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Check Point CloudGuard Network Security
Check Point Software TechnologiesExternal reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
A strong cloud security platform that has protected us against zero-day attacks
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
CloudGuard has a better catch rate with respect to any attack which is happening. We once faced an attack in a customer's environment on one of our data centers, and Check Point Firewall blocked that attack. The solution's performance is on the higher side.
What is most valuable?
The feature most valuable to me is the NDTX blade that Check Point provides, and I like how the solution is not vulnerable. We haven't had any vulnerabilities in Check Point in the last six months, which is a plus point because the OS Check Point provides is hardened enough that it's not vulnerable to the newer issues, so the network security solution is given in a proper way. These features are an advantage for our customers.
The solution is easy to use once deployed if the administrators have a basic understanding of firewalling. Administrators just have to check the traffic passing through the solution, which will log the traffic properly. And if anything gets dropped, the solution will showcase that to you. The management server Check Point uses is a gold standard.
What needs improvement?
Check Point CloudGuard is not a feature-centric product because Check Point concentrates on security. For example, if a customer asks for reporting, it might not be available, like a bandwidth report. At most, the reports are given with respect to security, not infrastructure.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used CloudGuard for the last three years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have more than 50 customers.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support needs to think about what the customer is talking about. They need to improve on that.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
CloudGuard is not a plug-and-play product and requires proper technical knowledge to deploy it. You need the help of a proper professional to deploy it. Deployment hardly takes four hours, but that's only if you know what you're doing. You need to plan the deployment with respect to AWS. You have to know what exactly the customers have deployed in AWS or Azure, or any cloud solution, and based on the review, you need to do their architecture before you can start the deployment. The first step, then, is to understand the customer's data because everything is on a template when it comes to the cloud. You should understand which template you need to use on any cloud. It is impossible to deploy if you're not aware of the customer's environment and how the cloud infrastructure is made. After selecting the proper template, you have to do the implementation. The implementation will go smoothly if you understand the customer's requirements and infrastructure.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would not say Check Point is very expensive, but when customers compare it with Sophos or any other products, the price is on the higher side.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
In terms of features, FortiGate has more features in terms of routing.
What other advice do I have?
Our customers use Check Point solutions both on-premise and on the cloud.
Check Point's research and development happening in terms of threat intelligence is better than its competitors, and Check Point's vulnerabilities are fewer. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security has proper security in place with respect to the vulnerabilities. They do not have any vulnerabilities right now. And the research and development happening on Check Point is on the higher side. Most zero-day attacks are protected against. Customers should go for Check Point because of these two points.
If a customer wants FortiGate instead, it's all about whether they can map the budget with Check Point or any other security solution. I cannot compare Check Point and FortiGate, though, because each has its own market.
I rate Check Point CloudGuard Network Security a nine out of ten.
The solution has good threat emulation, threat extraction, and reporting features
What is most valuable?
Check Point CloudGuard Network Security has a beautiful threat emulation different from the market. They have a threat extraction feature. The solution's zero phishing feature is pretty much commendable. The solution has one of the best reporting any vendor has in network security. The solution also has a CSPM or posture management tool inbuilt into CGNS or network security.
What needs improvement?
The solution’s technical support, DNS security and training could be improved. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security's training and reachability to the customer can be done a bit better. One recommendation from my side is that the handover of the tasks can be a bit better. If an engineer is on a ticket and their shift gets over, the smooth handshake between the two engineers can be a bit better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Check Point CloudGuard Network Security for more than one and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is a scalable product. I would recommend the solution to small, medium, and enterprise companies because it has a scalable model. The solution is over the cloud and can be integrated with any company.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I worked with Palo Alto, a direct competitor of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security. CloudGuard Network Security's threat extraction features, reporting features, and threat emulation are better than Palo Alto's. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is more user-friendly than Palo Alto. On the other hand, Palo Alto has a bit better DNS security than Check Point CloudGuard Network Security.
How was the initial setup?
Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is easy to deploy, and if you are unable to do it, you can get support from the OEM.
What about the implementation team?
The solution's implementation depends on the customer's network scenario and policies. The initial setup doesn't take more than 30 minutes, and the rest can be done later.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Check Point CloudGuard Network Security's pricing is far better than Palo Alto's because Palo Alto is very expensive. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security comes at a price that even a small business can manage to buy, whereas Palo Alto would restrict you to enterprise customers. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security's licensing cost changes from country to country. The solution has different discount models across the globe in regions like Asia and Ireland.
What other advice do I have?
People who want to implement Check Point CloudGuard Network Security should focus during the planning phase. If planning is done correctly and the prerequisites are matched perfectly, they won't face any challenges during deployment. But it's very important to check the prerequisites' limitations.
Overall, I rate Check Point CloudGuard Network Security nine and a half out of ten.
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Versatile with a good interface and fair pricing
What is our primary use case?
My clients were different small businesses, and they were migrating to the cloud. We've been using it as a general cloud security tool.
How has it helped my organization?
The interface in terms of being able to have access for myself and the client so that we can easily observe and watch what is going on, has really improved the organization.
We have seen time to value with this solution. We will continue to use more Check Point solutions in the future.
What is most valuable?
The versatility is the solution's most valuable feature.
What needs improvement?
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for only about a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is good. I'd rate the stability a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I'd rate the scalability a nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The support is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not previously use a different solution.
How was the initial setup?
I'm involved with the integration and was involved in the setup of specific areas.
The initial setup was alright. I wasn't the architect of the whole thing. In my area, the implementation seemed to be pretty straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We did not use an integrator, reseller, or consultant for the deployment.
What was our ROI?
We do not yet have enough of a baseline to calculate ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is fair. It's the client who is paying for it, not me directly. However, they seem satisfied.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We previously evaluated a few other options.
What other advice do I have?
The usability is moderate.
The product has helped us free up some time. It's a complicated situation, however.
I'd rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Provided good visibility, saved a lot of time and resources, and didn't have any downtime
What is our primary use case?
We were providing infrastructure security. Our corporate headquarters at the time was overseas, so we had GDPR compliance regulations. It was helping us to keep in line with our compliance.
How has it helped my organization?
It saved us resources. We were a lean IT department, so I was able to reassign some staff to other projects because it didn't require so much hands-on manpower.
What is most valuable?
The notifications, the visibility, and the deployment are the most valuable. It could be packaged in such a way that it took a lot of time and resources off our hands, so it was more efficient. I don't know how to quantify the time saved. It would have saved us at least two to three hours a day just because the traditional IT department has a lot of other tasks and duties. It didn't require a lot for us to become experts on the product. It was seamless. It didn't require too much learning. It was easy to use.
What needs improvement?
With the incorporation of a lot of AI and machine learning, they can build some sort of a matrix for low-level threats or low-level things that require attention. There can be automation of those tasks so that we don't have to take more time and effort. There should be machine learning to eliminate level-one types of tasks.
For how long have I used the solution?
I used this solution for six years. I'm a Cybersecurity Instructor. I used it in my previous role. I'm not using it in my current role.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I thought it was extremely stable. I didn't see any downtime. Any of the maintenance windows were either on weekends or in time frames that didn't affect our organization. It was very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It would be able to scale up even bigger and beyond what our local site needed. There were about a hundred and fifty employees. It was a manufacturing organization in San Antonio, Texas, but we were just one of twenty sites all throughout the US and Europe.
How are customer service and support?
They were helpful in total. I'd rate them 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 believe we had a WatchGuard firewall with other services coupled around it. It didn't necessarily do all of the protection that we needed, but that's what we had at the time.
How was the initial setup?
I was involved in its deployment. It wasn't too challenging. It was easy to medium. Configuration with the compliance side was what took time and effort and was challenging, but it didn't have anything to do with the way the software is built. It was about getting our settings and configurations to be in alignment with the compliance.
What about the implementation team?
I believe headquarters had Check Point support.
What was our ROI?
The return on the investment was probably more beneficial to the headquarters or the mother corporation because we were just one of the remote sites that had the checkpoint infrastructure sent to us to build up our site. The bigger benefit was for the headquarters because they could manage all these individual sites from one platform. The consolidation and the standardization would have made their lives easier, but I didn't sit in a seat, so I don't know what that looked like.
We have seen time to value with this solution. It provided us with great benefits across the entire organization. We could see its value within about a month. That was probably enough time to let all of the initial shakeout and other things take place. We created a baseline after those thirty days, and we could see where we no longer needed to spend time. We could also see things where we had to take some action but were not apparent to us.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
They're a little high in price. The price could be lower.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I wasn't that high in the chain to be able to make that decision. Corporate pushed it down to our site, and that's what we had to go with.
What other advice do I have?
Attending an RSA Conference provides the ability to connect with others in the industry. It allows me to have a line of communication where I can reach out to them in person rather than just a digital introduction.
In terms of the impact of attending an RSA Conference on the cybersecurity purchases made throughout the year afterward, I don't necessarily think about our purchases, but considering I'm a Cybersecurity Instructor, the people that attend our classes are going to be able to benefit because I can provide them more solutions and answers to the questions that they have.
I enjoyed it as a product. It works well. Overall, I'd rate it an eight out of ten.
The advanced technology helps us automate many manual tasks
What is our primary use case?
I manage the delivery team of a tech services company. We implement and manage security systems for our clients. CloudGuard is a solution we deploy for larger enterprise clients.
How has it helped my organization?
CloudGuard's intelligent tools help us automate many manual security tasks, guaranteeing our customers' environments will be secure. It saves a lot of time because jobs that might require five or six people can be handled with one or two.
What needs improvement?
Check Point solutions are not easy to use if you don't have experience. We have some Check Point specialists, so it's not difficult for us. The user experience might suffer if we don't have the time to follow up with our clients and ensure they are using the right options. Clients also want more local support in Portuguese and Spanish during their normal business hours. That's something I hear from my customers and my team, too.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used CloudGuard for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
CloudGuard is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
CloudGuard is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Check Point's support isn't the best, but it's good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
How was the initial setup?
Our clients are large and complex, so it is complicated to deploy CloudGuard in their environments.
What about the implementation team?
We had a reseller and use IBM as an integrator. Our experience was positive.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
CloudGuard is reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Check Point CloudGuard Network Security an eight out of ten.
Reliable protection across our cloud infrastructure
What is our primary use case?
This feature is integrated into the security solution of Check Point, and its CloudGuard flagship product is very valuable to our company. It has helped us to make posture, recommendations, and security improvements to the network of our Azure public cloud. We have been able to improve our current implementations and future deployments of networks in our infrastructure in the best way, making assessments that provide us with improvements that include building a more secure environment.
How has it helped my organization?
This tool managed to help us improve our security from deployment to reconfiguration of networks - both in our Azure public cloud and on-premise networks, thanks to its improvement reports.
Its integration and use of features, such as advanced threat prevention, have helped us a lot with malware prevention and also with avoiding exposure to false positives.
The best practices that this product has at the network level are incredible. We have improved a lot so far, and now we have a more secure and complete infrastructure.
What is most valuable?
CloudGuard Network Security provides advanced threat prevention capabilities that can detect and block known and unknown threats, including malware, viruses, and zero-day attacks. This helps a lot for companies that have their infrastructure both on-premise and in Azure.
CloudGuard Network Security includes application control features that allow administrators to control which applications can access the network and how they can be used.
The automation of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is incredible. It helps us to deploy implementations with good practices in the network; this is a great value add to the tool.
What needs improvement?
It would be very good if the company could expand the current public documentation in order to improve the implementation of the solution, and initial configurations, among other items. It would help us be able to implement it in the fastest and safest way possible.
The costs are high. They could revalue them by lowering them a bit and making them more attractive to many customers, and likely they would be able to sell more.
It would also be good to validate the Check Point Infinity Portal. Sometimes it sticks a bit or responds a little slowly.
For how long have I used the solution?
The solution was used during the last year. It is a feature integrated with the Check Point CloudGuard tool.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
yes
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
yes
How are customer service and support?
Good
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
It's a very comprehensive solution. However, we have not found any other solution that generates the same level of security as Check Point.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The costs seem high. However, the product is also incredible. It provides great value.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We value tools such as Defender for cloud, among others, however, this solution is the most complete, and we trust Check Point.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend doing a little research before purchasing the product.