Strata Cloud Manager
New Strata Cloud Manager Management Features (May 2025)
Table of Contents
New Strata Cloud Manager Management Features (May 2025)
See the new configuration management features we've added to Strata Cloud Manager in
May 2025.
Here's the new configuration management features we've added to Strata Cloud
Manager in May 2025; we use a scheduled upgrade to deliver these features to you and
they are supported with the Cloud Manager 2025.R3.0 release version. Check your Strata
Cloud Manager in-product notifications for updates on the release upgrade schedule. You
can verify which Strata Cloud Manager release version you're running by navigating to
your configuration overview, and checking the
Cloud Management Version.
Strata Cloud Manager: New Best Practice Assessment Checks and Custom Checks
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May 16, 2025
Supported on Strata Cloud Manager for:
Strata Cloud Manager introduces the following new
checks:
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Strata Cloud Manager lets you validate your configuration against
predefined Best Practices and custom checks
you create based on the needs of your organization. As you make changes to your
service routes, connection settings, allowed services, and administrative access
settings for the management and auxiliary interfaces for your firewalls, Strata
Cloud Manager gives you assessment results inline so you can take immediate
corrective action when necessary. This eliminates problems that misalignments with
best practices can introduce, such as conflicts and security gaps.
Inline checks let you:
- Gauge the effectiveness of, assess the impact of, and validate changes you make to your configuration using inline assessment results.
- Prioritize and perform remediations based on the recommendations from the inline assessment.
Strata Cloud Manager: Config Cleanup Enhancements
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May 16, 2025
Supported on Strata Cloud Manager for:
Here are the enhancements for Config Cleanup:
These enhancements offer improved usability, and more
precise control over your configuration cleanup process.
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Do dynamic business needs often require you to deal with rapid configuration changes
that result in complex configurations with a number of zero hit rules, zero hit
objects, unused objects, and duplicate objects? Such configurations can lead to a
poor security posture and can inadvertently increase the attack surface of your
network. Config Cleanup has you covered.
Config Cleanup gives you a comprehensive view of all policy rules that have no hits,
objects that aren't referenced directly or indirectly in your configuration, objects
that are referenced in a policy rule but have no hits in the Traffic log during the
specified time frame, and objects of the same type with different names but have the
same values so that you can better:
- Manage attack surface exposure
- Prioritize remediation actions
- Remediate over time
- Respond to audit questions when they arise
Identify and remove unused configuration objects and policy rules from your
configuration. Removing unused configuration objects eases administration by
removing clutter and preserving only the configuration objects that are required for
security enforcement.
Review unused objects and policy rules across your entire Strata Cloud Manager
configuration for the last 6 months, and optimize policy rules that are overly
permissive rules to convert these to be more specific, focused rules that only allow
the applications you’re actually using.
Together with Policy Optimizer, these tools help you
ensure that your policy rules stay fresh and up to date.
Strata Cloud Manager: Policy Optimizer Enhancements
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May 16, 2025
Supported on Strata Cloud Manager for:
Policy Optimizer now
allows you to create address groups within policy
recommendations, addressing challenges in efficiently managing
firewall policies at scale. You can create source and
destination address groups within recommended rules, allowing
you to adjust and preview suggested groups before accepting
recommendations. These enhancements streamline the process of
optimizing firewall policies, helping you balance security and
operational efficiency as your network grows.
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Hone and optimize overly permissive security rules so that they only allow traffic
that are actually in use in your network. Rules that are too broad introduce
security gaps because they allow applications that are not in use in your network.
Policy Optimizer enables you to convert
these overly permissive rules to more specific, focused rules that only allow the
applications you’re actually using.
Strata Cloud Manager analyzes log data and categorizes rules as overly permissive
when they are allowing any application traffic, and the rules must be at least 15
days old. These rules can introduce security loopholes, if they’re allowing traffic
that’s not necessary for enterprise use.
For rules identified as overly permissive, Strata Cloud Manager auto-generates
recommendations you can accept to optimize the rule. The new, recommended rules are
more specific and targeted than the original rule; they explicitly allow only the
applications that have been detected in your network in the last 90 days.
Select an overly permissive rule to review, adjust, and accept optimization
recommendations. Replacing these rules with the more specific, recommended rules
strengthens your security posture. You can choose to accept some or all of the rule
recommendations. Accepting recommendations to optimize a rule does not remove the
original rule. The original rule remains listed below the new rules in your Security
policy; this is so you can monitor the rule, and remove it when you’re confident
that it’s not needed. Both the original rule and optimized rules are tagged so you
can easily identify them in your Security policy.
Together with Config Cleanup, these tools help you
ensure that your policy rules stay fresh and up to date.
Strata Cloud Manager: IPv4 Multicast Routing Support
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May 16, 2025
Supported for:NGFW (Managed by Strata Cloud Manager)
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Strata Cloud Manager (SCM) now enables you to configure IPv4 multicast routing on
virtual routers and logical routers. You can enable Protocol-Independent Multicast (PIM),
Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP), and Multicast Source Discovery Protocol
(MSDP) on supported interfaces. Additionally, SCM enables you to configure PIM Interface Timer profiles, MSDP Timer
profiles, and IGMP Interface Query profiles. You can also create IPv4 mroutes, which are static
unicast routes that point to a multicast source. Logical routers support only IGMPv2
and IGMPv3 (not IGMPv1). Only logical routers support a multicast static group
(virtual routers do not).
Enhanced Visibility for ZTP Onboarding
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May 16, 2025
Supported for: NGFW (Managed by Strata Cloud Manager)
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Enhanced onboarding and bootstrapping visibility for
Strata Cloud Manager improves the NGFW activation process for branch
locations, providing visibility and troubleshooting capabilities. This feature
addresses the challenges faced by installers with minimal technical knowledge who
are responsible for onboarding firewalls. Enhanced visibility for onboarding and
bootstrapping offers real-time status updates to administrators throughout the
process.
With enhanced visibility for onboarding and bootstrapping, you can monitor the
detailed bootup status, including the license download, content upgrade, software
upgrade, and configuration push. The feature introduces status bars that reflect the
progress of each stage, ensuring you have a clear understanding of the activation
process. In case of any interruptions or errors, such as issues with device
certificates, TSG ID validation, software updates, or content updates, the bootstrap
status indicates where the process failed and allows you to immediately restart.
Strata Cloud Manager: Configuration Management Support by Region
May 16, 2025 Supported on:
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Strata Cloud Manager now supports the following additional
regions:
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Strata Cloud Manager for Configuration Management is a solution that is defined and
controlled based on the region where it is deployed. You can deploy Strata Cloud
Manager in the locations of your choosing, based on data location preferences and
where you have the most users. For this reason, we are rolling out region-specific
support for Strata Cloud Manager as soon as we are able to do so for each region.
Enhanced UI for Security Policy Rules and Software Update Schedules
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May 16, 2025
Supported on Strata Cloud Manager
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Strata Cloud Manager introduces a set of user interface improvements
designed to make policy and device management more intuitive and efficient. These
updates focus on simplifying workflows, improving data visibility, and enhancing the
overall user experience.
- New security policy rules can now be inserted right after a selected rule, instead of always being added to the end of the list, simplifying the organization and management of rules.
- The NGFW software update schedules now feature pagination with clearly defined column headings, improving both clarity and performance when handling large datasets. In addition, the device details for each schedule now open in a sidebar instead of expanding within the table, allowing users to view details without losing context or disrupting the table structure.