The new Umbrella policy setup wizard is now in general availability!

We're very excited to introduce a new policy setup wizard for Umbrella. We're making it easier than ever to deploy new policies, apply new settings and modify existing policies.  This change is a part of expanding the capabilities of Umbrella to do more than ever before. 

So, what's changed? What's new?

The new policy setup wizard is built around helping you figure out what you want this policy to do to help you make the most of Umbrella.

First, select the identities that you want to apply the policy to, then the first step in the policy simply answering the question "What do you want this policy to do?"

There are several choices and depending on which ones you select, you'll take a different path to setting up the features and services of Umbrella that will give you the most benefit. As you go down the path to configuring the policy, we've made it easier than ever to edit settings within the wizard and not have to leave the setup flow.

Once you're done configuring settings, there's a cool review screen that lets you review what changes have been made and make changes before saving the policy.  

The wizard also enables new functionality that's coming as part of our Security Internet Gateway product strategy to provide the best cloud-based security on the market, so it's built to grow as we add features to the product.

Great! What do I need to know?

 A couple of important things to note:

1. Some features have moved around. For instance, the Intelligent Proxy is now nested under "Advanced Settings" because it applies to more than just Security Settings now. More information about what's moved around is in the brief tour of the wizard later in this article.
2. Not all features shown in the screenshots in this article are available to all users. Some features are also in limited availability and others are only available to customers with our Insights or Platform packages. 

Please send your feedback to umbrella-support@cisco.com and include as much detail as possible-- screenshots, browser, OS and the scenario are all helpful.

Can I take a quick tour of the wizard?

Absolutely, let's check it out. When you first click on Policies > Policy List, you'll see your list of existing policies moved over to this new format. Expanding an existing policy will take you to a summary screen of the policy where you can tweak any individual element of the policy. An example of a summary screen is shown at the end of this tour. 

To create a new policy, click the [+] icon to start you off and running. The first thing you'll be asked is what you to protect:

Next, you'll be asked what you want this policy to do. Available options are listed below: if an option isn't available for you, contact your account representative for more information.

The options shown correspond to existing policy features: security settings, IP layer enforcement, content category blocks and custom destination lists. 

Underneath the options for what the policy should do, there's Advanced Settings.  

These include the Intelligent Proxy, SSL Decryption, the "Allow-Only mode" (currently known as 'white list mode') and logging options.  

Previously, logging options were given at the end of a policy setup and the Intelligent Proxy options were included in the Security Settings configuration. Allow-Only mode was a part of the content settings. We've put them together to make it easy to find and simpler to setup, but they're also at the end in case you want to make any changes.

It's important to note that if you choose to not have the Intelligent Proxy enabled, some options for what the policy will do are not available as they're not possible without the proxy. We encourage anyone who's not using the Intelligent Proxy as a part of their policies to try it out. For more information, read here.

Once you've picked the what the policy should do, click Next. For the purposes of this document, we'll pick all of the options available.

Depending on what you pick, once you click Next you'll see a progress meter with the number of steps remaining until you've fully configured the policy: 

First is the Security settings; these match what you're probably already used to. The default setting is selected and if you'd like to select another setting, or add a new setting, just use the drop down. You can also directly edit whichever setting you select without having to jump to a window showing the Security settings section:

If you have any custom integrations, these are listed at the bottom of the Security section.

Next you'll see Content category settings, similar to how it is now we have these settings: High, Medium and Low with the ability to create a Custom setting of content categories or select an existing Custom list. To create a new one, select the Custom dropdown, click Create New Setting and define it right there in the wizard.

Click Next to set your Destination Lists. By default, we still have the Global Allow and Block lists, but you can add any additional Destination Lists or create a new right here in the setup wizard by clicking Add New List:

The last step is configuring your block pages and bypass codes and users (if you use them). The Block Page can be modified or left to the default, this is the largely the same functionality you're already used to. To edit an existing Block Page Appearance, select the block page and click the edit icon next to the name:

Last but not least, when you click next you'll reach the Policy Summary.  It covers all of the modifications to the policy you just made.  If you want to change anything, click on the relevant Edit button and you'll just jump right back to that step, or disable the feature directly from the Summary screen. When you've made the change, you can jump back to the summary directly without having to click through all the other steps (neat, right?).

You should give the policy a name before saving it. You can also modify any advanced settings directly from this screen.  Once you've got everything the way you want it, just click Save.

And that's it! We've also made changes to the Policy Tester and the Content and Security Settings pages too, so if you've got your policy all set up, why not go check that out too?

Again, any feedback you have, please email us at umbrella-support@cisco.com