Skybox Security Alternative for Firewall Policy Management

Skybox Security ceased operations in February 2025. If your team relied on Skybox for firewall rule analysis, change review or compliance checks, the firewall policy side of that work still needs a home. This page explains what happened, what teams valued in Skybox, and how Opinnate covers the firewall policy lifecycle, including where our scope ends.

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What happened to Skybox Security?

Public reports in February 2025 confirmed that Skybox Security shut down and laid off its workforce. Tufin, another network security policy management vendor, stated that it bought limited assets and some business information from Skybox, and that it did not acquire the company or its contracts. Former Skybox customers who want continuity therefore need to choose a new platform themselves. If you are in this situation, the practical question is not “who bought Skybox” but “which parts of our Skybox workflow do we still need, and which tool covers them?”

What teams valued in Skybox, and what to look for in a replacement

Public user reviews on sites such as PeerSpot and IT Central Station describe Skybox Firewall Assurance as one of its most valued capabilities. Teams also mention change workflows, network modeling and compliance reporting. The same reviewers raise recurring concerns: cost and complexity, consistency of vendor support after updates, depth of cloud coverage, and how far change workflows reach into application-layer firewall rules.

Rule analysis depth:

Unused, expired, disabled, shadowed, permissive and non-compliant rules, with clear evidence from usage data.

Change handling:

Can you review and automate IP-, user- and application-based requests without manual rule editing?

Compliance and auditability:

Can you run policy checks against your own standards and show evidence to auditors?

Visibility:

Topology and path views that explain why traffic is allowed or blocked.

Hybrid coverage:

How on-premises and cloud firewalls are treated, and what is analysis only versus full control.

Operating cost:

How much effort it takes to deploy, run and maintain.

How Opinnate covers the firewall policy side

Opinnate is a network security policy management (NSPM) platform for firewall rule analysis, hardening, optimization, automation and policy governance. In version 5.1 it includes:

Rule and policy analysis

Unused, expired, disabled, shadowed, permissive and non-compliant rules, plus rule and path existence checks.

Security Policy Check

Evaluate policies against your own security standards and compliance requirements.

Usage monitoring​

User- and application-based usage analysis, and FQDN/IP resolution to make rules readable.​

Optimization and automation

IP-, user- and application-based change automation for on-premises firewalls.

Visibility and reporting

Topology visibility and an executive dashboard that turns rule data into audit-ready views.

Cloud firewall analysis

Analysis for Azure, AWS and GCP firewalls.

Scale

Multiple collectors for distributed environments, and add-ons such as Application Visibility, Certificate Tracker, FW Backup Tracker and License Tracker.

What Opinnate does not do

To keep expectations clear: Opinnate is focused on firewall policy. It is not a vulnerability management or attack simulation platform, so if you used Skybox mainly for exposure and risk scoring, you will need a separate tool for that. For cloud firewalls, version 5.1 provides analysis; syslog analysis, optimization and automation are available for on-premises firewalls only at this stage.

If you used Skybox for... Opinnate offers...

If you used Skybox for

Firewall rule analysis and cleanup

Change review and requests

Compliance checks

Network and path understanding

Cloud firewall coverage

Vulnerability and exposure management

Opinnate capability
  • Unused, shadowed, permissive and non- compliant rule analysis; rule usage monitoring
  • IP-, user- and application-based automation
  • Security Policy Check, compliance reporting, executive dashboard
  • Topology visibility, rule and path existence control
  • Azure, AWS and GCP firewall analysis
  • Not covered
Scope note
  • Core strength
  • On-premises firewalls
  • Core strength
  • Analysis only
  • Use a separate tool
  • Firewall-centric
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A Practical Way to Move Your Firewall Policy Workflow to Opinnate

Transitioning your firewall policy management to Opinnate starts with connecting your existing firewall infrastructure directly to the platform. Opinnate Manager reads firewall configurations and usage data directly from your firewalls, allowing you to establish a new policy baseline, assess your security rules and manage ongoing policy changes without requiring a Skybox data export.
Inventory

Identify the firewalls and management platforms currently in use across your organisation. This helps determine which devices need to be connected to Opinnate and establish the scope of your firewall policy management requirements.

Connect

Opinnate Manager connects directly to your existing firewalls to read their configurations and usage data. This connection provides the information needed for firewall rule analysis and policy management. For distributed environments, additional collectors can be deployed to support connectivity across multiple locations.

Baseline

Once connected, run firewall rule analysis to identify unused, expired, disabled, shadowed, permissive and non-compliant rules. Review rule usage, assess policies against your security standards and identify potential compliance gaps across your firewall environment.

Operate

Use Opinnate to manage firewall policy change requests, automate supported changes for on-premises firewalls, perform ongoing compliance checks and monitor policy usage. Generate reports and use topology visibility to support policy governance, operational reviews and audit requirements.

The Opinnate team can walk through your environment before you commit.

Moving from Skybox to Opinnate: What You Need to Know

If your organisation previously used Skybox Security for firewall policy management, you do not need to export your Skybox data to get started with Opinnate. Instead, Opinnate Manager connects directly to your existing firewalls to read their configurations and usage data. This allows you to establish a new baseline of your firewall policies within Opinnate without relying on a Skybox data export. Once connected, you can start analysing firewall rules, identifying unused or unnecessary policies, checking compliance and managing firewall policy changes through Opinnate. The Opinnate team can review your existing firewall environment and help you understand the appropriate setup for your requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Opinnate’s approach to governance
No. Public reports confirm that Skybox Security shut down in February 2025. Tufin said it purchased limited assets but did not acquire the company or its contracts.
For firewall policy management, yes: rule analysis, optimization, compliance checks, automation and visibility. For vulnerability management and attack simulation, no. Opinnate is not designed for that.
No. Opinnate Manager connects directly to your firewalls, so you do not need a Skybox export to get started. Talk to the Opinnate team about your specific setup.
Yes, with analysis for Azure, AWS and GCP firewalls. Syslog analysis, optimization and automation are not yet available for cloud firewalls.
Opinnate is offered as an annual subscription in Lite, Standard and Enterprise editions, and add-ons can be added to any edition. See the editions page for details.
Request a demo to discuss your firewall infrastructure and see how Opinnate supports your firewall policy management requirements.

Talk to us about your Skybox transition

Request a demo to see rule analysis on your own firewall data, or review the editions to see what fits your environment.

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Skybox is a trademark of its respective owner. Opinnate is not affiliated with Skybox Security or Tufin. Information on Skybox is based on public reports and user reviews.