The paper presents a recent experience (since 2016) in establishing and running the “Network Security Intelligence” educational and research center (NSIC) in the framework of the new NRNU MEPhI’s Institute of Cyber Intelligence Systems (ICIS). The created center is designed to provide training and research on effective network security management based on intelligent approaches and applications, the use of Big Data technologies for processing information security information, the study of the compatibility between different network protection tools, as well as the evaluation of network security. The educational NSIC’s basis currently consists of two laboratories with Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) systems at their cores respectively. Here we discuss the use of the first one. The main areas of further work in expanding NSIC’s operation for training and research conclude the paper.