We are using Check Point Security Management to manage multiple Check Point next-generation firewalls, enabling all these firewalls to be managed from the security management. For any configuration in the firewall, we manage it in Check Point Security Management console, where we configure policies, new object creation, services, ports configuration, or any VPN configuration, and we push all the configuration from the security management.
Check Point Security Management
Check Point Software TechnologiesExternal reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
Centralized management has improved visibility and simplified configuration across multiple devices
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The best features Check Point Security Management offers in my experience are the user interface and the logging service.
The user interface of Check Point Security Management is very understandable, and users can easily configure it. Additionally, every activity or traffic flow from our network gets logged in our security devices.
Once we deployed Check Point Security Management, the manageability and the reporting capabilities made our job easier. We are getting better visibility, and based on this visibility, we configure the policies. Since implementing Check Point Security Management, it has saved our time, and the configuration and troubleshooting processes are easy.
What needs improvement?
For smaller organizations, the pricing of Check Point Security Management can be more reasonable.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Check Point Security Management for more than three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Check Point Security Management is stable and I have not experienced any downtime or reliability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Check Point Security Management can easily handle the organization's growth, but it will depend on the model.
How are customer service and support?
I have a great experience with the customer support team of Check Point Security Management.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not previously use a different solution before Check Point Security Management.
What other advice do I have?
For any organization looking for centralized management of security, I consider Check Point Security Management a good solution. Apart from the pricing, everything about Check Point Security Management is perfect. I rate Check Point Security Management as nine out of ten.
Has reduced configuration errors and helps monitor threats in real time
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Check Point Security Management is to manage my security gateway.
A specific example of how I use Check Point Security Management with my security gateway is that from the security management, we make changes in our security gateway. It is related to configuration, whether the security policy for the users on NATting, VPN, or security profiles. All this configuration, we push. Any modification needed in our current configuration security gateway, we normally push all this configuration from security management.
What is most valuable?
The best features that Check Point Security Management offers, which stand out to me the most, are logging and monitoring. The monitoring is exceptional as it provides consolidated logs, signals, and any alerts that come from the security gateway in real time.
The logging and monitoring help my team day to day by alerting us if any incident or event occurs, enabling us to detect and prevent threats within seconds.
Check Point Security Management has positively impacted my organization because with more than one security gateway in our organization, we are easily able to manage and configure our security gateway with the help of security management.
What needs improvement?
Check Point Security Management can be improved because for smaller organizations with only a single or a couple of devices, there is no need for the management. They are required to use the management system, which increases costs for smaller organizations. This aspect could be addressed.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Check Point Security Management for more than two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In my experience, Check Point Security Management is stable as I have not encountered any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Check Point Security Management's scalability is good because it can handle growth easily, but it depends on the model. While I cannot say much on scalability, it is quite stable.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support for Check Point Security Management is supportive, based on my interactions with them.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not have any security management from another vendor before using Check Point Security Management.
What was our ROI?
Since using Check Point Security Management, I have seen a return on investment because with multiple gateways, we do not have to invest in multiple engineers. One engineer can handle multiple security gateways from the security management, saving both time and money.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Check Point Security Management, we evaluated Fortinet.
What other advice do I have?
The solution has saved our time, reduced errors, and made management simpler.
My advice for others looking into using Check Point Security Management is that if anyone wants to save time and resources, they can consider this solution to configure and manage multiple gateways.
I rate Check Point Security Management an eight out of ten.
Centralized management has improved productivity and streamlined network configuration
What is our primary use case?
Our main use case for Check Point Security Management is to centrally manage our multiple gateways to push any configuration centralized.
What is most valuable?
A standout feature of Check Point Security Management is its user-friendly interface, which is easy to understand, and we can easily generate custom reports to present to our management team.
In terms of custom reporting, we generally generate reports such as top 10 or top 20 users consuming more bandwidth or top 10 risky users, helping us have visibility into users accessing malicious websites or security events that happened recently.
After deploying Check Point Security Management, we improved our productivity by integrating all devices into a single console instead of managing separate log-ins for each branch's gateways, making our admin team's tasks easier.
I have noticed that it has reduced errors because when configuring through the security management, a single configuration is pushed to all gateways, saving time and reducing mistakes.
What needs improvement?
It can be improved because sometimes it lags when accessing the management gateway.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been with my current organization for more than four years, and I have more than 10 years of experience in this field.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Check Point Security Management is stable, but there are some lags.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is outstanding and handles growth and increased demand very well.
How are customer service and support?
The support team is outstanding, helping us with troubleshooting when we require technical support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before choosing Check Point Security Management, we evaluated Fortinet.
How was the initial setup?
We have been using Check Point Security Management since the start.
What was our ROI?
After deploying the security management, our time has been saved, and we require fewer engineers, allowing a single team to handle all security gateways, saving costs at the management level.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The setup cost and pricing are a little concerning, but considering the features and stability of the devices, they are outstanding.
What other advice do I have?
If anyone has more than one branch and multiple security gateways, they should definitely consider Check Point Security Management or a cloud-based solution to manage all security gateways easily.
Everything looks perfect right now.
On a scale of 1-10, I rate Check Point Security Management an 8.
Central management has simplified policy enforcement and improved reporting
What is our primary use case?
We are using Check Point Security Management to centrally manage and configure the firewalls in our day-to-day operations.
In my scenario, while using Check Point Security Management, there are more than one gateways, so we create policies or any modification regarding IPS or VPNs or application control policies. We centrally enforce all these configurations or modifications from centralized security management.
What is most valuable?
Based on my experience with Check Point Security Management, the best part is that we can enforce all configurations such as firewall policy or application control across all managed gateways. We can also generate compliance reports based on our requirements. We are using this central management for simplified configuration.
The reports generated through Check Point Security Management are very useful for our audit team. Whenever they ask for our logs or reports on network incidents, we generate the reports based on audit requirements and hand them over to our audit team.
With Check Point Security Management, the management of multiple gateways has become very easy and we can easily modify or enforce any changes in our existing configuration. We can also monitor from central, which is very useful.
What needs improvement?
The initial setup of Check Point Security Management is a little bit complex. This process could be made easier so that the configuration or initial setup would be simpler to configure.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Check Point Security Management for more than three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Check Point Security Management is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Check Point Security Management is excellent. We can integrate and manage multiple gateways.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support for Check Point Security Management is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have been using Check Point firewall and Check Point Security Management from the beginning.
We evaluated FortiManager before choosing Check Point Security Management.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Check Point Security Management is a little bit complex. This process could be made easier so that the configuration or initial setup would be simpler to configure.
What about the implementation team?
As the administrator of the central management, I can say that the benefit of using Check Point Security Management includes time saving and fewer resources needed to manage it. This is beneficial for any organization.
What was our ROI?
Using Check Point Security Management has reduced the configuration timeline and helped us easily become compliant with security requirements.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I was not part of the pricing or setup cost decisions.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated FortiManager before choosing Check Point Security Management.
What other advice do I have?
I suggest anyone looking to manage Check Point gateways centrally should consider Check Point Security Management. It is really helpful and time-saving. You can enforce any configuration from central, which will be very helpful and beneficial for any organization. I rate Check Point Security Management 8 out of 10.
Has improved gateway control and speeds up detection of suspicious activity
What is our primary use case?
I need to use Check Point Security Management because it's necessary for controlling and administering our gateways.
When I need to change different policies in my gateway, I need to go into Check Point Security Management because I need to change and review new different items or objects in my security company.
Another main use case is when I need to review or check different logs, I need to use Check Point Security Management to check.
What is most valuable?
The best features Check Point Security Management offers are its intuitive tools. Around the technology, Check Point Security Management is the best way for controlling my gateways. When I need to use logs, events, and policies, and different things around controlling my gateways, it's very easy to use logs, events, and monitoring in Check Point Security Management. When I need to check different possibilities of hackers or others, it is very intuitive to use these features.
Check Point Security Management has impacted my organization positively because the organization's security and perimeter area is better after using this technology. Two years ago, when I needed to report different activities about suspicious activities, I needed to check faster, and I controlled the situation much faster.
Check Point Security Management offers great features for controlling your gateways.
What needs improvement?
Different features in Check Point Security Management indicate that Check Point needs to create different dashboards and different options to give their clients more creative solutions.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Check Point Security Management for around five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
My experience with Check Point Security Management is very stable. There are no problems with different issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Check Point Security Management is very scalable.
How are customer service and support?
My experience with Check Point Security Management's customer support in the past was not the best. However, at this time, the customer support is better.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I only use Check Point.
How was the initial setup?
My experience with Check Point Security Management's pricing is so-so because the license is very high in different products around Check Point. Regarding the setup, it is very easy. Other aspects provide a great experience around this feature.
What about the implementation team?
I need to purchase Check Point Security Management in the Marketplace in Azure.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is very high. The license for the different features of Check Point infrastructure is also high.
What other advice do I have?
I need to use Check Point Security Management in my security department and it is a very important tool for us. The support during the years is better than in the past.
In my case, I deploy Check Point Security Management in cloud and on-premises.
On a scale of 1-10, I rate Check Point Security Management a 9 out of 10.
Has unified access control and policy management while improving operational efficiency
What is our primary use case?
We need central management for our policy, monitoring, and different day-to-day administrative tasks, so Check Point Security Management fits all the requirements for our needs. As we know, Check Point Security Management can be used for central policy management. It is an all-in-one management system. We can manage firewalling, application control, URL filtering, IPS, Anti-Bot, and Threat Emulation. We can unify the rule base and reduce it in one central management console called SmartConsole. That is our main use case for this product.
I can use one console for access lists, application control, managing day-to-day reporting, granular access control, managing large and segmented environments with multiple domains or customers, and integrating threat management with that console. It has summed up the tasks in one console, which is our specific use case.
We can manage one firewall in one site, one cluster in one of our sites, and another cluster in another site with a single console. This feature allows us to manage large and sophisticated management tasks in one console, which is why it is called Multi-Domain Security Management.
What is most valuable?
The granular and general access control allows us to centralize our policy management in one console for firewall, application control, URL filtering, IPS, Anti-Bot, Threat Emulation, and Threat Extraction. It is unified in one console, allowing us to unify the rule base to reduce complexity. These features are beneficial, and the system is scalable.
Administrators are operational, so it creates operational efficiency through faster rollouts of change with policy packages, creating faster and easier operational day-to-day activities.
I strongly admire the compliant support feature. It creates detailed logs, audit trails, and customizable reports. It has excellent reporting features including the threat blades, threat prevention blades, and firewalling blades. I can comply with this and provide it for auditors, which makes it an interesting feature.
What needs improvement?
Performance with logs needs improvement as Check Point Security Management has large-scale environments that need dedicated log servers. If you store logs on the central management server or Check Point SMS, it will create resource-intensive tasks. When the logs are too heavy for the security management server, the CPU spike will be high, causing our management day-to-day activity to lag or become difficult. This needs to be improved. Additionally, the resource demands need improvement. For example, log indexing related to SmartEvent needs strong servers, which should be improved for the future.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been deploying Check Point Security Management products for almost three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable for our clients.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable because it can manage different gateways or different firewalls in different sites. It can be multi-domain Security Management server and can manage large or segmented environments with multiple domains or customers.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We considered other vendors such as FortiGate and Palo Alto firewalls. We chose Check Point Security Management server because we selected Check Point for our firewall.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Check Point Security Management nine out of ten because it has good features. I decreased one point due to the performance and resource demanding issues on the log indexing, and SmartEvent needs strong servers, which needs to be considered.
It is deployed on-premises and is not costly. The management server can be expensive, but it excels at what it does.
Check Point Security Management server centralizes our policy management by unifying the firewalling features and threat prevention features to manage it in one console. It creates ease and operational efficiency. We save time and increase our day-to-day operational efficiency by removing management complexity.
If you want to centralize your policy management such as firewalling, application control, URL filtering, and different threat prevention features, and unify your rule base to reduce operational complexity, you need to use Check Point Security Management.
Improved organizational security and efficiency with intuitive management
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Check Point Security Management is as a firewall. I have connected it in my office premises as a firewall. The people who connect to the internet in the internal network have their packet captures go through the firewall itself, ensuring everything is safe and secure.
What is most valuable?
The best feature Check Point Security Management offers is the GUI. The GUI shows everything in different categories such as mobile phones, connected devices, laptops, and desktops. It displays everything in different dashboards, making it easy to understand what is connected to what.
Having that dashboard helps me in my day-to-day work because it saves time. It shows all the devices that have been connected and how many devices are connected in different ways. Through this, I am able to track how many laptops and mobile phones have occupied my IP addresses.
What needs improvement?
If I had to pick one thing that could make my experience even better, I would say they need to change the support resolution time. Everything else meets expectations.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Check Point Security Management for 1.8 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Check Point Security Management is stable in my experience with no downtime.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Regarding scalability, I have given the rating of nine out of ten. The support is the only aspect having a glitch; everything else is satisfactory.
How are customer service and support?
I choose a nine out of ten specifically because sometimes the support has a glitch.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used a different solution before but prefer not to disclose that name. Currently, there are no issues with anything, and everything is functioning properly.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a hundred percent return on investment with Check Point Security Management.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Check Point Security Management is positive. The products they provide from Check Point are reasonably priced and satisfactory.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Check Point Security Management, I did not evaluate other options. I chose only one option, which is Check Point.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others looking into using Check Point Security Management is to ask all vendors and customers to take the demo for five to 10 times. After ensuring it is supported by their organizations, then proceed forward. I rate Check Point Security Management a nine out of ten.
Years of using the solution significantly improve log management and troubleshooting efficiency
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Check Point Security Management is that we use it to manage all our firewalls and also look at the logs that the firewalls generate.
I use the logs in Check Point Security Management both for troubleshooting, seeing traffic from one IP to another IP, and for threat detection, viewing what the IPS and IDS and anti-bot and antivirus generate. It gives a very nice overview where you can see what has happened, when, and what client has generated the logs. It's very easy to get an overview of what's happening in the network.
How has it helped my organization?
Check Point Security Management has positively impacted my organization because, after migrating from our previous firewall, a Cisco ASA, we were able to see what traffic was passing through the firewall and from that, build out least access privilege firewall rules. So only what's actually needed by the organization is being let through. The rest is being dropped.
The measurable outcomes with Check Point Security Management show that the troubleshooting is definitely quicker. Now it just takes a few minutes to find out where the error is and resolve it. Before, it was at least an hour or two of troubleshooting to locate the issue.
What is most valuable?
The best feature Check Point Security Management offers is definitely the log management. I've worked with other firewall vendors and the overview of the logs that you get in Check Point Security Management is superb. You don't get that anywhere else. It's very easy to troubleshoot what traffic is being dropped, what traffic is being passed. It's easy to build firewall rules and everything else. It's miles ahead of anyone else.
What needs improvement?
Check Point Security Management could definitely improve the lag inside the application. The application has a tendency to get slow when you have a lot of firewall rules inside it. Additionally, it crashes pretty regularly, so they could resolve the stability issues as well.
Regarding the crashes in Check Point Security Management, at least once a day, the application crashes with some random error message. Then you have to close it out and open it up again. The process takes around a minute or two to get back to where you were. It's very frustrating.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Check Point Security Management for about seven years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Check Point Security Management is stable, but the SmartConsole used to administrate the security management is somewhat unstable. The application crashes at least once a day with some random error message. Then you have to close it out and open it up again. The process takes around a minute or two to get back to where you were.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support for Check Point Security Management is great. We have had no issues with them.
I would rate the customer support for Check Point Security Management an eight on a scale of one to 10.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before Check Point Security Management, I previously used a Cisco ASA.
I switched from Cisco ASA to Check Point Security Management because the Cisco ASA was standalone and had no central management. We went from that to using Check Point Security Management for centralized management of all of our firewalls.
What was our ROI?
In terms of return on investment, we definitely need fewer employees to manage the amount of firewalls than before. The time to resolve issues is very much better now with Check Point Security Management.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Check Point Security Management is that the licensing is straightforward. We pay on a three-year base. It's very fair pricing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Check Point Security Management, I did not evaluate other options.
What other advice do I have?
I would definitely give Check Point Security Management a 10 out of 10 because the logging oversight that Check Point Security Management gives is superb compared to anything else I've ever tried.
My advice to others looking into using Check Point Security Management is to definitely talk with Check Point Professional Services on how to deploy it since creating management of remote sites over VPN can be challenging. Having a plan on how to actually do that is great beforehand.
Overall rating: 10/10
User-friendly interface aids troubleshooting but licensing proves challenging
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Check Point Security Management is to troubleshoot or add policy, depending on the situation. It could be both, but mainly troubleshooting. We go and take care of the customer's management and resolve issues, create new configurations, and such.
What is most valuable?
I find very useful the central view offered by Check Point Security Management, as you're able to have all your gateways and policy and different policy packages. The maintenance and addition of new policy is fairly easy. The GUI is also very simple and user-friendly.
The logging feature in Check Point Security Management is effective because the view is one single view and you can have multiple log servers to retrieve the logs from.
What needs improvement?
The needed improvements in Check Point Security Management depend very much on the customer's infrastructure. For example, an appliance has an easier time than someone with VMs. With VMs, there can be multiple issues related to performance.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working in my current field for around two years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
Since I mainly work on other customers, Check Point Security Management does not much affect my scenario positively, so I cannot provide specific information about deployment issues.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Check Point Security Management has experienced some reliability issues, but it depends on VM, appliance, and any other implementation.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Check Point Security Management for a VM depends because you can only enlarge the disk size once and then you probably have to remake it. Also, when you upgrade multiple times, you leave many files that are useless. They are dated, so it's always better to create a new machine every few versions, for example, three or four major versions.
How are customer service and support?
I reach out for help multiple times with Check Point Security Management because many issues are related to the hotfix and known issues or new issues, which we have to work with R&D. The customer support quality varies significantly depending on who you get, what you get, and what the issue is.
I would rate the customer support of Check Point Security Management around a six because recently there's been a decrease in quality.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I am not sure if I previously used a different solution before Check Point Security Management.
How was the initial setup?
I am not aware of the specifics regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Check Point Security Management, but as far as I know, licensing is quite expensive.
What about the implementation team?
My company is not a customer for Check Point Security Management specifically, but we are a partner.
What was our ROI?
I am not sure if I have seen a return on investment with Check Point Security Management.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am not aware of the specifics regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Check Point Security Management, but as far as I know, licensing is quite expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I evaluated other options before choosing Check Point Security Management, specifically the Panorama equivalent from Palo Alto Networks.
What other advice do I have?
The challenging part I have experienced with Check Point Security Management has been related to the central licensing. We had some issues where the license got duplicated and it's been a year going around and trying to clean it, but it also made me able to learn multiple things, which included CME and the VSec licensing.
If you have VSec licensing and you add a license that's central, you're going to be able to see it inside the CPMELG file as a VSec common.
I would advise others looking into using Check Point Security Management to put their hands on it. It's easier to learn that way. It's really something you can study, but you're going to be able to know it better when you work on the management itself. At first, people are going to make policy, which is fine. It's the beginning of the CCSA certification. That's the first step.
I was offered a gift card or incentive for this review.
On a scale of 1-10, I rate Check Point Security Management a 7.
Centralized management of extensive firewall infrastructure reduces errors and saves time
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Check Point Security Management is to manage about 500 Check Point firewalls, and we manage all this equipment with this solution.
In my day-to-day work, I manage typical tasks with Check Point Security Management such as policy updates, monitoring, and troubleshooting, and it's easy to manage all the firewalls in this big environment with this solution.
I do not have anything else to add about my main use case or how I use Check Point Security Management.
What is most valuable?
In my opinion, the best feature Check Point Security Management offers is the ability to upgrade firewalls directly from the management console of the security management, which stands out to me.
Being able to upgrade firewalls directly from the management console makes a big difference for me because it reduces errors, and we do a lot of things automatically, which improves the upgrade process.
Check Point Security Management has positively impacted my organization by saving a lot of time because we have a lot of firewalls, and it provides a console where I can see directly all the managed firewalls, allowing us to manage all of our firewalls from just one point.
What needs improvement?
I have used Check Point Security Management for several years and have seen its evolution, and I believe they can improve the management by allowing better API functionality because the API now is a little complicated, making it difficult to do automation.
The improvements I would like to see in the API specifically relate to ease of use because the REST API is not easy to use.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Check Point Security Management for more than 13 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Check Point Security Management is really stable, and I have not experienced any downtime or issues with reliability except for when we do upgrades, but after the upgrade, the platform is very stable.
How are customer service and support?
I have reached out to customer support for Check Point Security Management many times, and they answer quickly, with the level of support depending on the difficulty of the problem.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before using Check Point Security Management, I used a Cisco solution, and we switched to Check Point because Cisco management was not user-friendly, had a lot of bugs, and was very difficult to use.
What was our ROI?
I can't respond to how much time I've saved or how many incidents have been reduced since I started using Check Point Security Management because I'm pretty sure we saved a lot of time due to the central point of this tool, but I can't share examples.
I have not seen a return on investment in terms of time saved, fewer employees needed, or other benefits since I cannot share any relevant metrics.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We use Fortinet and Cisco as other tech products.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others looking into using Check Point Security Management is that if you're looking for an easy tool to manage your firewall, you have to use this tool.
I do not have any additional thoughts about Check Point Security Management before we wrap up.
On a scale of one to ten, I rate Check Point Security Management a ten.