Transporting Policies in Policy Compliance

Have you ever wanted to export a policy from Policy Compliance and import it into another subscription?  Customers with multiple subscriptions and partners have been requesting this capability and with the release of QualysGuard 6.22, their requests have been answered.  With this release, policies can be exported and imported freely.

Why importing and exporting is important?

Policy creation is a key component of Policy Compliance.  It is the policy that sets the expected values to determine overall compliance.  Once a policy is created in a subscription with QualysGuard 6.22, the policy can be easily transported to another subscription and used there.  This makes it easier for partners and customers with multiple subscriptions to fully adopt Policy Compliance.

How to transport policies?

With QualysGuard 6.22, you can now export a policy as an XML file from one subscription and import the policy into another subscription in four easy steps:

1. Select a policy and click export.
   
2. Save the XML file to your computer.
3. In another subscription, select New, Import Compliance Policy, Import from XML file.
   
4. Select the XML file on your computer.

New possibilities for sharing policies

In addition to transporting policies for partners and customers with multiple subscriptions, this new capability provides new possibilities for customers to share policies with each other.  It also allows Qualys to share new policies with customers and prospects quickly before they become available in the import library.  Adding policies to the import library requires thorough testing prior to upload.  However, this new feature will allow us to share these policies prior to upload, allowing customers to get a head start on policy creation.

To see a demo of this new feature, please vist the Policy Import and Export video in the QualysGuard Policy Compliance Video Series.