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.
CloudGuard Network Security with Threat Prevention and SandBlast
Check Point Software Technologies | R81.20-631.1856Linux/Unix, Other Gaia 3.10 - 64-bit Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
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Provided good visibility, saved a lot of time and resources, and didn't have any downtime
What is our primary use case?
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?
Public Cloud
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.
SMB seemless integration of CloudGuard
What do you like best about the product?
As an SMB products and tools that are more comprehensive in nature are a must when human resources are thin. CloudGuard allows us to meet a ton of needs that may require different solutions from other providers. The onboarding was quick; when challenges arose CheckPoint stepped to the table. No solution is ever not met with challenges based on how unique everyones environment is. The ability of CheckPoint to step into the "gray areas" was absolutely critical. A lot of organizations employ a client success team but CheckPoint really owned it.
What do you dislike about the product?
Continuing to mature AppSec and shift left methodology. These tools are critical to the overall security posture of an organization. AS organizations look for more innovative ways to protect the app stack growth in this lane is important. As threat actors continue to diversify their methods we expect the same out of our security providers. From what we have seen from R&D at checkpoint we are confident that they will continue to develop this toolset. Having attended CPX 2022 it does appear that many of these things are on the roadmap.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
The entire toolset of CloudGuard is on point. It allows us to get granular monitoring traffic and provide business level detail for compliance with hits posture management. The detail an remediation steps provided in the posture management are a direct correlation to compliance requirement our client and auditors are looking for. This includes regulatory remediation guidelines for HIPAA/HITECH and maturity of infosec operations from ISO to NIST. The value add is tremendous our team doesnt have to dig for answers they are easily readily available in a simple to use UI.
Public Cloud Firewall Solution
What do you like best about the product?
CloudGuard Network Security (IaaS) originally started with vSEC name and is an amazing solution which helps organizations save a lot of money, time and manpower which providing network security by implementing the firewall in cloud rather than on premise within minutes where as it can take months to implement a new FW in a DC sometimes.
What do you dislike about the product?
Originally it lacked many features which the on-premise firewalls were providing but now it is up to mark.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Major issue we had was with the rapidly increasing traffic and load which required us to procure and implement new hardware very frequently which was increasing cost and time to mitigate the issue. With IaaS we were able to make the required changes in few days from start until end at minimal cost and upgrade as the traffic increased. Auto Scaling has really helped with managing costs.
Good system provided via Azure IAAS with good security oversight
What do you like best about the product?
The ability to easily encrypt / decrypt traffic at ease according to the security policy as well s the integration between Active Directory, Cloudguard Azure objects & application control.
What do you dislike about the product?
System hardening could be improved as password complexity is not enforced by default on root / command line passwords.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We had an issue earlier in the year where AD query would not work, after investigation it turned out that access roles were being assigned to the wrong LDAP account, SmartConsole does say to be cautions with using multiple LDAP accounts however I feel this could do with some more visibility to administrators (Which LDAP object a Access role is assigned to).
A good solution to centrally manage your cloud environments
What do you like best about the product?
Good Integrations with existing infrastructure and a lot of flexibility to add/remove features since it s a cloud based solution.
What do you dislike about the product?
Lack of certain important features that will help customer overall experience and satisfaction.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Centralized control of cloud environment and strengthen our security posture on this new environment to make as a secured as our on-premise environment or better.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
I highly recommend the products to other trying to secure their cloud enviroments.
Powerful cloud architecture hamstrung by poor documentation
What do you like best about the product?
Scalable infrastructure tools that seemlessly integrate with on-prem solutions
What do you dislike about the product?
The documentation provided by Check Point can be rough. There are several pieces of content just completely missing, including broken links and documentation that is at odds with documentation provided byt he cloud service providers
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We needed a scalable infrastucture solution that would enable us to extend our on-prem network into the cloud. As opposed to static deployments in the past, we've been able to stand up infrastrucutre that can take advantage of some of the ephemeral benefits that can be gleaned from cloud deployments
Good product for IaaS
What do you like best about the product?
Deployment is relatively quick and only needs minor adjustments
What do you dislike about the product?
Documentation needs to be clearer and more in depth
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Securing of cloud resources has been priceless, but getting here would have been easier with better support.
Excellent Product
What do you like best about the product?
Its the best security product I have ever worked with.
What do you dislike about the product?
Nothing to dislike about the checkpoint.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Protecting our PCI data, and its becomes very easy to manage from Smartconsole
Great security devices
What do you like best about the product?
Easy of deployment and usability, monitoring is also a key factor.
What do you dislike about the product?
How the Checkpoints are put together does take some getting used to but thats not a bad thing
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We needed a complete security package and this gave us that
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Follow the recommended designs
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