Elevating Cloud Security: Seamlessly Migrate AWS & Azure Firewall Policies to Palo Alto Networks Software Firewall

[JayGolf]

This blog was written by Fan Yang, Principal Product Manager

In the fast-paced world of cloud infrastructure, security cannot be a bottleneck. As organizations scale across AWS and Azure, the limitations of Cloud Service Provider (CSP) native firewalls often become apparent. Whether it’s the need for deep packet inspection, consistent cross-cloud management, or enterprise-grade threat prevention, the need for moving to Palo Alto Networks Software Firewall is clear.

• Superior Efficacy: Recent comparisons show that Palo Alto Networks Software Firewall delivers 99.4% threat-prevention efficacy, significantly outperforming native options.
• Unified Management: Instead of juggling disparate consoles for AWS, Azure, and on-premise firewalls, you gain a single pane of glass through Strata Cloud Manager (SCM) or Panorama.
• Advanced Capabilities: You gain immediate access to App-ID, Advanced URL Filtering, and WildFire—capabilities that go far beyond simple port/protocol filtering.
• Platform Flexibility: Select either VM-Series or Cloud NGFW (link), based on your specific requirements for manageability and control.

However, we know that wanting superior security and implementing it are two different things. For many of you—cloud architects, security engineers, and network operations leaders—the biggest hurdle has been firewall policy migration - manually translating hundreds of native firewall rules into Palo Alto Networks policy is tedious, time-consuming, and prone to human error.

That’s why I am thrilled to announce our latest feature: Cloud Firewall Policy Migration.

We are removing the friction from adopting best-in-class security. We’ve built a bridge that allows you to discover, analyze, and migrate your existing CSP native firewall policies directly into Strata Cloud Manager, empowering you to achieve a consistent security posture across your hybrid environment faster than ever before with the following benefits.

• Accelerated Security Modernization: Rapidly upgrade from basic cloud native firewalls to Palo Alto Networks’ enterprise-grade security firewall without the weeks of manual rule-rebuilding typically required.
• Operational Risk Reduction: Eliminate human error and "copy-paste" risks during complex migrations by using an automated, rule-by-rule conversion engine that identifies exactly what can and cannot be migrated.
• Self-Service Simplicity: Empower security teams to manage the entire migration lifecycle—from discovery to validation—directly within SCM, reducing the need for expensive third-party professional services.

Frictionless Migration: How It Works

For our Cloud and Security Engineers, we designed this workflow to be intuitive and transparent. The goal is not just to "copy-paste" rules, but to translate them intelligently into a Palo Alto Networks context.

The feature, available to all SCM customers, follows a simple lifecycle:

1. Discovery: Simply run a script to extract your AWS or Azure Firewall Policy into a zip file, and upload it to the CSP firewall policy migration tool in SCM.
2. Analyze: The tool analyzes your AWS and Azure firewall policies and maps them to SCM configurations.
3. Review: You get a detailed breakdown of the SCM policy configuration. If there are "skipped" rules (due to platform incompatibilities), the system provides a specific list of rules and reasons, so you know exactly what action to take.
4. Import: After the review is complete, you can import the configuration into a snippet in SCM, along with the Terraform template (if applicable). You can then assign the snippet to an SCM folder where your SW Firewall resides, so the security policy will get enforced on your firewall.

Fig 1. Example: Steps to Migrate Azure Firewall Policy to Palo Alto Network Firewall Policy

A Unified Strategy for the Future

This feature is more than just a migration tool; it’s an enabler for a unified security strategy. By simplifying the transition from native controls to Palo Alto Software Firewall, we are helping you establish a consistent security baseline across on-premise data centers, branch offices, and multiple public clouds.

Log in to SCM and start your migration journey today and check out this video below: