Firewall Management Service
Firewall Management Service
Firewalls are the first line of defence between your organisation and the internet — but a firewall is only as effective as its configuration, monitoring, and ongoing management. Misconfigured firewall rules, unpatched firmware, and stale policies create gaps that attackers exploit every day.
Dataproof’s Firewall Management Service delivers fully managed firewall operations, backed by our status as a FortiGate Expert Partner. We handle everything — from initial deployment and policy design to continuous monitoring, vulnerability assessments, firmware backups, and regular policy reviews — so your perimeter security is always current, compliant, and optimised.
Managed Firewall Operations
Day-to-day firewall management including rule changes, policy updates, and configuration optimisation handled by our certified engineers
24/7 Monitoring
Continuous monitoring of firewall health, traffic patterns, and security events with real-time alerting and incident escalation
Vulnerability Assessments
Regular vulnerability scans and security assessments of your firewall infrastructure to identify and remediate weaknesses before attackers do
FortiGate Expert Partner
Dataproof holds Expert Partner status with Fortinet, the global leader in cybersecurity solutions. This designation recognises our deep technical expertise, proven deployment experience, and commitment to the Fortinet Security Fabric ecosystem.
As a FortiGate Expert Partner, we bring certified engineering talent, direct vendor support channels, and best-practice methodologies to every engagement — ensuring your FortiGate infrastructure delivers maximum protection.
Our FortiGate Capabilities
| Capability | Description |
|---|---|
| FortiGate Deployment | End-to-end deployment of FortiGate next-generation firewalls including sizing, HA configuration, and network integration |
| Policy Design & Implementation | Least-privilege firewall rule design based on business requirements, with structured change management processes |
| Security Profile Management | Configuration and tuning of IPS, antivirus, web filtering, application control, SSL inspection, and DNS security profiles |
| FortiGuard Integration | Leverage FortiGuard Labs threat intelligence for real-time protection against emerging threats |
| VPN Management | Site-to-site and remote access VPN configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting |
| FortiManager & FortiAnalyzer | Centralised management and analytics across multiple FortiGate devices using FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer |
| High Availability | Active-passive and active-active HA cluster design, configuration, and failover testing |
| Firmware Lifecycle | Managed firmware upgrades, patch management, and version control across your FortiGate estate |
What’s Included
Our Firewall Management Service is a comprehensive, fully managed offering that covers the complete lifecycle of your firewall infrastructure:
1. Management
- Rule Administration — Creation, modification, and deletion of firewall rules through a controlled change management process with full audit trail
- Configuration Management — Centralised configuration control with version tracking, rollback capability, and change documentation
- NAT & Routing — Management of NAT policies, static routes, policy routing, and SD-WAN configurations
- VPN Management — Site-to-site IPsec and SSL VPN configuration, monitoring, and certificate management
- Security Profile Tuning — Ongoing optimisation of IPS signatures, antivirus definitions, web filter categories, and application control policies
- Firmware Updates — Scheduled firmware upgrades with pre-staging, testing, and rollback plans to minimise risk
2. Monitoring
- 24/7 Health Monitoring — Continuous monitoring of firewall CPU, memory, session counts, and interface status with automated alerting
- Security Event Monitoring — Real-time correlation of firewall logs with security events, integrated with our CSOC for rapid threat response
- Traffic Analysis — Ongoing traffic pattern analysis to identify anomalies, bandwidth abuse, and potential data exfiltration
- VPN Tunnel Monitoring — Monitoring of all VPN tunnel states with automated failover and reconnection alerts
- Compliance Monitoring — Continuous validation that firewall configurations remain compliant with your security policies and regulatory requirements
- SLA Reporting — Monthly reports covering uptime, security events, rule changes, and performance metrics
3. Regular Vulnerability Assessments
- Firewall Configuration Audits — Systematic review of firewall rules, policies, and security profiles to identify misconfigurations and security gaps
- Port & Service Scans
— External and internal port scanning to verify that only intended services are exposed
- Rule Effectiveness Analysis — Identification of shadow, redundant, overly permissive, and unused firewall rules that weaken your security posture
- Firmware Vulnerability Checks — Assessment of current firmware versions against known CVEs and FortiGuard advisories
- Penetration Testing — Simulated attack scenarios testing the effectiveness of your firewall policies against real-world attack techniques
- Remediation Reporting — Prioritised findings with clear remediation steps and risk ratings
4. Backups
- Automated Configuration Backups — Scheduled, encrypted backups of full firewall configurations stored in secure, geographically separated storage
- Pre-Change Backups — Automatic backup captured before every configuration change, ensuring instant rollback capability
- Backup Verification — Regular restore testing to verify backup integrity and confirm recovery procedures work
- Version History — Full configuration version history with diff comparison between any two versions
- Disaster Recovery — Documented recovery procedures and tested restoration runbooks for rapid firewall recovery after failure
5. Policy Reviews
- Quarterly Policy Reviews — Scheduled comprehensive reviews of all firewall policies against current business requirements and threat intelligence
- Rule Decommissioning — Identification and safe removal of obsolete rules, expired temporary rules, and unused objects
- Least-Privilege Validation — Verification that all rules adhere to least-privilege principles with no overly broad allow rules
- Compliance Alignment — Policy review against POPIA, PCI-DSS, ISO 27001, and other applicable regulatory frameworks
- Change Impact Analysis — Assessment of how network and application changes affect existing firewall policies
- Best Practice Benchmarking — Comparison of your configuration against Fortinet and CIS best practice benchmarks
Why Managed Firewall Over Self-Managed?
| Factor | Self-Managed | Dataproof Managed Firewall |
|---|---|---|
| Expertise | Depends on internal team skills and availability | Certified FortiGate engineers with Expert Partner backing |
| 24/7 Coverage | Usually office hours only | Round-the-clock monitoring and response via our CSOC |
| Rule Management | Often ad-hoc, poorly documented | Controlled change management with full audit trail |
| Vulnerability Assessments | Infrequent or non-existent | Regular, scheduled assessments with remediation guidance |
| Policy Reviews | Rarely conducted — rule creep accumulates | Quarterly reviews keeping policies lean and effective |
| Backup & Recovery | Manual, often untested | Automated, encrypted, regularly verified |
| Vendor Escalation | Limited to standard support channels | Direct Fortinet partner escalation path |
| Cost | Hidden costs — staff, training, tools, after-hours cover | Fixed monthly fee with predictable OPEX |
Integrated with Our Security Ecosystem
Firewall Management doesn’t exist in isolation. It integrates with our broader security services:
- SIEM & CSOC — Firewall logs feed into our SIEM for correlated threat detection and rapid incident response
- PAMaaS — Privileged access to firewall management interfaces is controlled through our PAM service
- DRaaS — Firewall configurations are protected as part of your disaster recovery strategy
- Malware Protection — FortiGate IPS and antivirus profiles work in concert with our endpoint and gateway malware protection
- Backup Service — Configuration backups are stored alongside your broader data protection strategy
Ready to put your firewall security in expert hands? Contact us to schedule a firewall health check.