Protecting our websites or our customers' websites is our top priority. We transitioned to Check Point WAF from on-premises WAF to safeguard our external perimeter. Essentially, I am focused on protecting our external infrastructure and web services.
CloudGuard WAF
Check Point Software TechnologiesExternal reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
Real-time attack recognition and integration provide peace of mind while safeguarding websites
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
It helps me sleep at night, providing peace of mind. It saves time, money, troubleshooting, and maintenance and reduces the need to hire people to manage the technology because it is so easy to use.
What is most valuable?
The WAF is the best feature. The application firewall's ability to block and recognize all attacks in real-time, such as DDoS, is invaluable. Identifying attacks and integrating with the rest of the ecosystem are features I am very fond of.
It's a pretty robust product.
CloudGuard protects against threats without relying on signatures. This is one of the best features. As an engineer, I don't have to review signatures one by one by one. 90% of the other players use signatures. So you have to review the attack, the signature, and how to mitigate it, etcetera. Removing the signatures from the equation removes a lot of time required for an engineer to review signatures, apply signatures, verify that these are applied to the infrastructure, etcetera. So removing that from the equation and protecting the infrastructure at all times is very cost-effective.
Signature-based also causes a lot of false positives. So having no signature also helps remove a lot of the false positives.
What needs improvement?
I cannot think of any needed features.
Pricing is high, although possibly justified by the service received. Reducing prices would be welcome.
Integration with more technologies or Check Point products, or on-prem products, could improve robustness. Many organizations are moving to the cloud. Some cannot fully transition and require solutions similar to on-prem devices.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used the solution for the past two years.
How are customer service and support?
Support is the same with on-premise devices, and it is very good. Since it is cloud-based, I do not need them as much.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used CloudGuard, Imperva Cloud WAF, and Barracuda Cloud WAF. I have experience with all of the major players.
What was our ROI?
I have seen what we were used to before and how much time we spent. We used to manage on-prem devices for other partners that could run from other vendors. When you migrate to the cloud, it feels like saving 90% of your time.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
If the price could come down, I would be very happy with the product.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I will not disclose which vendor is the best. In specific cases, some vendors perform well, while others are competitive at the high end. Check Point is one vendor that I really appreciate, and I will not mention the other, however the competition is very close.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the solution nine out of ten. Nobody is perfect.
web servers remain secure and defacement is eliminated
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution for almost all of our web servers.
How has it helped my organization?
Before CloudGuard, we periodically had some website issues. Since we've had CloudGuard, we've never had these issues happen again.
What is most valuable?
The rate limit feature is the most useful feature of the product.
We don't need to rely on signatures. We are protected when the signature doesn't exist.
It can protect against zero-day attacks and hidden anomalies. It blocks items that would affect the company.
We've been able to reduce our false positive rate. It took a bit of time, however, not long. We're near zero false positives.
What needs improvement?
The web user interface needs some improvement, even though the functionality is good. More user-friendly features could be added. Perhaps something between CloudGuard management and the virtual appliance on-site could be faster.
It could be interesting to have an app for smartphones to manage all the cloud environments.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is always good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is always good.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the solution nine out of ten. I am satisfied. It is always good.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Has the ability to protect our applications against threats without relying on signatures
What is our primary use case?
My use case is mainly for new products that come up in the marketing field, products that are fast and need quick assimilation.
We connected protections, mainly of the WAF for products that do not need too much scam validation or more complex functions. The aim was to provide a quick response to marketing campaigns, customer transportation, and things that need very fast implementation.
How has it helped my organization?
Check Point CloudGuard WAF has helped our organization in time-to-market manners; the time to market is very short. Unlike other products we tested, which were a bit more complex, they would take a day's process. Check Point CloudGuard WAF only takes a few minutes of assimilation and then goes live.
Its ability to protect our applications against threats without relying on signatures is one of the benefits I liked about this product. It does not depend on signatures. It looks at the anomaly in behavior. This is what we call a modern application. It saves us the headache of these updates and also the fact that the zero day usually has no signature.
The ability to preemptively block zero day attacks and detect hidden anomalies is exactly its advantage. The zero day does not wait for a signature but looks at behavior. This is how a modern app should be. If you wait for the unknown, your application will be affected, but with this solution, even if you don't know where the attack could come from, the product protects it because of the behavior. That's the advantage.
The assimilation time is short, about a few minutes only, so it is very simple for us and shortens the time of our functions. I'd say it has lowered 30% of our time.
In a product like this, there are not many false positive cases, at least not in our type of implementations, which are not complex. When you do not hear about any false positives, it is a sign that the solution is doing its job.
What is most valuable?
This product is very simple, it does not require complexity in its implementation. Its ability to deploy our materials quickly is what we appreciate the most.
What needs improvement?
I would like it to be able to analyze more complex functions, although I did not examine the case study of more complex implementations. Things like forum fields, etc seem to need a little more focused protection of the fields scheme validation. I would say that the more automation this product has, the easier it will be to work with it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Check Point CloudGuard WAF for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were never any server issues, they're very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I am not really sure about its scalability since our framework is very limited at the moment. I am guessing that after we try to deepen our use cases, we may scale then.
How are customer service and support?
Check Point is known for providing really good service. If a ticket is opened, it is addressed and not neglected. The emphasis is on the Israeli team, which knows how to achieve escalations and provide a response. We were never left without an answer.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have had several protections from other WAF products that we have tested. Their implementations were longer, more complex, and sometimes, because of the speed we would implement it after it went live because of the times. The time to market was short, and we didn't have time to achieve the desired time window.
Today, with Check Point CloudGuard WAF, there is no way we'll go live without protection.
We used and evaluated Radware and Reblaze. They were very expensive and also dependent on third-party services. With Check Point CloudGuard WAF, everything was done easily in-house.
How was the initial setup?
I'm in charge of the regulations, the SECOPS team is the one involved in the deployment. I'm more of a policy guide, and from what I've noticed, the experience was good.
What about the implementation team?
We always have a business partner who accompanies us in projects of this type. We have always had a good experience with them, the're very professional.
What was our ROI?
The biggest ROI is that the time to market is good; I am not holding back the business. I do not look that much at attack prevention because that's something that every product usually does. The ROI is the time to assimilate and the short time to market. Those are its benefits.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am less knowledgeable with prices because I only define the requirements and look at the execution. I know that its price is relatively expensive compared to other products but it gives benefits that are worth it.
What other advice do I have?
My advice would be to use this solution since it's cloud-based and the deployment is quick and easy.
Overall, the platform is great. I would consolidate it from the usual infrastructures, though. Every platform requires someone to focus on it, so it would be good if an integrator would be more involved in this specific solution.
Very simple to use, and it gave us a much simpler and friendlier interface
What is our primary use case?
My use cases include the use of WAF, landing pages, etc.
How has it helped my organization?
We see the advantages of a WAF solution when there’s silence, when there are no attacks, no mess, no fails. This is his biggest advantage and how it benefits my company.
What is most valuable?
Overall, it's a good product. I also have f5 for internal things that I use in another area. We work with several products. I’ve been working with a lot of Check Point’s products for a while, so choosing CloudGuard WAF wasn’t a big decision for me.
It's a significant advantage that it's not signature-based; it's not too important to me, but it's good that it's that way.
Its ability to preemptively block zero-day attacks and detect hidden anomalies is the advantage of the product. It knows how to protect against any behavior and saves you from messing with signatures; that's its advantage.
There are no false positives in WAF for the most part. If there is an attack, then you know it, and there is mitigation for it. I wouldn’t say the reduction is noticeable.
What needs improvement?
The assimilation is fast overall. As long as I don't have unique problems that I need support for, usually when WAF works, it works. It's not something you manipulate, it's not an antivirus where you deal with signatures, updates, and upgrades every day. If it works, it works.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for five months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a very simple product, it’s very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It has great scalability. I see the involvement of Check Point’s team whenever I want to scale. If I need to scale, I open a Whatsapp group with the director and the team, and we quickly proceed to do so.
How are customer service and support?
I get the delivery I want from Check Point, I am a big enough customer to get the best delivery. I also received full technical support, especially during the implementation.
I would rate them a ten out of ten. They are always quick to respond to me.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The setup was relatively easy; it's a product that is easy to deploy, and there were no big drawbacks. During the installation, we tested it on two apps first; we saw that it worked as it should, and then we moved on to the other apps. The process itself is not long at all. We have another WAF system that we use in other areas so we were aware of how to run these sorts of solutions.
What about the implementation team?
I work directly with the manufacturer; in this case I worked with someone from Check Point itself.
What was our ROI?
The ROI is that we are not attacked and are confidently protected. When we are attacked, we can understand how important the solution is. We have to get the blow to understand the importance of the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It didn't lower the TCO, it actually raised it, in my opinion. It is more expensive than f5, where we purchased everything as bundles, and Check Point costs more, but it is worth the money.
Check Point is cheaper than Radware. It is relatively cheaper for a WAF solution which is something that we liked and made us choose it. It is a bit difficult to know the price differences since everything is always included in a bundle.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We also looked at Radware, but in the end, we chose this solution because it is very simple to use, and it gave us a much simpler and friendlier interface.
What other advice do I have?
My advice would be to check the use cases you need to see if CloudGuard suits you. I recommend the solution in general.
I would rate it a nine out of ten. I can’t give it a 10 because there’s always room for improvement. I’d say that there should be better support from the integration team, I’m not sure if it’s Check Point’s responsibility, though. Overall, the product is excellent.
Handles multiple applications and sites effectively with decent pricing
What is our primary use case?
I am currently evaluating a hybrid solution for our infrastructure since some of our services are hosted on-premises while others are processed through the cloud. We have multiple websites, applications, and some non-web-based applications that we need to protect.
What is most valuable?
The solution's ability to handle multiple websites and applications without needing more expensive hardware is a key advantage.
The communication between the on-premises device and the cloud for analysis and feedback is a valuable feature. It also supports legacy applications and improves security access. Upon implementation and evaluation with third-party penetration testing, it meets rigorous security standards required for dealing with financial institutions and provides necessary protection between our central office and peripheries through VPN access.
The solution allows for proactive support and parts replacement.
What needs improvement?
The learning curve was a challenge due to initially incorrect configurations. It took approximately a month and a half to understand how the solution works because of inadequate documentation. The provider could improve by providing better guidance and support during the configuration process.
How are customer service and support?
I am happy with their support. They were responsive even before we committed to buying their solution. The support rating is about seven and a half to eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We looked at FortiGate and some open-source solutions, however, they either did not fully meet our requirements or required a dedicated person for administration, making them cost-prohibitive.
What about the implementation team?
We collaborated with our vendor, A1, which also offers parts replacement and support as part of the package.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The base solution costs approximately 30,000 euros, with an additional 2,000 euros per year for licenses and support.
The price is fair for the features offered. For us, it is cost-effective compared to hiring a dedicated person for administration.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Prior to choosing the current solution, we considered FortiGate and other open-source solutions.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the solution eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
A quick way to deploy a WAF without the need for advanced WAF knowledge.
Its a good product and easy to use for beginner
Securing applications with reliability
Enhancing web application security with advanced threat protection and a straightforward setup
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use Check Point CloudGuard WAF for web application security. It protects applications from various threats and vulnerabilities like SQL injections, cross-site scripting issues, and cross-site request forgery. We ensure proper security policies and logs are maintained.
How has it helped my organization?
CloudGuard WAF helps by providing advanced protection for web applications and APIs, defending against the OWASP top ten scenarios, and offering comprehensive AI-driven behavior analysis. This assistance in data protection is vital for financial domains such as banks.
What is most valuable?
One of the best features of CloudGuard WAF is its user-friendly GUI dashboard. It's easy for beginners in security to understand and set policies. The solution's easy access and AI-driven behavior analysis for real-time threat detection are also highly valuable.
What needs improvement?
Support could be improved, particularly in terms of availability. Although they provide 24/7 support, there are sometimes delays in delivering solutions. Advanced bot protection has recently been improved, which has helped a lot.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for over four to five years, working as a project manager and handling implementation projects. We are primarily focused on Check Point CloudGuard implementations.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of the solution as a nine out of ten. The solution is quite stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In terms of scalability, I would rate it a nine out of ten. The solution is highly scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Customer service is satisfactory yet requires some improvement. I would rate support as an eight out of ten, as there is room for enhancement.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have experience with other WAF vendors such as Imperva and Imperva WAF, which are leading products in India and have a significant presence in the US and UK.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is generally straightforward, yet it can vary depending on the client's platform and whether deployment occurs on-site or remotely.
What about the implementation team?
We have a team of around 25 engineers; 50% handle project implementation, while the other 50% provide post-deployment support.
What was our ROI?
Return on investment is seen when data is properly organized, and the ability to show reports to top management ensures that their expectations are met.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing is average—not too expensive, yet not cheap either. CloudGuard offers bundled packages, which may reduce costs compared to paying for individual features as opposed to other providers.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have evaluated solutions like Empower and EmpowerVac, which are leading WAF products in India and other countries.
What other advice do I have?
I would definitely recommend Check Point CloudGuard WAF to other users due to its availability, scalability, and support. These aspects contribute significantly to receiving new contracts and maintaining client referrals.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Enhanced security with flexible connectivity and useful features
What is our primary use case?
Currently, I am working in a DNB environment. Since we have on-premises to Azure traffic, we utilize the Azure subnet. From the Azure subnet, we have different tags and servers hosted over the Azure side. When our internal traffic moves from the DNB to the Azure site, we use the CloudGuard firewall. Multiple tags are created in that firewall, each containing multiple servers. Users connect through the Azure site, utilizing an ExpressRoute link from on-premises to Azure. The CloudGuard firewall at our premises helps secure traffic to the Azure site.
How has it helped my organization?
The CloudGuard firewall's multiple features like web access filter, HTTPS inspection, and authentication are very useful in our environment. It provides secure and flexible connectivity between the user and the Azure subnet.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are its ease of use and multiple functionalities. In CloudGuard, we create tags with servers, which makes connections secure and flexible. Features like web access filters, HTTPS inspection, and authentication are very important for our environment.
What needs improvement?
The user interface, SmartConsole, sometimes malfunctions and requires a restart. This part of the interface needs improvement.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the stability as seven or eight out of ten. We sometimes experience lagging, crashing, and downtime.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of CloudGuard is very good. I would rate it as nine.
How are customer service and support?
Whenever we observe any issues at the firewall level or require assistance, we contact tech support. We open cases, especially during upgrades, and they provide standby support. I would rate their support as eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
When I joined the project, most of the deployment had started, so I was not aware of previous solutions used by the company. Personally, I have worked with Check Point on-premises firewalls but not on the Azure site before joining this company.
How was the initial setup?
Some deployments were already in progress when I joined, and I participated in about half of the deployment process. It was easy with third-party vendor assistance, if required.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment was handled in-house with occasional vendor support related to specific components such as blades.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing is a bit high, but it is justified considering the features and support provided by Check Point.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend CloudGuard for its extensive security features. It not only provides security but also detects threats and inspects traffic thoroughly. It is especially useful for securing connections between users and Azure subnets.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.