating things and understanding the ways in which the opted applications may interact with various security policies. For example, do specific business units rely on some specific firewall traffic? How does the data centres are segmented by the security policies one may have made?
The process of firewall migration must be well planned to reduce the security migration complexity. Complete visibility of the security architecture, right tools to help one plan & map for the process is imperative for effective migration. Things in this capacity may be easier said than done, especially when one is on his own. A good approach would be to get in touch with professionals in this domain and acquire expert advice and help. This will enable one to stay on top of all the data and network security tasks.
