Check Point CloudGuard Code Security
Management team gains substantial protection while navigating ongoing configuration challenges
What is our primary use case?
My team and I work with Check Point CloudGuard Code Security and handle all related tasks, including deploying virtual machines and configuring all aspects.
Our security team's roles include networking security, and our responsibility is to deploy all firewalls across our organization's sites, both on-premises and in the cloud.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Check Point CloudGuard Code Security include our approach to manage it via the management we have on-premises, and we also deploy the same extension management of CloudGuard to manage all the virtual systems on Azure.
We effectively use artificial intelligence with Check Point CloudGuard Code Security, as we have teams that work with AI and we frequently manage our firewalls using AI along with the CloudGuard and all virtual systems.
What needs improvement?
There are still areas for improvement with Check Point CloudGuard Code Security. All the features we have on the firewall on the on-premises side, we also have under CloudGuard such as IPS, Anti-Bot, and all these blades are set up in our CloudGuard.
For how long have I used the solution?
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
The initial setup of Check Point CloudGuard Code Security is very challenging because it requires more preparation, and we need more guides to understand how to set up all aspects.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate the support for Check Point CloudGuard Code Security as good because we can quickly email support about any problems we encounter, and they reply instantly to provide help. I would give it an eight.
How was the initial setup?
To deploy Check Point CloudGuard Code Security, it requires four people on our team to manage all the Check Point devices.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
What other advice do I have?
I do not have experience with CyberArk, we only work with VSX and the family of VSX, which is provided by Check Point.
I can recommend Check Point CloudGuard Code Security to other organizations as it is a good platform to protect our organization. On a scale of one to ten, I rate this solution an eight.
Accurate vulnerability detection, deep code analysis, and helpful remediation guidance
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case of this solution is to detect vulnerabilities, prevent breaches, accelerate development, and improve code quality.
How has it helped my organization?
It helped us to reduce vulnerabilities, improve code quality, enhance security posture, and offer us good cost savings.
What is most valuable?
The solution's most valuable aspects include its accurate vulnerability detection, deep code analysis, remediation guidance, false positive guidance and customizable rules.
What needs improvement?
The solution should improve vulnerability in-depth, false-positive reduction, integration with other tools, performance optimization, and the user interface.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is good but can be improved.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No, I did not use another solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented the solution with an in-house team.
What was our ROI?
The ROI is nice.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing and licensing modules need to be improved.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
No, I did not evaluate other options.
Does exactly what is advertised, and it is extremely affordable and reliable
What is our primary use case?
It was adopted in response to the events of SolarWinds, where API credentials were leaked into Git repositories or other developer tools. We, at the time, had no detective or preventive controls to prevent this sort of disclosure, so CloudGuard Code Security was implemented into the pipelines themselves to detect secrets being disclosed.
How has it helped my organization?
We have had a number of real events where developers accidentally made commits of API keys, and we were able to detect and begin response actions in minutes. We had the API key revoked in less than five minutes in such events. If we did not have CloudGuard Code Security, we would not have known about it for who knows how long. There is absolutely a very meaningful difference.
CloudGuard Code Security is great for protecting our code and assets from exposed API keys, tokens, or credentials. It does exactly what is advertised, and it does it reliably. It is a great solution.
The scanning of code throughout development helps save developers time. One of the important attributes of the shift-left movement was getting developer feedback as quickly as possible to reduce cycle time and context switching. CloudGuard Code Security very much improves that by allowing the mistakes to be detected almost immediately and remediation efforts to be implemented. In terms of time saved from not having to redo problematic production code, context switching is about a 30-minute loss for most developers. Each incident is 30 minutes. Hopefully, it is infrequent. There are two pieces. There is secrets detection, which is not an efficiency play. It is risk mitigation because of the enormity of the impact that it could lead to. The other side of it is the configuration management side. That is where you do have ongoing feedback as people use TerraForm or other infrastructure as code languages, and getting that feedback to them quickly is certainly valuable. It saves a lot of time there.
CloudGuard Code Security helps identify high-risk security misconfigurations in our code during the development phase. On the merge event, for the infrastructure as code, it analyzes the configurations. It looks for known adverse configurations and comments on the merge request. It usually prevents the merge request from happening to begin with, and then you have a commit, which hopefully remediates the issue. It probably has had some beneficial impacts on product security, but it did not necessarily create new visibility that did not exist before. CSPM tools from Check Point give us visibility into adverse configurations, but we saw them later on or down the line, and we had to deal with making people go back and fix them, so I do not know if it had a massive change on the outcome, but it has impacted the efficiency of getting to the outcome.
CloudGuard Code Security has helped our development team adopt a security mindset. It keeps security on top of mind when dealing with infrastructure as code or secrets and ensures that it does not get lost or overlooked. If they are aware of security and it is on top of mind, hopefully, they will make better decisions.
The time taken by CloudGuard Code Security to scan our codebase depends on the size of the Git Repo, but on average, it is between ten seconds to a minute.
CloudGuard Code Security does not impede the development flow because the inflection point for the most part is on the merge request creation. In most organizations, especially if they are in any sort of highly regulated space, the creation of the merge request is usually followed by approvals from peers or partners on the merge before it is merged. With a latency of ten seconds to a minute, most of the time, approvers have not even opened the page before the contextually rich security information is already there waiting for them to make a good decision. So, it does not impede the development flow at all. It just means that the approvers have the ability to make rich decisions with all of the information already laid out for them.
What is most valuable?
Secrets detection is the bread and butter.
We have used the infrastructure as code as well. It was really early in the market and had comprehensive coverage across Terraform, cloud formation, and ARM. We used that as well but not as heavily. It was more of an ancillary benefit.
What needs improvement?
There are a lot of opportunities for how they can use their technology to do more. That would be more like sensitive data discovery and other things besides Git Repos, but then you are expanding the scope of what necessarily their product is. If we talk about what problem we are trying to solve, which is secrets disclosure, perhaps even validation of configuration management inside of Git environments, it is a very comprehensive solution. It is what it is, and it does a great job.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using CloudGuard Code Security for three and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is bulletproof.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It uses Lambda as its backend, so it is really a question about the scalability of AWS, which is bulletproof.
It is integrated into our Git Repo, so it is a Git-level control. The users of Git exist across locations, departments, and knowledge domains. It is a universally applied control irrespective of the employees. It broadly affects any user of Git across the company.
How are customer service and support?
When we first launched this, it was a brand-new product, and there was very hands-on support. We had a couple of issues that they worked through very effectively and efficiently. They were super responsive. For the last two years, I have not talked to their support at all because it has just worked.
We have got great service from Check Point. I would rate them a nine out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use any other solution previously.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment was very fast. It probably took my team a day to wire in the integration with the Git side. We did a little bit of SOAR work to make sure our response was efficient. It was a very quick and painless setup.
In terms of the deployment model, it is a webhook from a Git Repo into a Lambda function hosted in our AWS account that scans and then replies back. That would be considered a self-hosted public cloud.
It was very simple. It was done three years ago. I am sure things have changed, but at the time, it was a cloud formation stack set that was deployed into an account, and then there were a couple of configuration pieces in Git Repo where you need to point the webhook to the Lambda function you have stood up, and that was it. You were done. I imagine there is a slightly different process today for CloudGuard Code Security than three years ago. It is probably a little bit more fully managed on their end today, but I do not know that for sure.
What about the implementation team?
We did not take any external help. It was very easy.
What was our ROI?
The thing we are trying to stop is a really bad SolarWinds type of event, which would cost an organization millions of dollars, so the ROI is preventing that outcome. It is a risk mitigation play. There is not necessarily a strong ROI from a non-event.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is extremely affordable and high value for cost.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
When we bought it three years ago, as far as I know, there were no other options. This was the first to market.
What other advice do I have?
To those evaluating CloudGuard Code Security, I would advise doing a PoC. It is easy to integrate. It takes a day to get it all set up and working. Do some testing on merging things that you know would be bad and watch what happens. The product sells itself.
I would rate CloudGuard Code Security a ten out of ten.
Comprehensive protection for cloud workloads and applications that offers robust security features, seamless integration with multi-cloud environments and excellent threat detection capabilities
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case involves protecting our internal services hosted within our data center's cloud environment, which includes virtual machines housing critical company resources. Additionally, we safeguard external services used by our customers with Check Point security measures.
How has it helped my organization?
The benefits derived from utilizing Check Point solutions for achieving our security objectives primarily lie in bolstering threat prevention and network security measures. This includes safeguarding against various threats, such as vulnerabilities and potential attacks.
It offers robust security capabilities spanning multiple cloud environments, which is highly beneficial. The platform is user-friendly, especially with its multi-domain solution.
We have a strong sense of security assurance when utilizing CloudGuard, as it consistently delivers outstanding protection capabilities.
What is most valuable?
The most critical features for me revolve around security, as I primarily focus on network engineering.
What needs improvement?
The enhancements are needed in the logging system and log management processes. Additionally, we encounter issues with geolocation functionality, which is crucial for enforcing access restrictions based on location. While we heavily rely on this feature, it occasionally fails to function correctly, posing challenges to our security measures.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It provides excellent stability capabilities.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In terms of scalability, our infrastructure comprises a private cloud with eight hundred servers and a public cloud serving our customers. Within this setup, we manage their database applications, application sites, disaster recovery mechanisms, and all security measures without encountering any issues.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is satisfactory; they respond promptly, and I am pleased with their service. I would rate it nine out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In my previous roles, I've gained experience working with FortiGate and Cisco firewalls, each offering its own set of advantages. FortiGate stands out for its user-friendly configuration interface, yet it faces stability issues in certain regions, particularly with routing tables. Cisco, on the other hand, provides a unified management platform for network configuration, which simplifies tasks for some networks. However, I've found Check Point to be my preferred choice over the past two years due to its exceptional stability. Unlike Cisco, which has been prone to crashes in my experience, Check Point has consistently delivered reliability. While FortiGate is known for its ease of use and Cisco for its complexity, Check Point falls somewhere in the middle in terms of usability. Compared to other vendors, Check Point excels in identifying threats effectively.
We selected CloudGuard due to its stability and because our team has extensive experience with it. We are highly satisfied with it.
How was the initial setup?
Configuration is also simple and not overly complex.
What about the implementation team?
For deployment, our integration with NSX is seamless, quick, and efficient.
What was our ROI?
We've experienced a positive return on investment with its usage, primarily through time savings attributed to its stability and user-friendly administration. Working with it is straightforward and not overly complicated, allowing us ample time for other tasks.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Renewing licenses is relatively simple, though there is room for further streamlining the process.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate it eight out of ten.
Good security and functionality with helpful support
What is our primary use case?
We have so many applications where the code needs to be verified before it can be transferred to production. This scans the code and all the configurations to detect issues.
How has it helped my organization?
We're able to protect APIs from exposure and ensure we have credentials for transactions. If any misconfiguration happens, we can be sure we will not be compromised.
What is most valuable?
The security on offer is great. It's secure in terms of testing all the workloads. We can test across any workload or multiple clouds. It offers unified prevention. It also offers posture management by verifying proper scanning.
We use the GSL builder. It's easy to write customer rules or policies using it. Of course, you do need proper training on the product first. It takes around one week to get trained.
We've been able to reduce human error, and you can build the rules for better coverage.
It provides functionality across cloud providers.
The solution helps us save time. We've reduced the amount of time spent by 25%.
Its unified security management console is a very complete dashboard. We can see all security threats and can gain visibility into what is happening. We have access to automation and can monitor the security of IT systems.
The product offers role-based access control so that we can set up different privileges for admin users.
Cloud Guard Spectrum is good for automating our organization's security across assets, workloads, and multiple clouds. With it, we have advanced pre-prevention across the cloud security network. It works for on-premises also.
We can easily determine our organization's security posture. It will ensure my application's availability time across the enterprise.
Network security helped us reduce our compliance and audit activities. We've saved about 20% of our time.
Having a cloud detection response helps to very quickly identify security threats in our environment. It's automated so it saves us time. That way, people can work on other projects. On any given day, we're spending 20% less time in general worrying about detection and response. Our security operations are saving a lot of time using a unified platform.
What needs improvement?
There needs to be better security around API integration.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the product is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have the product deployed to a single location. We have 250 end-users.
The scalability is good; I find that I can scale up.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is very 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 was not involved with the deployment of the product.
The product does not require any maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not sure what the exact pricing is.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not evaluate any other solution.
What other advice do I have?
I'm a customer and end-user.
With CloudGuard, you can easily secure the workloads and applications running in a hybrid environment or public cloud. It helps mitigate risk and protects against data leakage or breaches. It's a one-stop solution.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. I'd recommend the solution to others.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Protects our network, helps manage access, and offers an ROI
What is our primary use case?
In our company, we deployed a firewall in the office. The office has around 200 to 300 people. We're using it to control the Internet access.
How has it helped my organization?
Its login facility is quite clear for us. Compared to what we used before, it's helping us to be more efficient in managing our traffic.
What is most valuable?
This product is an Internet firewall, so the most valuable aspect is the way we use it to control access to the Internet and for managing applications. Via the firewall, we can see the employee's use cases to access the Internet. We're using it to protect network access in our company.
What needs improvement?
The ease of use could be better. There is a bit of a learning curve. I'd rate the ease of use six out of ten. There is room to improve.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for about one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is pretty good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is quite scalable. I can pick up different types of scales depending on my requirements.
How are customer service and support?
We don't use the support too often. We just check the features and ensure everything is meeting our requirements or check with the specifications.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used a Layer 7 solution previously. I had experience with Check Point before and decided to try it in our company.
I've also used FortiGate in the past. To some degree, they do similar things. It's just a personal preference.
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved in the initial setup.
What about the implementation team?
A reseller handled the initial setup for us.
What was our ROI?
I have seen an ROI. It's worthwhile investing in the product. We've seen a return in improving our efficiency with network management.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't really put a value on pricing. We wanted to go for Check Point, found a reseller, and got the solution.
What other advice do I have?
The solution helped free up staff to work on other projects. We've saved about 10% in overall time.
I'd rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Great monitoring and visibility with the capabilities to expand
What is our primary use case?
Check Point CloudGuard Code Security is a solution tool for cloud environments. It helps a lot to detect malicious activities, and, in addition to that, it provides security in the network and in applications.
Due to these functionalities, we decided to adopt this technology. Since we are venturing into the cloud area, we needed a tool with the qualities and characteristics set out above. The tool is very efficient in the security functionalities that it provides, which was the main case for which we used and implemented it.
How has it helped my organization?
With the characteristics that the tool presents, it helped us a lot in the security of various types of infrastructure, for example.
Through the visibility of the activity in the cloud via monitoring in the administration panel, we can observe everything that is being monitored and which devices need to be attended to with priority, as well as what vulnerabilities we have that are affecting us.
Following compliance policies is easy as we can see which policies we are failing to comply with or which need to be applied in order to comply with the security framework.
Automation has helped a lot to identify and automatically execute policies, rules, and blocks due to its machine learning.
What is most valuable?
Check Point CloudGuard Code Security has valuable features such as automation and automatic learning. This greatly facilitates security implementation.
It also has excellent monitoring with great visibility of the environment.
The tool has scalability and stability, and it works as a tool for auditing to comply with regulations and standards. It presents solid network protection with VPN connections that help to make secure connections between all users, thus ensuring remote connections from anywhere are easy.
What needs improvement?
Although it is a cloud-native tool, it needs to make some improvements in certain features, such as integration with SIEM, which should be easier and not have a host involved.
We'd like integration with third-party security tools. It should generate reports as data and offer better details as well.
They could include web functionalities such as sandboxing.
Last but not least, they need to improve the support that it provides. The SLA is not met regardless of the type of support that has been acquired. We have had many problems contacting them.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability can depend on many factors. The main thing is to make an excellent installation and configuration so that the tool works properly.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Check Point CloudGuard Code Security has excellent scalability. That said, it all depends on the infrastructure configuration..
How are customer service and support?
Technical support must improve since it does not meet the support standards they provide.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used other applications, however, when migrating to the cloud, we needed a tool that complied with all cloud standards
How was the initial setup?
The installation is easy, fast, and simple and done all through software. The configuration is a bit complicated.
What about the implementation team?
The tool is implemented by the IT team and an engineer provided by the provider.
What was our ROI?
It is always important to keep in mind what types of features are needed to be able to make a direct investment and not buy excess products.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost will depend on the number of users or devices that must be protected and on the specific characteristics and capabilities, everything is also related to the size of the company.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated some options, including:
- McAfee MVISION Cloud
- Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks
- Trend Micro Cloud One
- Zscaler Cloud Security Platform
What other advice do I have?
Before innovating or acquiring any security tool, it is necessary to evaluate all the needs that the company has in order to make a good acquisition.