Cloud Next-Generation Firewall as a Service (30-Day Free Trial to PAYG)

What do you like best about the product?

I find Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW incredibly valuable as it provides centralized management through integration with Panorama and cloud-native management consoles, making policy synchronization straightforward across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. The high availability and autoscaling features automatically handle traffic spikes, eliminating the need for manual load balancer configuration. I appreciate its App-ID and Advanced Threat Prevention, as they offer top-tier Layer 7 traffic inspection and URL filtering without the operational overhead of software upgrades and manual scaling. I also find the initial setup to be straightforward and faster than deploying traditional virtual appliances, thanks to its fully managed cloud service delivery that doesn't require provisioning virtual machines or setting up load balancers. The seamless deployment via the cloud console and built-in autoscaling make it easy to get started. Overall, it's a solid product that meets enterprise security standards.

What do you dislike about the product?

The cost structure of Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW can be a downside. Even though it eliminates the need for virtual appliance maintenance, the combined cost of the service fee and data processing throughput can become quite expensive, especially for workloads with heavy bandwidth. Additionally, I've noticed log ingestion latency sometimes occurs. When I'm running complex queries through CloudWatch or using third-party SIEM log forwarders, there are slight delays during peak traffic analysis, which can be frustrating.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW to reduce operational overhead by replacing self-managed firewalls, ensuring consistent security across clouds with zero-trust inspection. It provides top-tier App-ID, threat prevention, and centralized management, making scaling and updates effortless without manual intervention.

What do you like best about the product?

What I like most about Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW is that it delivers strong cloud security without making the setup and management overly complicated. It feels like a practical mix of advanced protection, easy deployment, and centralized control.

What do you dislike about the product?

The biggest downside of Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW is the cost. It’s also not as flexible as a full-featured on-prem firewall, so teams that need advanced VPN or routing features may find it less useful.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Cloud NGFW helps solve the headache of managing traditional firewall infrastructure in the cloud. It gives us better visibility, stronger threat protection, and simpler policy management, so we can focus more on the business instead of firewall maintenance.

What do you like best about the product?

What I like best is how seamlessly it integrates into our cloud infrastructure. In my experience managing complex application operations and microservices, it provides robust threat protection and traffic filtering without adding heavy operational overhead or slowing down our DevOps workflows

What do you dislike about the product?

The initial setup for integrating its logs with our existing observability stack required more manual effort than expected. Additionally, managing granular security policies for rapidly changing Kubernetes microservices can sometimes feel rigid, which adds a bit of friction to our CI/CD deployment pipelines.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Before implementing this solution, maintaining deep visibility and secure traffic filtering across our complex microservices and containerized environments was challenging. We now use it to enforce granular security policies and secure our application ingress/egress traffic without slowing down our CI/CD pipelines. It ensures our infrastructure stays compliant and protected from threats, while allowing our operations team to maintain high deployment velocity.

What do you like best about the product?

I really appreciate the GUI of Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW; it's the best I've seen and makes managing policies and exclusions a breeze. I also love how well it integrates with other platforms, especially within the Palo Alto family, like Cortex, SASE, and XDR, as well as with other vendors like Microsoft Sentinel. The system operates exactly as promised in the documentation, and everything, including encryption, works flawlessly, which has saved my company from many attacks. The templates save us a lot of time during implementation, and the initial setup was very easy.

What do you dislike about the product?

The documentation can be problematic because it's being changed frequently, which makes it challenging to find updated instructions. Sometimes, when looking for setup guidance, the steps provided are outdated, aligned with older versions of the portal, and it can be difficult to find the right page for the current settings. If you're trying to follow the steps to access policies, the directions might not match what's currently available. This inconsistency in documentation is frustrating, and it would help if the old documentation were removed to avoid confusion.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW offers an excellent GUI, accurate policy matching, and up-to-date templates, streamlining system management. It integrates well with Sentinel and other Palo Alto platforms, simplifying tasks and enhancing security, which saved us from attacks.

What do you like best about the product?

The granular control over the traffic management like App ID, User ID makes monitoring and control more powerful. Centralized management of multiple devices makes device management easy and fast.

What do you dislike about the product?

The GUI of Palo Alto FW could be improved as it is not so user friendly for beginners. Also the initial setup and licensing cost is high compared to other NGFW. Initial deployment and managing growing rule sets can be difficult and confusing for new users

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Provides granular control over the traffic and provides better traffic visibility. Stops zero-day exploits, data exfiltration, and lateral movement between virtual networks.

What do you like best about the product?

Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW provides strong threat prevention, granular application visibility, and consistent policy enforcement across cloud environments. The centralized management interface makes it easier to secure workloads and monitor traffic, reducing the time spent on firewall administration and troubleshooting. We have found the platform reliable, scalable, and effective in improving overall security posture while maintaining network performance.

What do you dislike about the product?

The platform is powerful, but the learning curve can be steep, and some advanced features require time to configure and manage effectively.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW helps us secure cloud workloads, control application traffic, and detect threats more effectively. This has reduced the risk of security incidents, improved visibility into network activity, and simplified the management of security policies across our environment.

What do you like best about the product?

I like the combination of strong security, visibility, and centralized management that Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW offers. It gives me better control over network traffic and threats without adding unnecessary complexity, which is especially useful for larger ICT and infrastructure environments. I particularly appreciate the centralized visibility and policy management, as well as the ability to monitor and control traffic across cloud environments. The threat prevention and application-aware security features stand out because they provide useful control without making day-to-day network management overly complicated.

What do you dislike about the product?

One area that could be improved is the learning curve for users who are new to cloud security. Some configurations and policies can take time to understand, and clearer guidance or simpler setup options would make deployment easier. Pricing and licensing could also be more straightforward for smaller organizations.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW helps me tackle network security challenges, such as traffic control and protecting systems from threats. It improves network visibility and simplifies security management, especially in complex ICT and infrastructure projects.

What do you like best about the product?

I like the combination of advanced security, visibility, and ease of management. The ability to apply consistent security policies, inspect traffic, and protect workloads in a cloud environment while maintaining centralized management.

What do you dislike about the product?

The initial complexity of configuration and management is a challenge, especially for teams transitioning from traditional firewalls to cloud-native environments.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW to ensure threat protection, traffic visibility, segmentation, access control, and centralized management, reducing operational risks.

What do you like best about the product?

I really like the SSL/TLS Decryption feature in Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW. It helps by inspecting encrypted traffic to uncover hidden threats, ensuring that nothing encrypted can pass through without deep inspection.

What do you dislike about the product?

I find it difficult for new users to learn, and I wish the GUI could be simpler. It would be helpful to be able to find the most valuable tools right on the main site.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW blocks attackers and malware while inspecting encrypted traffic, protecting our AWS and Azure environments.

What do you like best about the product?

I love the security efficacy of the Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW. It's reassuring to know that independent testing shows it blocks around 99% of exploits and prevents 100% of malware samples, which is way more effective than native cloud firewalls. This gives me confidence that I'm not just ticking a compliance box. Also, the setup was easy and smooth, with just a few clicks to create a tenant and link accounts, following a logical flow. I didn't have to put much effort into deployment; the main task was network planning. The fact that it's a cloud-native, managed-service firewall is a big plus since it relieves me from the operational burden of managing firewalls myself, avoiding issues like HA pair building, patching, downtime scheduling, and capacity planning.

What do you dislike about the product?

It's very expensive compared to other services. The cost is roughly 3.5 times more than other similar services. There are limited features compared to on-premises options. Technical support has a slightly slow response time.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW reduces the operational burden of managing firewalls in the cloud myself. It eliminates the hassle of building HA pairs, patching, scheduling downtime, and capacity planning.