What is our primary use case?
ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer is used as a sub-product of a suite called OPManager, and while it's a feature meant for monitoring specific firewall policies, traffic, and managing changes, we have always sold it as an add-on to OPManager rather than as a standalone product.
ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer is sold as one feature among many; it specifically monitors firewalls by providing insights on policies, incoming and outgoing traffic, and allows change management with appropriate approvals, enabling users to manage multiple firewalls across different OEMs from a single dashboard.
What is most valuable?
ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer's feature for in-depth traffic analysis includes configuration management and overall monitoring of firewalls, with an emphasis on compliance management, allowing for automated reports across different OEMs to meet regulatory standards.
Regarding the effectiveness of ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer's automated alerts and notifications, if we have set the correct thresholds and configured it properly, alerts and notifications are always reliable.
The real-time monitoring feature of ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer is fairly good; it allows customization of polling intervals down to a couple of seconds, which helps catch unusual activities before major security incidents arise, enabling us to set thresholds and alerts to investigate issues proactively.
The historical trend analysis feature of ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer benefits long-term network planning and optimization efforts by retaining data for a year, or longer if storage permits, enabling the analysis of trends and better forecasting for bandwidth needs.
This is a direct benefit received from ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer; while it's an advanced feature that customers typically use later for forecast planning, it's a very effective feature for insights into network performance.
What needs improvement?
To improve ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer, they need to implement Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) support for firewalls and switches across their NMS products, as this would significantly save time; currently, they rely on CLI configurations and templates but are missing this modern feature.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer for about six years, while we've been using ManageEngine's Endpoint Central for over 10 years, as Firewall Analyzer is not the first product we picked up from ManageEngine.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
Regarding the installation and deployment process of ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer, if the firewalls are of reputed brands like Sophos, Cisco, or Fortinet, they are supported out of the box; however, if they are from less reputed or local OEMs, then it may require some support from the ManageEngine team to get these onboarded properly.
In our experience with ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer, customers typically go for a globally recognized firewall provider due to the importance of security; hence, we have faced only very popular firewall brands, making installation and deployment very easy, and we haven't needed support from ManageEngine at all.
How are customer service and support?
ManageEngine's technical support is fairly consistent and good; however, remote support can be a bit slow, which is why they rely on channel partners to offer faster solutions to end customers, although ManageEngine support is technically capable of resolving issues proficiently.
ManageEngine's support deserves an eight out of ten rating, as they have great knowledge but can be a bit slower by design.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
While I personally was not involved in the deployment process of ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer, my team handled it.
Typically, it takes one person to deploy ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer as it's a simple product to deploy.
What was our ROI?
Specific metrics for financial benefits from ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer would vary greatly depending on the buyer's industry and firewall management needs; managing multiple firewalls from different OEMs can lead to significant time savings, particularly for those with diverse systems.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing and overall licensing cost of ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer is very cost-effective compared to global competitors.
What other advice do I have?
The overall rating for ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer is 9 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other