Nipper Studio from Titania is a newcomer this year to our policy management review. This product offers full auditing of network devices, such as firewalls, routers and switches. Once the devices have been audited, Nipper Studio provides reports based on standards, such as SANS, PCI, STIG, CVSSv2 and industry best practices.
We found this product to be simple to install and configure in our test environment. We installed the Windows version but there are also Linux and Mac OSX versions available for added environment flexibility. To install the product we had to simply run the installation executable which opened a short installation wizard. At the completion of the installation, we were able to bring up the installed application where we were greeted with a simple getting-started view. From here we were able to easily add our configuration files and begin our analysis. One of the first things we noticed is that this product is wizard driven, which we found to be a big plus to overall ease of use.
Aside from wizard-based configuration and management, we also found this product to contain a lot of configuration options for auditing and reporting. Configuring most options was as simple as checking the appropriate box on the appropriate menu and everything was all ready to go. There is also an offline mode which allows for auditing to run without being connected to the network, which is ideal for higher security environments. Our overall response to this product was that it was a powerful auditing tool that was easy to use and manage, We also found reporting to be a strong point. Nipper Studio includes a fair amount of ready-to-go reporting templates, including a security report that shows grades of vulnerabilities according to the risk they pose to the organization.
Documentation included a beginner's guide (basically a getting-started guide), and a few supplemental guides for acquiring configuration files from various devices. The beginner's guide provided a good amount of detail on installation along with a few steps to begin using the product. We found this guide to be well-organized with clear, step-by-step instructions, examples and screen shots. No other detailed documentation was provided, such as an administrator guide, but we did notice a lot of context-based help within the application itself.
Customers have access to email- and phone-based technical support during business hours, Monday through Friday. Titania does not offer fee-based premium support or 24/7 support options. There is also a small assistance area available via the website which includes product documentation and a short FAQ section. However, there are no other aid resources available, such as a user forum or knowledge base.
At a price starting at around $40 per device, we found this product to be a good value for the money. While it may lack tons of bell and whistles, it does have a pretty solid feature set with some good auditing and reporting options. We found that its simple design along with the ability to run audits offline also adds to its overall value.
