AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwire - Aug 30, 2012) - SolarWinds® (NYSE: [ SWI ]), a leading provider of powerful and affordable [ IT management software ], announced today that it is launching a new product, SolarWinds Firewall Security Manager (FSM), which adds easy to use, multi-vendor firewall management to its growing portfolio of IT Management products. The new SolarWinds Firewall Security Manager has all of the power and features that IT pros need, and will be priced starting at $1,295, making it one of the most affordable firewall analytics and management solutions available. SolarWinds FSM also integrates with [ SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager ] (NCM) to offer a more complete change management experience.

"We believe that SolarWinds Firewall Security Manager extends our tradition of leadership in the network management space. Like our other products, SolarWinds Firewall Security Manager offers our unique value proposition: designed to meet the IT professionals' needs with a rich and powerful feature set, great user experience, and a price significantly below that of the competition," said Kevin Thompson, SolarWinds' President and CEO. "As security and compliance challenges continue to evolve with advances in IT technology and business requirements, we will continue to respond to our customers' needs, developing and releasing new products that solve their problems easily and affordably."

The security of a company's network is a critical concern for any IT manager, and firewalls are an integral part of the security apparatus. However, the rules governing those firewalls are increasingly complex and difficult to manage. In a recent SolarWinds survey* of IT professionals, over 150 respondents listed the following problems as the primary drivers of anxiety around the security of their firewalls:

• 79 percent are concerned about firewall rules that are retained beyond their useful period
• 67 percent struggle with the lack of documentation of the rules and their business purpose (i.e. Why do we have this rule?)
• 54 percent say that conflict between rules causes significant issues, compounded by the fact that those conflicts are hard to find and fix
• 54 percent struggle with rules that nobody understands but are maintained out of worry or fear

Of those respondents who do not currently do firewall audits, the number one reason behind this decision was a lack of time or resources.

SolarWinds FSM provides easy-to-use, integrated firewall analytics and management at a price that is dramatically below other competitors in the market and with a functionality set that addresses the key issues in managing firewalls and router security and management:

• Ensuring that existing rules are effective and do not overlap
• Alerting users to changes in rules that break security policy
• Enabling users to test rule changes offline prior to rolling them out
• Ensuring that changes to rules don't break policies
• Generating security audit reports

SolarWinds FSM offers built-in integration with SolarWinds NCM, enabling the import of firewalls and routers managed in SolarWinds NCM directly into SolarWinds FSM.

SolarWinds Firewall Security Manager highlights:

• Automates security audits using over 120 customizable, out-of the-box checks based on standards from NSA, NIST, SANS and more
• Analyzes firewall and router configurations and logs to isolate redundant, covered and unused security rules and objects
• Models how a new rule, or change to an existing one, will impact your firewall policy or break end-to-end connectivity without touching production devices
• Simplifies firewall troubleshooting and change management for your multi-vendor, Layer 3 network devices

Pricing and Availability

SolarWinds Firewall Security Manager is designed for IT professionals and priced to make it accessible to nearly any size organization. SolarWinds FSM is available now and pricing starts at $1,295, with the first year of maintenance included. For more information, visit the SolarWinds [ website ] or call 866.530.8100.

* The SolarWinds-sponsored survey was conducted on June 26, 2012, via an online survey service. The survey was sent to nearly 10,000 IT professionals, resulting in 155 completed surveys.

About SolarWinds

SolarWinds (NYSE: [ SWI ]) provides powerful and affordable IT management software to customers worldwide from Fortune 500 enterprises to small businesses. In all of our market areas, our approach is consistent. We focus exclusively on IT Pros and strive to eliminate the complexity that they have been forced to accept from traditional enterprise software vendors. SolarWinds delivers on this commitment with unexpected simplicity through products that are easy to find, buy, use and maintain while providing the power to address any IT management problem on any scale. Our solutions are rooted in our deep connection to our user base, which interacts in our online community, [ thwack ], to solve problems, share technology and best practices, and directly participate in our product development process. Learn more today at [ http://www.solarwinds.com ].

SolarWinds, SolarWinds.com and thwack are registered trademarks of SolarWinds. All other company and product names mentioned are used only for identification purposes and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.