
Overview
WatchGuard Firebox Cloud brings the protection of WatchGuard's leading Firebox UTM appliances to public cloud environments and enables organizations to extend their security perimeter to protect business critical assets in Amazon Web Services. Under the AWS shared responsibility model security in the cloud falls to the customer. For this reason, it is crucial that administrators take every step possible to defend their data and deflect cyber criminals. Firebox Cloud can quickly and easily be deployed to protect a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) from attacks such as Botnets, cross-site scripting, SQL injection attempts, and other intrusion vectors.
Highlights
- WatchGuard's Firebox Cloud was built specifically to run within the AWS environment, and provides a streamlined User Interface (UI) that removes elements that aren't relevant to AWS.
- Small-to-medium businesses and distributed enterprises with portions of their infrastructure running in the cloud can streamline their configuration and maintenance efforts by extending their security perimeter with Firebox Cloud.
Details
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Pricing
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Dimension | Cost/hour |
|---|---|
c5.large Recommended | $0.35 |
t2.micro | $0.35 |
t3.micro | $0.35 |
c4.large | $0.35 |
c6i.4xlarge | $3.00 |
c5.xlarge | $0.75 |
c6i.2xlarge | $1.50 |
c3.large | $0.35 |
c4.4xlarge | $3.00 |
c6i.xlarge | $0.75 |
Vendor refund policy
Refunds are not supported on hourly instances of Firebox Cloud, but you may cancel your subscription at any time.
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Delivery details
64-bit (x86) Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
An AMI is a virtual image that provides the information required to launch an instance. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instances are virtual servers on which you can run your applications and workloads, offering varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking resources. You can launch as many instances from as many different AMIs as you need.
Additional details
Usage instructions
Use your web browser to connect to the Firebox Cloud Web UI at https://<public_ip_or_dns>:8080. The default admin password is set to the instance ID of the Firebox Cloud instance. For more information, please see the Firebox Cloud Deployment Guide, or Fireware Help.
Resources
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Support
Vendor support
Online support is recommended for non-critical issues and lets you provide detailed updates on the status of your issue, as well as an option to upload troubleshooting documents to help resolve your case more quickly. Phone support is recommended for critical network failure situations, and for anyone who does not have access to the online support submittal page. Please have your WatchGuard appliance serial number readily available when you call for support.
AWS infrastructure support
AWS Support is a one-on-one, fast-response support channel that is staffed 24x7x365 with experienced and technical support engineers. The service helps customers of all sizes and technical abilities to successfully utilize the products and features provided by Amazon Web Services.

![VM-Series Next-Generation Firewall Bundle 1 [VM-300]](https://d7umqicpi7263.cloudfront.net/img/product/894b830e-29ae-4de9-8cca-ccd00a500824.jpg)
Standard contract
Customer reviews
Cloud management has streamlined onboarding and reduces my security workload for many clients
What is our primary use case?
WatchGuard Firebox is used in my organization for detection and response and firewall functionalities.
What is most valuable?
The best features of WatchGuard Firebox are the technical flexibility the product delivers to us.
The most valuable features of WatchGuard Firebox for maintaining our network security include the application control that is integrated in the firewalls.
The solution simplifies aspects of my job by providing cloud management that greatly simplifies our ease of onboarding new engineers and getting them into the technology that is provided. This greatly simplifies our technical difficulties within our tech stack.
For us as an MSP, we experience a reduction in system bottlenecks after implementing WatchGuard Firebox, which translates into a more billable engineer who can do more work in the same time period.
I estimate that it saves me between 10 and 15% of my workload.
What needs improvement?
The main area for improvement in WatchGuard Firebox is exposing more of the technical configuration in the cloud management, as it would take away the need to do local management on those devices.
The configuration through the cloud is indeed limited, or too limited for some special configurations, and that would be a quick win for us if the settings would be available in the cloud.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using WatchGuard Firebox for about five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of WatchGuard Firebox a nine, as we barely have any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
WatchGuard Firebox is a very scalable solution, so the size of clients we try to approach are well within the specs of options that WatchGuard Firebox provides.
I would rate scalability for us a nine.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I find WatchGuard Firebox to be cost-effective. The product you get for the price you pay seems about right to me and to our company.
I would rate the pricing of WatchGuard Firebox a six.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
In my opinion, WatchGuard Firebox is more targeted towards the small and medium business branch of customers, where the security is a notch above small and medium-sized businesses. Comparing to Fortinet, WatchGuard Firebox is at least less prone to security exploits.
What other advice do I have?
At least here in Belgium, the delivery times for new hardware are noteworthy.
We deploy WatchGuard Firebox with about 85% on-premises and 15% cloud firewalls.
In my organization, about 10 specialists work with WatchGuard Firebox.
Our clients are mainly small-medium businesses, comprising multiple clients.
The solution requires easier maintenance because all the solution is combined into a cloud portal. If there is any maintenance, updates, or issues, we can get most of the work done through the cloud portal.
We use the spam blocking capabilities as a secondary source of spam analysis; we have a primary solution that filters the bulk. It works and it does the filtering fine, but it is not our main spam solution.
Most of our customer base, or 95%, is easily integrated with the solution that WatchGuard Firebox provides, either through some links that we have to connect or just by default connecting to their security stack.
If others are in the same size as our customers, I would recommend WatchGuard Firebox without hesitation.
I give this review an overall rating of eight.
Long-term security platform has delivered strong protection, savings, and efficient deployment
What is our primary use case?
WatchGuard Firebox is a firewall and security product.
What is most valuable?
WatchGuard Firebox provides benefits in terms of security, time saving, resource saving, and cost savings. The price-to-quality ratio is reasonable.
What needs improvement?
There is room for improvement in WatchGuard Firebox regarding customization and AI functionality. Pricing is another area that could be addressed in future releases.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with WatchGuard firewalls for approximately 20 years.
How are customer service and support?
My overall experience with WatchGuard's technical support is good. They are responsive, and I would rate their support as a 9 out of 10.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What about the implementation team?
The deployment process for WatchGuard Firebox is straightforward. Implementation requires approximately half a day, and only one person from my side is needed to complete the process.
What was our ROI?
WatchGuard Firebox is beneficial in terms of finance and provides return on investment through cost reductions.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I work with other vendors aside from WatchGuard depending on customer needs. Sophos is an alternative vendor I use on rare occasions compared to WatchGuard.
What other advice do I have?
I work with WatchGuard Data Loss Prevention in addition to WatchGuard Firebox. My overall experience with software in the IT sphere is quite extensive. I am in a partnership with WatchGuard.
Private cloud protection has improved data security and streamlined firewall management
What is our primary use case?
I use WatchGuard Firebox for our private cloud protection, addressing our needs regarding DLP , firewall, and intrusion detection.
I host solutions for files and honey behind WatchGuard Firebox , but we no longer host websites or anything that would require bottlenecks.
What is most valuable?
I appreciate the interface and the client of WatchGuard Firebox the most. Many firewalls do not have a client to connect, and instead rely on CLI only. I also use the management server, which is a fully managed server, and I appreciate the feature to schedule operations.
It did reduce system bottlenecks and improve our operational throughput.
What needs improvement?
The CLI could be improved in WatchGuard Firebox, and I think integration with a cloud solution—such as Microsoft Enterprise and Google Cloud —has room for improvement. It has the feature recently, which is quite good, but it is not very perfect and has been available for only two or three years, while other solutions have had this feature longer.
Due to COVID and other factors, our license for mobile SSL VPN cannot simply be upgraded; we can only upgrade the number of simultaneous users. I think it could be improved because migrating from Firebox medium to Firebox large is the only solution if we have just a small use case.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used WatchGuard Firebox for 15 years, coming from my past enterprise, so the answer to how long I have been using it is quite long.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I do have bugs, but the only bug I have is on products that are late on firmware because they are not subscribed anymore. I know the bugs are fixed, but I cannot have it because it is obsolete. However, I have just one WatchGuard Firebox unit that is licensed, and I have no bugs on it, so I am happy with that. I rate it a nine.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In terms of scalability, I would rate it a seven. Other solutions share the same problem, but six years ago, we had only 300 persons in the company, and WatchGuard Firebox was very good. Due to COVID and other factors, our license for mobile SSL VPN cannot simply be upgraded; we can only upgrade the number of simultaneous users. I think it could be improved because migrating from Firebox medium to Firebox large is the only solution if we have just a small use case.
How are customer service and support?
I recommend giving the technical support for WatchGuard Firebox a nine on a scale from one to ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I do not have the choice to compare WatchGuard Firebox with other solutions or other vendors because my internet provider works with Fortinet for all our agencies. The Fortinet solution is in the MPLS setup, but that choice was made by the provider, not us.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment is easier, so I would say it is easier rather than complex.
What about the implementation team?
I have used WatchGuard Firebox for 15 years, and because I know the product, deploying a Firebox just takes a few hours for me.
What was our ROI?
It is difficult to estimate the return on investment with WatchGuard Firebox, but I would say it is around twenty to thirty percent.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I do not pay the bill, so I feel comfortable about the pricing, and for me, it is not expensive. I think it is a little cheaper in comparison with other solutions; Cisco is more expensive and I think Fortinet is also more expensive.
What other advice do I have?
We had mostly twenty Firebox units, but now we have just one which is licensed, while the others are not licensed anymore because we go to an MPLS solution with our provider, so I use WatchGuard Firebox less than in the past.
In IT, we have five people in production and around seven persons in development, which represents how many users work with WatchGuard Firebox in my organization. Overall, the company has about eight hundred or nine hundred persons.
I have been working in IT for twenty years.
I am not concerned about the spam blocking capabilities right now since we work with Google for email, and we are migrating to M365, so it is not behind WatchGuard Firebox. In the past, around seven years ago, I was concerned; however, I am not sure if it has improved since then, so I cannot give a rating for that.
I recommend WatchGuard Firebox and would give it a nine in terms of recommendation. Overall, I rate this product a nine.
Security has improved and SD-WAN now delivers reliable VPN performance across all branches
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for WatchGuard Firebox is especially strengthening Firebox configurations. I am proficient in IPsec VPN, assessment of configurations, and SD-WAN with client branches. I believe that I have great experience with WatchGuard Firebox .
I worked with a client with more than 70 branches connected to the hub for SD-WAN. The principal connection was with MPLS, but there was an IPsec VPN through this MPLS and another connection with an ISP connection.
This scenario with SD-WAN, branches, hub, IPsec VPN is one that repeats constantly, and I have worked many times with this configuration.
In these scenarios I mentioned, SD-WAN helped the clients achieve better performance on branches and provide security for these branches and the hub.
What is most valuable?
I believe the best features WatchGuard Firebox offers are the Gateway Antivirus, APT Blocker, Reputation Enabled Defense, and Intrusion Prevention Service.
WatchGuard Cloud is a good feature.
With WatchGuard Firebox, the main outcomes were improved network security, better visibility of traffic, and more stable VPN connections. We also reduced incident response times thanks to better logging and reporting.
Using faster ports on WatchGuard Firebox helps avoid congestion, especially during busy periods. For example, high-bandwidth applications and VPN traffic run more smoothly, which helps maintain user productivity.
The features of WatchGuard Firebox that I find most valuable for maintaining network security are SD-WAN, VPN capabilities, and threat prevention. They provide solid perimeter security and protect the network from common attacks. Intrusion Prevention and APT Blocker are particularly notable.
What needs improvement?
I believe WatchGuard Firebox can be improved by incorporating more features such as those offered by Fortinet. WatchGuard should delete VPN SSL and replace it with IPsec VPN dial-up.
The graphical interface needs to be modernized.
My impression of the spam blocking capabilities of WatchGuard is not very positive. I do not believe that it is good. I have experience with other vendors and I believe that they offer better spam blocking capabilities.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using WatchGuard Firebox for more than three years, throughout all my experience at Blokka.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
WatchGuard Firebox is very stable. I worked in cluster environments and this worked very well.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
WatchGuard Firebox is scalable. You can choose different models based on throughput and features, which makes it easy to support growing environments. Scalability is one of the strong points, especially for distributed environments. For example, branches and distribution centers are well-supported.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support for WatchGuard Firebox is very good and very fast. In my experience with WatchGuard support, I believe that it is excellent. I would rate customer support at an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used different firewall solutions, such as Fortinet, Palo Alto, and pfSense. I switched to WatchGuard mainly for easier management, better visibility, and a more balanced cost-to-feature ratio. Overall, the switch simplified operations without compromising security.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a positive return on investment with WatchGuard Firebox. Reduced incidents and easier management helped lower operational cost.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for WatchGuard Firebox is good. WatchGuard has competitive pricing. For example, Fortinet is more expensive than WatchGuard. When I compare both services, they offer good value.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I worked with WatchGuard and FortiGate before choosing WatchGuard Firebox. I compared features, ease of management, and overall cost, and WatchGuard offered the best balance for my needs.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for others looking into using WatchGuard Firebox would be to focus on proper sizing, use best practices for policy design, and take advantage of the built-in security features. When it is properly planned and deployed, it delivers real value, both technically and operationally.
In my experience, WatchGuard Firebox offers a good balance between security, performance, and operational simplicity. When properly sized and configured, it delivers consistent results. I would confidently consider it again for similar use cases. I have given this review a rating of 9 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Simple Administration, Stable Updates, and the Best Support
Stability firmware and updates, less vulnerabilities.
The best support