Solsoft ChangeManager

Solsoft ChangeManager provides a centralized platform for the management of disparate network devices, including firewalls, VPN appliances, routers, and more. The product is billed as a "rules repository," within which network and security administrators can define business rules using an abstract GUI platform, with the product automatically translating the business rules into actual low-level device commands for implementation on the managed devices themselves. The design GUI features drag-n-drop capabilities allowing for the definition of network-level rules without requiring knowledge of specific device instructions.

The vendor states that multiple access control, firewall, VPN, and IPS devices are supported by the product; including gear from Cisco, Check Point, Juniper, ISS, Symantec, and more (see the vendor's Web site for a current listing). The new version of Solsoft ChangeManager adds support for the Fortinet Fortigate 3.0, Juniper JunOS 9.0, Netscreen 6.x and Provider-1 R65.

Defined rules can themselves include an expiry date (independent of whether such a feature exists on the individual devices), with the platform providing reporting and alerting tools to signal pending or past expired rules. The platform does not, however, automatically remove such expired rules; this remains a task for an authorized administrator.

For compliance, the tool includes both role-based access controls (including a read-only mode for auditors) as well as built-in workflow approval for the design and implementation of rules. All actions are logged, and reporting capabilities include an at-a-glance dashboard with stats and summaries; searching; and reporting templates (can be customized) for such actions as differential policy comparisons, expired/expiring rules, comparison between devices (or between the current configuration of a device and the currently defined rules; to catch changes that may have been made outside ChangeManager), or all changes made to a specific device.

Other features include version controls with rollback features, auditing reports, import/export capabilities, and automatic generation/re-generation of shared keys in VPN environments. The product can additionally integrate with the vendor's LogManager and/or EventManager offerings, providing the ability to automatically implement pre-designed remediation tasks as the result of an alert sent from those tools. An open API and an SDK additionally facilitate integration with 3rd party platforms.

Solsoft ChangeManager is available now; base pricing is $40,000. Contact Exaprotect for further information.