CloudGuard Network Security with Threat Prevention and SandBlast

The main use case for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security  is for perimeter security and analyzing traffic in the network environment.

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security  offers deep visibility into traffic, detailed logs, and real-time monitoring to see what applications, users, and devices are communicating on the network. Apart from that, it prevents lateral movement, stops phishing attacks, and mitigates DDoS. The main use case is to provide protection for a hybrid environment such as on-prem and multi-cloud by having consistent security. It enforces zero trust access to critical applications.

The best features that Check Point CloudGuard Network Security offers include deep visibility into traffic, detailed logs, and real-time monitoring to see what applications, users, and devices are communicating on the network. Apart from that, it prevents lateral movement, stops phishing attacks, and mitigates DDoS. The solution provides protection for hybrid environments such as on-prem and multi-cloud by having consistent security and enforces zero trust access to critical applications.

The best feature is unified threat prevention, including IPS, antivirus, anti-bot, URL filtering, and Sandboxing in one platform. It provides seamless integration with AWS , Azure , and GCP. Furthermore, it offers centralized management from which we can manage security policies across cloud and on-prem solutions in a single console, known as Smart Console. From this, we can implement automation and DevOps support, as well as infrastructure as code security templates for faster deployment.

Cloud-native integration automatically adapts to changes in our AWS , Azure , or GCP environments; for instance, if a new workload is spun up, policies are applied instantly. Centralized management offers one console for both on-prem and multi-cloud environments. Additionally, automation and DevOps support allow security policies to be deployed as code and integrated into CI/CD pipelines.

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security has positively impacted our organization by improving our security posture. We have seen a sharp reduction in successful intrusion attacks because of its unified threat prevention, along with greater visibility and control. CloudGuard gave us full visibility into east-west traffic inside our local or cloud environment. Previously, we monitored north-south traffic, which helped detect unauthorized lateral movement early. It has enabled faster incident response and stronger compliance with standards such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR, which made audits smoother and helped us maintain continuous compliance in the cloud.

Areas for improvement for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security include user interface and usability, pricing and licensing, integration with third-party tools, reporting and analytics, depth of automation, and support.

In terms of user interface and usability, the Smart Console UI is feature-rich; however, for new admins, navigation is not always intuitive, and log search feels clunky compared to SIM tools. Policy editing could be faster with bulk or drag-and-drop options, and dashboards need more customization. Streamlining these would make day-to-day use much better.

I have been using Check Point CloudGuard Network Security for the past one year.

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is stable.

Customer support for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is average. I would rate the customer support as six on a scale of 1 to 10.

Neutral

I have seen a return on investment from using Check Point CloudGuard Network Security in both money and time saved.

My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is that it was good.

Public Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

What do you like best about the product?

What I like most about Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is its ability to deliver consistent and powerful attack protection across many cloud platforms, including AWS, Azure, and GCP. The extensive integration with native cloud services allows for flexible deployment while maintaining high levels of security. Advanced threat intelligence, unified security management, and automatic posture correction provide robust protection for dynamic cloud workloads. Scalability and visibility across hybrid and multi-cloud setups are also significant benefits, making compliance simpler to manage and operational risk lower.

What do you dislike about the product?

What I detest about Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is how hard the initial setup and configuration can be, particularly in multi-cloud situations where rules must be fine-tuned for each platform. The user interface, although powerful, might be less intuitive than comparable cloud-native systems, resulting in a lengthier learning curve for novice admins. Licensing and cost control may also be difficult for firms that are fast expanding, since they need careful planning to minimize unforeseen charges. Furthermore, interaction with third-party monitoring and automation systems might be improved to streamline operations.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is assisting us with the difficulty of safeguarding workloads and applications in hybrid and multi-cloud settings. It offers consistent visibility, enhanced threat protection, and unified security policies, reducing complexity while ensuring regulatory compliance. Data breaches are considerably reduced by defending against zero-day attacks, misconfigurations, and unauthorized access. The ability to incorporate security into cloud-native operations boosts agility, enabling teams to innovate without sacrificing security. Finally, it has helped us improve our overall security posture by simplifying cloud operations and lowering human overhead.

What do you like best about the product?

Our overall experience with Check Point CloudGuard Network Security has been very positive, as the solution was easy to implement and integrates seamlessly with our cloud environment while maintaining the same reliability we are used to from on-prem clusters.

What do you dislike about the product?

I dislike that the upgrade process is not as streamlined as it could be, since it requires changes on both the firewalls and the cloud load balancers, which adds extra steps compared to on-prem upgrades.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is solving the challenge of extending the same level of protection we have on-prem into our cloud environments. It was easy to implement, and the clusters work just like the on-prem appliances we’re already familiar with, which makes operations smooth for the team. The solution gives us superb logging to the SMS, so we have great visibility into traffic, and it integrates well with our existing workflows. The main benefit is that we can run our cloud workloads with the same level of security and confidence as on-prem, without adding unnecessary complexity.

What do you like best about the product?

Seamless integration with AWS and Azure, from GWLB to Autoscaling, it works perfectly.

What do you dislike about the product?

Architecture is complex to setup and to manage. High-skilled team required to manage the infrastructure.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

It centralizes east-west and north-south access control. It inspects traffic, is able to host VPN's, NATs the traffic (possibility of centralized ingress), IPS, Anti-bot and Anti-virus blades.

What do you like best about the product?

The advanced threat prevention is truly best-in-class. We have deep visibility into our cloud traffic, and the ability to apply consistent, granular security policies across our hybrid and multi-cloud environments from a single console (Smart-1 Cloud) is a massive operational advantage.

What do you dislike about the product?

The initial learning curve can be steep for engineers not already familiar with the Check Point autoscaling ecosystem. Furthermore, the pricing structure can be complex to navigate, requiring careful planning to ensure cost-effectiveness, especially with dynamic workloads.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

CloudGuard solves our main security challenges by providing a single, unified management platform for our on-prem and multi-cloud (AWS, Azure) environments. This creates a consistent security posture, which reduces management overhead and simplifies compliance audits. Its advanced threat prevention, including IPS and sandboxing, protects our critical workloads from threats that native cloud tools cannot block. Finally, it gives us deep, granular visibility into all traffic flows, which is crucial for faster incident response and effective reporting.