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.
CloudGuard Network Security All-In-One
Check Point Software TechnologiesExternal reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
The solution has good threat emulation, threat extraction, and reporting features
What is most valuable?
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.
Secure Your Network with CloudGuard
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Excellent Product
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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?
There are some usability issues we'd like to see improved.
We're going to be switching to XDR and would like integration with XDR.
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.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
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?
We also use solutions by FireMon, AlgoSec, and Akamai. We're constantly comparing products and looking for ways to get more features with less money. Akamai has more solutions, whereas Check Point is more specialized.
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.
Easy to manage and implement with simple configuration capabilities
What is our primary use case?
Check Point CloudGuard Network Security helps resolve potential regulatory and compliance issues when moving to the cloud. The high-visibility rule base's granular approach helps us with potential security leaks and highlights items to focus on for immediate action.
The functionality that we're using it for is the cloud firewall piece.
For this reason, it was necessary to implement this tool in our organization and the results have been very positive, providing the necessary security throughout the infrastructure.
How has it helped my organization?
One of the main characteristics that Check Point CloudGuard Network Security has given us is granularity and visibility. The data that enters our Azure environment integrates in a great way in the cloud and in on-premises. This is important for the alerts and the response to incidents that arise in our platform in the cloud, for the moment, we are very satisfied to have acquired this solution and to have implemented it in the cloud and with other systems on-premise that have given us a lot of security and peace of mind.
What is most valuable?
One of the features that I liked the most and that I feel is very useful is auto-scaling. Our Azure cloud environment is constantly growing and this allows us to expand as well.
Another very accurate feature is CloudGuard's malware prevention and exploit resistance rate and they have given us a lot of security since the database is very large.
It is easy to manage CloudGuard from on-premises and offers the same protection as we can provide to the rest of our environments, which is a great advantage for us.
What needs improvement?
One of the areas that should be improved is the updates of the products. It is somewhat problematic in the area of the cloud. In the case of migration from on-premise to the cloud, it is difficult to replace the licenses. It should be something very transparent and thus save us the time to go to support but in general, the tool is shared very well in security and protection of privacy and if they are lucky they can add more features that help us our security would be great they should always be one step ahead of cyberattacks.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have implemented it two year ago.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Check Point CloudGuard Network Security maintains very good stability, and, best of all, maintains excellent compatibility with Azure.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is great. You can make a network scale up or down. This allows you to have good control of bandwidth in the organization or to be able to distribute it in the different departments of the company.
How are customer service and support?
Currently, since the implementation, not much support has been used, therefore, I rate it as excellent.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
The Check Point brand has always been used in our organization.
How was the initial setup?
The configuration was very simple since the tool and the wizard are very interactive and user-friendly. It was not very difficult to do the installation and configuration.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation started with a vendor and the IT team. The engineer that worked with us presented great knowledge of the product.
What was our ROI?
By using a tool of this type, the cost of personnel decreases since the tool performs quite well with the functions that it was designed for.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price and the licenses have been good. They maintain a competitive price with the other companies.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Other options were not evaluated as we like to keep the same brand across solutions.
What other advice do I have?
When doing a cloud deployment, remember you are doing this in the cloud so treat it like a cloud device, as good configuration brings good results.