Cisco SAFE 2.0

Cisco SAFE is a tool that I wish I had access to when I was first designing systems back in the late 1990s. It a consistent framework for all phases of network design for network security: design, planning, and implementation.

Overview

Cisco SAFE is a resource offered by Cisco to walk you step by step through designing, planning, and implementing a consistent security policy across all aspects of your environment, taking into consideration both Cisco security devices (that is, firewall/ASAs and ASA) and Cisco network devices (that is, routers and switches). SAFE uses a security control framework that employs various technical design components and implementation guides, all designed to increase the visibility of the components in your environment, help you identify the shortfalls, and assist you in avoiding “stove-pipe” security solutions that focus solely on one aspect of your environment, such as the data center or the edge devices.

Purpose

Using SAFE enables consistent security policy deployment across your environment, combining network and security devices into a seamless security platform for the campus/data center, Internet edge, and remote (branch office, virtual office, and clients) aspects of your environment. This also assists you in the design and planning phases of your security deployment to create a truly unified security strategy.

SAFE has several benefits: collaboration of devices, modular, and consistent implementation guides. The security control framework that SAFE uses enables you to witness how a security implementation affects Cisco network devices and Cisco security devices across the entire implementation, from data centers outward to branch offices through multiple Cisco devices, ensuring consistent Layers 2 and 3 design. Furthermore, it has a modular approach. There are different design guides for each segment on the network: campus, Internet edge, branch office, and so on. These first two benefits give birth to a document that is invaluable: a customized, yet consistent design implementation guide for your environment that enables you to view your security shortfalls and avoid the stove-pipe effect of securing one aspect of your environment while neglecting the others.

We encourage you to look into this golden egg of a tool at www.cisco.com/go/safe.