GENERALIZED NETWORK SECURITY POLICY TEMPLATES FOR IMPLEMENTING SIMILAR NETWORK SECURITY POLICIES ACROSS MULTIPLE NETWORKS

摘要

The present invention is directed to a facility for adapting a network security policy model for use in a particular network. The facility retrieves the network security policy model, which comprises network security rules each specified with respect to one or more aliases. Each alias represents a role in a network for one or more network elements. The facility receives, for each alias included in the network security policy model, a list of one or more network elements in the network serving the role represented by the alias. The facility replaces each alias in the network security policy model with the received list of network security devices specified for the alias to produce a network security policy adapted for use in a network.