Build vs. Buy in the Age of AI: The Hidden Cost of AI-Built Firewall Tools

AI coding assistants make it easier than ever to write a firewall automation script or stitch together a policy cleanup tool. Writing the code was never the hard part. The hard part is giving AI the trusted policy context it needs to act on, testing the result against every vendor and firmware version in production, reviewing it for security risk, and maintaining it as vendors change their APIs.

Join FireMon as we break down what build vs. buy really looks like now that AI has changed how fast teams can write automation, but not what it takes to run it safely at scale. Using real-world examples, you'll see why an AI agent is only as good as the policy data, tools, and permissions behind it, and why a from-scratch build still carries the testing, security review, and maintenance burden that a purpose-built platform absorbs on day one.

Whether you're weighing a DIY build against a commercial NSPM platform, or figuring out where AI agents can take on the investigation and preparation work that eats your engineers' time, you'll leave with a practical framework for making that call with confidence.

You'll learn how to:

• Separate what AI coding tools can accelerate from what still requires vendor-specific testing, security review, and long-term maintenance.
• Understand why agents need trusted policy context, defined skills and tools, and scoped permissions to do multi-step policy work reliably.
• Evaluate the true timeline and cost of building NSPM capabilities in-house, with or without AI assistance, versus deploying a proven platform.
• Decide where AI should investigate and prepare work, and where practitioners should keep authority over consequential decisions.
• Assess whether your team has the ongoing capacity to own security review, vendor API changes, and compliance mapping for a homegrown tool.
• Apply a practical framework for deciding when to build, when to buy, and when AI actually changes the equation.

Translated subtitles will be available if English isn’t your first language.