I have been using Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration for about a year and a half and I don't have plans to switch it out for something else. I'm not as enthused about Check Point as Unitrends. There are a couple of things that haven't gone exactly the way I expected them to, but overall the product is pretty good. I don't expect to move away from them.
Harmony Email & Collaboration (Avanan)
Check Point Software TechnologiesExternal reviews
567 reviews
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External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
Clean Email Communication & Blocking Spam and Phishing with Confidence
What do you like best about the product?
The solution is reliable, easy to manage, and ensures that email communication remains safe and productive without constant manual intervention.It effectively blocks spam, phishing attempts, and malicious emails before they reach the inbox.
What do you dislike about the product?
Nothing as of now, everything is well and good.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
This keeps email communication safe, ensures productivity, and gives peace of mind knowing that all incoming messages are filtered and secure.It stops spam, phishing attempts, and malicious emails from reaching my inbox, reducing security risks and preventing potential data breaches.
Threat detection has improved and users no longer click on harmful emails
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Check Point has made my threat prevention better. It has helped me avoid having to redo machines and has helped protect our data by not letting unauthorized items through. The items it does let through that people are worried about are usually real things that appear unusual. It blocks and notifies me about other concerning items, then I can investigate and determine if it's legitimate mail from someone we want. It has significantly fewer false positives than my old solution did. I remember constantly releasing mails with my old solution, being in there four or five times a week releasing emails that got blocked even after I had whitelisted some portion of them. Once I whitelist something with Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, I haven't had to think about it again.
What is most valuable?
I appreciate having one login to deal with multiple different security products. My favorite feature is the ease of finding a piece of mail that got lost somewhere or was blocked for any reason. Their Mail Explorer is simple to use while also offering complex capabilities. I've always been able to find the problematic email and resolve whatever issue exists, whether it requires quarantine or appropriate release.
The AI-powered threat intelligence is built into this system. I haven't had any users accidentally click on something problematic since implementing the product, which speaks to its efficacy.
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration has enhanced our threat prevention. It has prevented machine redos and protected our data by blocking unauthorized items. When items are flagged as concerning, they're typically legitimate but appear unusual. The system blocks and notifies about suspicious items, allowing me to verify if they're legitimate communications we want to receive. It produces significantly fewer false positives than my previous solution.
What needs improvement?
One aspect of Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration that differs from my old solution, Proofpoint, involves mail delivery. With Proofpoint at the MX level, mail would be processed first before being sent to our Microsoft tenant, preventing users from seeing problematic emails. The current setup with Check Point routes mail into the mailbox and then removes it if an issue is detected. During the East Coast server outage with Amazon service this week, mail was delivered and then pulled back because Harmony wasn't working properly and needed to scan it. I prefer the approach where mail gets blocked before reaching the mailbox. However, there haven't been any issues with the current method.
One advantage of the current system is the user creation process. With Proofpoint, I had to wait up to 45 minutes for new email accounts to start working due to sync requirements. The current system, being tied directly to the mailbox instead of requiring MX record verification, allows new mailboxes to function immediately after Microsoft activation.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration for about a year and a half.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I haven't had any users encounter issues with accidentally clicked emails since implementing the product.
How are customer service and support?
My experience with Check Point's customer service and tech support has been positive. I maintain a relationship with them despite my sales representative changing once. I have access to a dedicated sales engineer for technical guidance and best practice recommendations. Their technical support is proficient at resolving issues within their scope, providing excellent problem-solving assistance and guidance.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup with Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is super simple. Check Point provides comprehensive technical documentation for all their products if you're willing to read it. Though I had a sales engineer on the phone during setup, their assistance wasn't necessary. The Harmony implementation was straightforward - requiring only a few clicks to add the tenant and activate the system. After the initial configuration, no additional setup was required.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration handles mail delivery differently than my previous solution, Proofpoint. At the MX level, Proofpoint would process all mail before sending it to our Microsoft tenant.
What other advice do I have?
Before using Check Point, some issues would get through and people would inquire about them, demonstrating appropriate caution. However, we had instances where users clicked on suspicious items, requiring computer removal from the network and complete system wipes for security purposes.
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration has been very competitive with their pricing. Compared to previous security products, I was able to add a physical firewall and software licensing for the same price as the endpoint and email security. While my overall bill increased after adding more products, they offered significantly better pricing than competitors.
I would rate Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Efficient AI-Powered Email Management, but Limited to Cloud and Major Platforms
What do you like best about the product?
The need of human intervention is greatly reduced as the build in AI function has help alot. It is very easy to onboard and it analyszes all the past mail to verify which domain to be whitelisted.
What do you dislike about the product?
It is only available for cloud and also more specific towards MS365 and Google
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Less amount of resources is used to operate the Checkpoint Email Security. After integration the operation overhead has been greatly reduced
Has significantly reduced phishing incidents and improved threat detection over the past few years
What is our primary use case?
For my company case, I need to protect from phishing and malware using Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration.
In the past, a coworker opened an email and clicked a hyperlink or URL site, and this was a vulnerability in his email, which Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration helped protect against.
What is most valuable?
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration offers zero-day protection as one of its best features.
The Zero-Day Protection feature of Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration has made a noticeable difference for us. It uses AI and threat emulation to detect and block unknown attacks before they reach users.
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration has had a strong positive impact on my company as it has significantly reduced phishing and malware. The case from the past when a coworker opened an email with phishing demonstrates this real benefit, making it a great feature for the company.
What needs improvement?
Pricing for Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration could be more flexible, especially for smaller teams or organizations with limited budgets. In my case, I need to use the feature for other characteristics that are flexible and scalable.
The reason I give an eight instead of a higher or lower score is that the pricing could be more competitive, and additional documentation would help make setup and troubleshooting easier.
It's a solid solution, and Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration just needs better pricing and clearer documentation to be even more user-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration for two or three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is very scalable. In my case, I deployed the Infinity Portal, and it is the best option to use.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support for Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is great.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I didn't use different solutions previously. I have seen a clear return on investment with Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration as it has reduced the number of phishing incidents and manual investigations.
How was the initial setup?
In the past, I didn't know about the pricing, setup cost, and licensing, but when I deployed it in the company, I was able to gain more experience with these characteristics.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a clear return on investment with Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration as it has reduced the number of phishing incidents and manual investigations. I don't need more people in IT to investigate different phishing incidents.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I didn't evaluate other options before choosing Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration as I prefer the Check Point company.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for others looking into using Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is to make sure to take full advantage of its AI-driven threat prevention and account takeover protections. I rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Avanan Cloud Email Security
What do you like best about the product?
Avanan connects via native APIs to email providers like Microsoft 365 and Google workspace which means we don't have to change the MX records. Deployment is much faster, simple and less disruptive. Protection against full email and collaboration suite, inbound emails, attachments and files and collaboration tools like (slack, teams) which make the tools more reliable and efficient. Customer support is very good.
What do you dislike about the product?
Pricing should be made more convenient for SMB user. No dislike other than that as of now.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Protection from Phishing, malware, ransomware, Business email compromise attacks is being taken care by Avanan cloud email security. Internal email traffic between users inside the organisation are also scanned which protects us from sophisticated attacks including lateral movements and compromised accounts. Sensitive data like PII, Financial Records, IP are also briefly from protection from leaving the organisation with Data Leak Prevention capabilities of Avanan cloud email security.
Supports incident investigations through behavior monitoring and provides scoring to determine threat levels
What is our primary use case?
We were previously customers of Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration. We currently are not using it but are looking to bring them back in the future if an opportunity arises.
The main use cases with Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration involved monitoring user behavior in the Microsoft environment, including login patterns and correspondence. The primary scenario where it was leveraged extensively was during investigations. It has proven particularly valuable whenever incidents or potential incidents have occurred.
What is most valuable?
The best features of Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration involve understanding user behavior and monitoring interactions. It allows applications to send, receive, and process emails, which is particularly useful from an investigative standpoint.
The threat prevention in Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration provides scoring and rating that helps determine threat levels. Based on configured thresholds, it can automatically block or discard threats as needed.
The automated incident response feature is generally helpful for investigative purposes, though we prefer human intervention for thorough analysis. There are situations where a human analyst needs to evaluate the circumstances, understand the data, and determine whether it is relevant and useful. For instance, they need to assess if it could be an indicator of compromise. In the setups I’ve been involved with, there has always been a blend of automation and human analysis to ensure effective outcomes.
Robust inspection technologies have proven valuable in safeguarding shared files in collaborative environments by analyzing patterns and identifying potential threats.
What needs improvement?
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration can continue to improve by curating intelligence from other sources if it doesn't have enough in-house. It needs to be powered with strong threat research and threat intel capabilities. When there are limitations in-house, it should allow collaboration with other entities, whether commercial entities, open-source resources, or researchers in that space. This collaborative setup enriches the threat intel and data, which in turn helps the product determine whether something is a true positive versus a false positive.
For how long have I used the solution?
I worked with this solution for a couple of years.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration's support a seven out of ten. The package offered 24/7 coverage, and they would generally respond with acknowledgment when contacted. Sometimes junior staff members would ask scripted questions without having enough knowledge to address the core issue immediately. In some cases, issues needed escalation to the customer support manager to find a resource that could resolve the problem quickly.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration was moderate in difficulty. While there were some minor hiccups and it took time to understand, it was ultimately more simple than difficult.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The comparable solutions to Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration are Proofpoint and Mimecast. The main difference is that Check Point traditionally has been a firewall software company, recognized as the first vendor for inspection and firewall concepts. Proofpoint, on the other hand, started as an email filtering and security solution. Proofpoint has maintained its focus on email security, making significant investments in this area. While Check Point has broadened its portfolio to include cloud security and other areas, this expansion can sometimes pose challenges as it may limit the time available for improving individual products.
What other advice do I have?
I haven't encountered many integrations. The only one I have seen is with the ticketing system. It works with certain common ticketing platforms. Those are the only integrations I have utilized.
I would rate Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration an eight out of ten.
Has strengthened email protection by blocking PII leaks and detecting unauthorized tool usage
What is our primary use case?
We are currently using Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration for our primary email security gateway to scan all the vulnerabilities that come in the mail and to safeguard us from spam mails.
We are using Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration for our PII DLP as well, ensuring that any PII information does not get leaked into the company, especially in the banking sector where a lot of PII information is shared, so it blocks all those PII information.
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is deployed in our organization on a public cloud. We are using it specifically for SASE-based with integration into Office 365.
What is most valuable?
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration not only blocks all the email but also provides separate threat graphs, and you can even create different flows to integrate with different Shadow IT.
The best features that Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration provides are its unique inline implementation method, its detection of Shadow IT software that most rest of the email security gateways don't consider, and its easy deployment in our environment which only takes a couple of clicks to integrate with MS 365, taking around two days to analyze all the emails sent and received from Microsoft 365.
The Shadow IT detection in Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is beneficial because many people in our organization use GitHub and different kinds of software with their office email ID, which integrates directly with our email, allowing us to know what software is linked and if it is necessary for the company or the particular users; thus, we can eliminate certain risks associated with it.
The implementation of Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration has made identifying vulnerabilities very easy, as we can assign certain members to it, allowing the end-user client to decide if they want the files sent by just having the option to receive files while sending an alert to the administrator, which simplifies the admin's tasks.
The time saved with Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is substantial because if a mail or file gets blocked, the administrator had to look into the account, but now the notification is sent to the end user, who can view the files themselves, saving time for both the administrators and end users, leading to enhanced efficiency.
What needs improvement?
Currently, Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration only supports Google Suites and Office 365, and I wish it would support other email vendors as well. I hope it could also provide on-prem solutions for those who prefer not to use cloud services for email security.
Since Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration has AI integrated into it, it needs to be able to scan JPG files for pornography images, which it currently does not, as we receive many such emails that are bypassed by the system.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration for about a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is very stable, and we have not received any complaints to date.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration's scalability is good because you just purchase licenses according to the number of users, and I don't think we need to add any resources regarding the scale.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support for Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration has been awesome, providing prompt responses from the support team.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we used FortiGate email solutions, and we switched to Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration because we were purchasing Check Point Maestro solution with Quantum Security Gateways, and Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is listed in the leader quadrant in Gartner, which was a crucial reason for our choice.
What was our ROI?
We have not seen a return on investment yet because it has only been a year and we need to assess it over five years, but I can add that the troubleshooting needed for Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is very minimal, requiring few resources as the policy has been fine-tuned.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The setup cost for Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration was minimal since the vendor set it up for us.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Barracuda before choosing Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration.
What other advice do I have?
The pricing for Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration was decent because we purchased it in a bundle with our gateways and Maestro solution, and the licensing process was also easier.
If you want to ensure strong security, Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is the best solution because it integrates with Threat AI, which gathers telemetry from different platforms like Quantum Security Gateways, CloudGuard, WAF, and endpoints, ensuring everything is synced in less than five seconds; whenever a threat arises in any firewall or endpoint, it is communicated to the ThreatCloud and reflects across all devices.
On a scale of one to ten, I rate Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration a nine.
Effortless Email Security with Top-Notch Features
What do you like best about the product?
I find Avanan Cloud Email Security incredibly easy to use. The setup process was straightforward, requiring just a few clicks. I'm also impressed with its in-line feature, which effectively blocks threats before they reach the inbox. Furthermore, its cloud-based nature eliminates the need for infrastructure worries and gives me better control over email security. Its competitive pricing and recognition in Gartner make it an attractive option for cloud-based email security solutions.
What do you dislike about the product?
I dislike that the Avanan Cloud Email Security does not have an on-premises option. This limitation can be a significant drawback for instances when an organization requires an on-premise email security gateway.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I find that Avanan enhances email security without needing deep infrastructure management, offering easy log access and control over email traffic.
Effective Threat Prevention with Smooth Setup
What do you like best about the product?
I appreciate the smooth setup process of Avanan Cloud Email Security, which made it easy for us to get started. The high level of threat detection is valuable, as it provides scores for malicious emails and efficiently integrates with Office 365. This seamless API integration ensures robust protection by scanning emails through sandboxing, significantly reducing our spam and phishing threats. The tool's policy estimation features are excellent, allowing for effective threat management. Overall, the confidence it provides in securing our organization makes it a worthwhile investment.
What do you dislike about the product?
I dislike that the tool gives false positives, which requires continuous fine-tuning to improve its accuracy and achieve true positives.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I find the product prevents phishing and malicious emails, providing seamless API integration with Office 365 and double protection, boosting my confidence in email security.
Has prevented threats effectively and gives detailed visibility across connected devices
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration involves using a Check Point 1800 Quantum Spark, which is not available in the options. I have used this Check Point as a firewall that is attached to my on-premises office, saving all my functions from malware attacks and various threat attacks.
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration has saved me from many threats and malware, and since I attached this Check Point in my office premises, I haven't faced any glitches or issues.
I do not have anything else to add about my main use case or any other ways it has helped my organization.
What is most valuable?
In my experience, Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration offers great features, including a comprehensive dashboard where I can see everything easily in the admin interface. The dashboard shows details about mobile devices, phone devices, smart watches, each in different categories, which allows for easy identification. I have used different firewalls before that don't have options such as this, and Check Point includes this very good function.
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration has positively impacted my organization significantly. Earlier, when I used a different kind of firewall without multi-layer functions, my users faced issues often. However, since Check Point came into my office premises, it helps me substantially by detecting malware threats and ransomware threats, stopping them at the firewall itself before they reach the end user.
I have noticed many positive changes since using Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration. Previously, we received many support calls from users regarding malware threats and issues indicated by exclamation symbols. Now, whenever any user attempts to access unwanted sites, the firewall automatically blocks access and provides a pop-up to me as the admin, allowing me to log into the admin console immediately and block the device.
What needs improvement?
I do not feel there is anything to improve in Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration. What is currently available is sufficient and very good.
As of now, I do not have anything to add regarding needed improvements as everything is functioning properly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration for the past 1.8 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is very stable, and I have not experienced any downtime or reliability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration's scalability is excellent. It is already growing with my organization, and the support provided by Check Point Harmony meets my expectations and even exceeds them.
How are customer service and support?
For customer support, I would give a rating of nine out of ten.
I rate customer support nine out of ten because sometimes they do not provide immediate assistance, and it can take time for them to respond. That is the only problem; everything else is satisfactory.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used Sophos 122 H, which is a much lower version.
I decided to switch from Sophos 122 H to Check Point Harmony because it offers a much better user login experience.
How was the initial setup?
I would rate Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration a nine out of ten.
I choose to give it nine out of ten because sometimes support has issues; they take some time when I raise a ticket. If they provided immediate support, I could give a ten out of ten.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment with Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, as it has saved a lot of money.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, I find that the functionality they provide for what we paid is worthy.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, I did not evaluate any other options; I chose only this one option.
What other advice do I have?
I offer one suggestion to all users considering Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration: before purchasing any product from Check Point, please consult with Check Point support and account managers, and take a demo for two to three times.
In terms of business relationships, I am not with Check Point as a partner or reseller; I am just a customer.
On a scale of one to ten, I rate Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration a nine.
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