Firewall Management Pricing

[donte10]

I have a client who is outsourcing their firewall services from another service company while we take care of their ongoing desktop/server maintenance. The client has now asked us how much we would charge them to manage their firewall.

I have no idea what to charge them for this service. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to charge them for this or what they would charge?

Should I ask the client what the other company was charging them or would that be invasive?

 

[onetech4all]

Re:

A firewall doesn't change that much after the setup and once everything is working. You might check daily or weekly the logs for any intrusion attempts, but other than that, it's pretty much static.
What firewall is it? If it's Cisco and I don't mean Linksys by Cisco, you can safely charge over $100/hour to create the filters and ACLs. I am not a Cisco guy, yet, but if we hire a contractor to do this and he/she is CCNP/CCIE, I expect his/her charge to be between $150-$250/hour.

 

[cmonova]

Seeing that you are already doing their desktop/server maintenance and have a relationship with them I would ask what they are paying for that support.

But, like it has been said, managing a firewall is not that time consuming.

 

[e2346437]

"Managing" their firewall is more than just creating ACL's as needed. I would also expect that a managed firewall service also include regular OS updates. If they have a good brand of firewall such as Cisco or Sonicwall, this is sure to cost some money.

In the case of Cisco, I would want to budget in the charge for at least an 8x5 SmartNet contract so that you can have access to the IOS for the unit. Also you need to find out if the unit is too old to be covered.

Make sure you do your homework first.

Eric