Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall PAYG
Secures branch networks and simplifies threat detection but has needed clearer logs and reporting
What is our primary use case?
I work as a customer with Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall. My major use case involves around 70 sites as a branch network, where I connect Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall to protect my branch network.
What is most valuable?
The biggest advantage for me in Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall is that it is simple to deploy, plus it has better use cases compared to other firewalls that provide thousands of features, but 50% are useless.
The most beneficial capabilities in Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall for me include endpoint security, which is far better than the other one, and a next-generation firewall that provides me with a better ability to detect threats such as DDoS attacks and Mitre attacks from external users.
I am working with the advanced Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) in Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall. The IPS helps in my network security. Its role is to detect threats from external sources, such as DDoS attacks and attacks on networks from unknown actors. Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall detects threats much better than other vendors because it has a far better hit list and superior security sensors. Additionally, it is cost-effective for any customer. Previously, I used the Palo Alto IPS, but I shifted to Arista Edge IPS due to cost and better app-based, AI-based detection mechanisms that can detect even AI-based threats from external users.
What needs improvement?
When it comes to the negative aspects, I find that weak UI logging is a disadvantage, as the interface is not very appealing. The documentation is unclear for troubleshooting, requiring reliance on the Arista vendor for support, which is less comprehensive than other products like Cisco. The response time for support can vary greatly based on the priority level of the issue reported. While the product suits larger organizations well, it can be overly complex for small businesses. There are limitations in how the product generates reports, leading to challenges when trying to optimize KPIs or integrate with tools like ServiceNow.
For how long have I used the solution?
I started using Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall two years ago.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall has been 99% available based on my experience so far.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There is some limit on scalability. For instance, if I want to accommodate 10,000 users, I need to deploy multiple Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewalls compared to other vendors, which can handle far more users with fewer nodes.
How are customer service and support?
The support is helpful, though they do have delays. However, their engineers are skilled and provide good support overall. I would subjectively rate their support around 7.5 to 8 out of 10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I used the Palo Alto IPS, but I shifted to Arista Edge IPS due to cost and better app-based, AI-based detection mechanisms that can detect even AI-based threats from external users.
The application control capabilities help manage network traffic. In my use case, I used Palo Alto for app security, and it was similar to what I have with Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall.
How was the initial setup?
The biggest advantage for me in Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall is that it is simple to deploy.
What was our ROI?
I see value for money with Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall, as it has delivered what I aimed to achieve within a tight budget.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is reasonable compared to other products, especially since they are relatively new and offer better pricing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
The main principle difference I see between Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall and other products like Palo Alto and Fortinet is that Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall serves as a threat prevention device, while the others focus primarily on security. Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall simplifies deployment and offers a competitive price, but is somewhat behind in AI threat detection compared to established products. Other vendors provide better customization in reporting.
What other advice do I have?
I work with other products as well, but I also utilize Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall products.
I am working with Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall and utilize Dynamic VPN to connect to Azure. I see a benefit from that feature as it helps detect threats and provides dynamic switchover between different branch networks or ISPs. If one VPN goes down, it dynamically fails over to another VPN without disrupting my traffic while maintaining the same security level and threat detection across failover scenarios.
Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall does help to address vulnerabilities exclusively for the Edge product and provides insights into firewalls and threat management.
I measure how effective the tool is through a single CloudVision dashboard, which helps detect everything from one interface. I use two types of threat detection dashboards, including the cognitive UI of Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall, which is unique and helps detect all logs. I also integrated a ServiceNow solution for dynamically creating tickets and communication with users, automating processes to get a better view without manually checking the threat management dashboard.
I would rate Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall a 7.5 out of 10, and I would say it is closer to an 8-point rating.
Visualizing threats and managing firewall rules has improved monitoring and streamlined deployments
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
In terms of the configuration mode, I consider the best features that Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall offers to be user-friendly dashboards, statistics, and reports that provide significant value.
Since Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall is quite a user-friendly solution at the configuration level, its features have made my work easier and optimized processes for my clients because the initial startup of the solution is quite agile in terms of configuration deployments, whether objects, rules, and so on. The simple visualization of the information also speeds up a second stage of configuration.
Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall has positively impacted my organization and Help IT's clients by visualizing the actions that this firewall takes against threats that it has blocked or the attempted attacks by attackers against the organization.
I have observed a specific example of how the tool has helped to identify or block threats, as the alerts that are configured within the solution helped to quickly detect a situation that was successfully contained.
What needs improvement?
I see the need for improvements in Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall particularly in automatic threat detection and rule optimization, precisely in those two pillars, as well as in the recommendations that can be adopted in the configurations one performs.
For how long have I used the solution?
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
How are customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
What was our ROI?
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
What other advice do I have?
I would not like to add anything else about the tool's features.
I would not like to add anything else about the necessary improvements or any other aspect I consider relevant.
My advice to other professionals who are considering implementing Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall is that they should not hesitate to do it because it is a more than reliable solution. I repeat that the configuration, visualization dashboard panel, reports, alerts, and metrics are quite powerful. I find it to be a powerful solution.
I do not have any additional comments about Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall before we finish.
I provided this review with an overall rating of eight.
Secure internet access has reduced threats and simplifies firewall management for distributed teams
What is our primary use case?
I think largely this is used by small and medium enterprises, and mid-market organizations is where I've actually seen them use this platform much more. It's used for secure internet gateway protection, remote office connectivity, and probably also for web content filtering, especially by the schools and enterprises.
Many of our customers have really benefited, especially in the small and medium businesses, schools and universities, and financial services as well. Typical benefits largely have been reduced malware infections, better visibility into user activity, very simplified firewall administration, reduction in network downtime, and easier compliance reporting.
What is most valuable?
I would first talk about the features then talk about what makes Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall very useful. It combines firewall and intrusion prevention system, web filtering, VPN, application control, bandwidth monitoring, and reporting. It's a very modular platform, easy to deploy, simple to manage, has fairly reasonable reporting, provides a strong value to the customers, and also it has good VPN capabilities, and in terms of deployment flexibility, it's very flexible.
SSL inspection, anti-phishing, DNS filtering, VPN, bandwidth control, and reporting are quite comprehensive.
Typically, we've seen a drop in the threats because they've been blocked, which contributes to cyber risk reduction. Firewall availability has been more than 99%, ensuring business continuity. We've seen a 30 to 50% reduction in manual firewall administration effort. There's an improvement in visibility across remote users and branch offices, web filtering, faster audit readiness, and it's been a lot from the perspective of mean time to detect and mean time to respond as well. We've seen quicker responses to threats and minimization of business impact.
Many of our clients have actually benefited from bandwidth optimization, and of course, regulatory compliance in terms of logging and reporting are also the other beneficial use cases.
What needs improvement?
Threat detection needs improvement; Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall should follow Alto and Fortinet. One limitation that I've seen is AI-driven automation which needs to vastly improve. It has fewer third-party integrations, and therefore the adoption amongst very large enterprises is less; it's largely with the SMBs.
Customer support can be improved. It's a smaller global footprint that Arista provides, with fewer certified partners in some regions and limited 24/7 support for premium vendors. I've categorically mentioned that it has sophisticated threat detection capabilities but they can be bettered. AI-driven automation can be improved, and therefore, I think the adoption with large enterprises can be much better.
I think the current AI capabilities of Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall are a bit limited compared to other vendors. It primarily relies on threat intelligence feeds, signature-based detection, and reputation services. Currently, I would rate its AI capabilities as probably a seven out of ten because it does not provide for extensive GenAI or advanced ML-driven autonomous capabilities like some of its competitors.
Threat intelligence aspects can be further improved, and I think there's a lot that the product can do with respect to the usage of AI. AI-driven automation and threat detection can vastly improve.
I don't think they were purchased through AWS Marketplace. The adoption has to increase amongst large customers, and threat intelligence needs to improve for many customers to adopt, enhancing the security ecosystem that is relatively small.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been advising on Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall to my clients for over three years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I don't think we have seen any reliability issues. It is quite stable from that standpoint; I'm referring to the fact that there's a high availability. Overall stability would be a nine out of ten; it's quite reliable. Performance issues are not significant, and it provides fairly stable day-to-day firewall operations and reliable VPN connectivity. If there's anything regarding dependability, it is suited for small and mid-sized organizations as I was sharing earlier.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There are no limitations; I think that's fairly okay.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate that as probably an eight out of ten, as I was sharing the fact that it's really good for small and medium enterprises. The response from the engineers is good, they have a strong documentation knowledge base, and the global support is where they lack a bit.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were not using any other solution, and I don't think any of our clients were using any next-generation firewall. It was basic firewall, Check Point firewalls that they were on, as I remember. I think they did not have a next-gen, AI-driven kind of a system, so it did not replace any other tool which is next-generation.
What was our ROI?
From the perspective of ROI, I can mention that it comes from multiple areas such as the reduction in annual security incidents, mean time to detect and mean time to respond, audit preparation time reduction, reduction in internet bandwidth misuse, and also with respect to firewall uptime and availability.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
That's one of the strong selling points. I would rate them nine or ten as far as pricing is concerned. Typically, their licensing works on the basis of appliances plus subscription-based, and there's annual licensing and multi-year subscriptions as well. Licensing is modular, allowing customers to pay only for the applications they need, and especially for non-profit organizations, education institutions, and government organizations, they offer discounted pricing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I think there are other options available, but the pricing for those is a little higher. The others that were evaluated were Palo Alto and Fortinet.
What other advice do I have?
I would say that if you're a small and medium enterprise or an education institution and you have a distributed organization looking for a cost-effective and easy-to-manage next-generation firewall solution with fairly good security, VPN, filtering, and centralized management, then Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall is an excellent choice. This was pretty good; very comprehensive enough. I would rate this review an 8 out of 10.
Perimeter security has reduced botnet attacks and now needs better interface and logging
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall is as a perimeter firewall.
I use it as a perimeter firewall by protecting internet traffic, specifically user to internet traffic.
What is most valuable?
The best features Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall offers are its ability to push a lot of traffic along with bandwidth management and traffic policy.
Bandwidth management and traffic policy help my organization by keeping our internet subscription low.
Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall has positively impacted my organization by reducing botnet attacks.
Immediately after I installed the firewall, it stopped a few botnet attacks.
What needs improvement?
Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall can be improved, particularly the user interface, which is not very good, and also the logs, which are not very good.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall is stable in my environment.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have not used Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall for many users, but it is handling the users adequately.
How are customer service and support?
I have not interacted with customer support for Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before choosing Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall, I evaluated other options including Sophos and Check Point.
How was the initial setup?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the setup was fairly simple.
What was our ROI?
I see a return on investment as I save money from internet access.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I chose Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall over Check Point primarily because of the price.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others looking into using Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall is that it is effective and accomplishes its purpose. I would rate this product a 7 out of 10.
Provides virus protection but needs improvement in the area of policy implementation
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution in my company and I know that it is a software firewall and not a hardware firewall.
What is most valuable?
I did not find the product's features to be the most valuable since I feel that its most beneficial point stems from its cheap price range, which satisfied our company's goals in areas like VPN connectivity, virus protection, and cybersecurity.
What needs improvement?
The product has a lot to improve in the area of policy implementation. If our company wants to give a separate policy to a particular client, user or system, it is very difficult to manage it. There is no categorization in the web filter option. If you want to search for a particular content to be blocked in the web filter, the search option is not there. You have to manually choose the option in the tool and then check it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall for a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have never experienced any downtime while using the solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product can support our organization's growth plans.
The product is meant for small and large businesses.
How are customer service and support?
Our company does not require technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The product's initial setup phase is easy.
The solution can be deployed in a maximum of an hour.
What was our ROI?
The product helps users save costs. I have saved around 30,000, which is around 540 USD, with the tool's help.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I consider it an averagely-priced tool. Adding additional features does not cost extra. My small company pays around 80,000 to use the tool every year.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Compared to the other products in the market, my company chose to work with Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall since it is a software-based firewall. My company is currently searching the market for other options against Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall. Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall is easier to manage than Fortinet.
What other advice do I have?
The product offers DPI capability. My company does not use the DPI capabilities.
I recommend the tool to those who plan to use it.
I rate the tool a seven out of ten.
The solution is stable and affordable, but the documentation is not clear, and it takes a lot of research to implement it
How has it helped my organization?
The organization I worked for used the product due to the rising issue of cyber security.
What is most valuable?
Phish Blocker is a valuable feature.
What needs improvement?
We had to do a lot of in-built purchases. The documentation is not clear. We have to do a lot of research to implement the product.
For how long have I used the solution?
I used the solution for a few months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The tool was quite stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The tool worked perfectly.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy. We had to deploy it on our VM. Then, we configured the rules and deployed them in the production environment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The tool is quite cheap. It is free, but we had to purchase the in-built tools. It cost us about $90.
What other advice do I have?
It is a great tool, but we had to do a lot of research. We must understand it to implement it. We had to do a lot of work for two months to understand the firewall. We took another three weeks to implement the rules. It took us a lot of time. Overall, I rate the tool a seven out of ten.