Check Point CloudGuard Network Security Reviews

CloudGuard is cloud-native security that secures your public, private, or hybrid environment under a unified platform, which can also be automated. It comes with multiple installation availabilities such as Software-as-a-Service(SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service(PaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service(IaaS), and more.

This solution can be installed on leading Cloud Service Providers such as Amazon Web Services, Google Platform, and Microsoft Azure, as well as on other not-so-known CSPs such as OCI.

This is helpful for clients who always thought upgrading hardware in the DC or testing new versions to be difficult. Normally, they have trouble due to some issue at hand or maybe due to sizing, but now they have an easy way to test the solutions and they can be accessed securely from all around the globe. It provides features such as Auto Scaling to deal with unforeseen situations with minimal costs.

It is quite easy to construct and destruct and doesn't need anyone to actually step into a DC, which is good because sometimes this needs endless approvals.

The solution comes with Active Load balancing and policies that can be installed before the traffic hits the firewall module.

Auto Scaling is one of the features that make me want to choose CloudGuard over actual HW.

Cloud leaders such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft also provide an uptime of 99.99%, which might not be possible in a privately owned DC. Multiple instances where a hardware issue was found and it took weeks to replace the hardware and bring services up can now be fixed within few minutes by utilizing the available resources over CSP.

You get charged only for what resources you choose and how much traffic actually passes through the firewall, which in turn saves a lot of money.

Easier optimization techniques can definitely help with better performance of the OS, as using the vanilla software doesn't actually showcase the real capability of the software.

While there is a lot of documentation available on Support Center to understand how the solution works, it can become quite confusing. Some free training videos by Check Point would really help the engineers who don't have full access due to restrictions/unseen reasons.

A step-by-step guide for leading CSPs would really help.

Auto Scaling should be given as an option during a first-time installation, as it would be really beneficial and some users might not be aware of it.

We have been using Check Point CloudGuard Network for more than three years, starting when it was still called vSEC.

I have worked with other products and find that this is the better solution when compared to other vendors in the market.

My advice is to use the trial and understand whether this is what you are really looking for.

Hybrid Cloud

The solution is very easy to use.

The product is quite flexible.

The installation process doesn't take very long.

We've found the stability to be quite good overall.

You can scale the solution if you need to.

Technical support is helpful and responsive.

The user interface is okay, depending on who is using it.

We haven't had any issues with integrations. It seems to handle them quite well.

We're looking forward to the next Check Point with the solution and CloudGuard and everything on the same single cloud. Right now, that's not yet the case.

We're expecting more new features in the next release, however, I'm not sure precisely what is being added.

Check Point support, beyond CloudGuard, does need some improvement.

I've been using the solution for 18 to 24 months at this point. It's been a year or two.

The product is very stable so far. We haven't had any issues. It doesn't crash or freeze. There aren't bugs or glitches. The performance is reliable.

The product can scale quite well. If a company needs to expand it, it can do so. It's not an issue.

We have 5,000 users on the solution in one particular case. They're on one account. It's kind-of a lot.

The CloudGuard technical support has been good so far. We have no complaints. We're quite satisfied with the level of service we receive.

From a firewall perspective, yes, we use some other solution, however, CloudGuard is basically filling a gap in the cloud area. Before them, of course, we didn't use any other thing. We were using something else that wasn't really related and when we moved to Check Point was when we first adopted CloudGuard.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. It's not overly complex. 

The deployment is fast. We managed it in about 24 hours or so.

We had 12 people that assisted in the deployment process.

We have to pay a licensing fee, however, we haven't really done any comparison shopping, and therefore I can't speak to if it is affordable or expensive.

Mostly, we are satisfied with the cost. We have some discount agreements and that's enough.

The solution always updates automatically, and therefore we are always using the latest.

We do plan to continue to use the product as we've mostly been quite satisfied with it.

I'd recommend the solution to other organizations.

Overall, I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

Easy to setup and use as its based off Redhat Intuitive ACL menu for writing rules Pre-populated common ports Customizable ports Suite of tools to report and troubleshoot network conditions

At the beginning the design can be overwhelming, where to start Getting used to the CLI syntax but do-able

This enterprise class firewall appliance is great and very intuitive menu. Great for inline firewall access control to work with Cisco or any vendor switch. It has a suite of applications to help you setup virtual firewalls and provide redundancy or bandwidth to whatever application or service you are providing.

What could be improved in this product is its architecture. Its user interface also needs improvement.

The user experience, particularly in the implementation, management, and operations of this product, also needs to be improved.

Operations management is difficult in Check Point CloudGuard Cloud Network Security.

I've been using Check Point CloudGuard Cloud Network Security for seven years.

I find this product stable. It's a good product.

Check Point CloudGuard Cloud Network Security has good scalability.

I'm giving technical support for this product a five out of ten.

My advice to people looking into implementing Check Point CloudGuard Cloud Network Security is that they should have technical expertise before deploying it.

I'm giving Check Point CloudGuard Cloud Network Security an eight out of ten.

We are a small consulting company. We have around 100 employees. We don't use advanced firewalls because we don't really have important data that can be hacked. Nobody is going to care about our data because it's only the HR department's timesheet data on our on-premise systems. The firewall is protecting remote access, allowing the employees to access our office environment. So sometimes employees connect to our systems which have some test systems on it. They run some tests about the consulting we've given to clients. That's all. We just have basic things on our firewall. Just two things are important for us - the site to site VPN, which we have with some customers, and the government site. That is important. That's why I want to change the firewall to a new and up-to-date one so maybe it will be an improvement to prevent some hackers.

After I made up my mind to migrate it to another solution, I was kind of checking all the other firewalls, the FortiGate, Check Point, pfSense and OPNsense, and Check Point has pretty simple solutions, like the virtual appliance which you just download and it is imported into VMware and you just start using it. You just have to know Check Point's GUI so you can manage your IP addresses and access rules and stuff. But as I said, Check Point is really advanced and the GUI is kind of advanced, which the customer reports actually prove.

In terms of what could be improved, we have no support with the current Check Point environment. It ended maybe three or four years ago. Because it's an appliance you have to have support. That's a problem for us because I cannot update it at the moment. We have to have another support. We have to subscribe to another support so I can update it. I think it's a good amount of money and our boss does not want to pay that kind of money for firewall solutions. It's not a hardware solution, which by the way, if it would be up to me, I would migrate it to a hardware FortiGate system because all our customers at the moment are migrating their environments to FortiGate hardware solutions. They say it's a really good improvement from their previous firewall solution because it's easy to manage and they're very happy with it.

But as I said before, my boss does not want to pay a lot of money for a firewall solution since we don't have much data to protect and the data is not very important. It's not a big use for us. So we will just probably try pfSense or OPNsense. I can patch it to an up-to-date version, like the 2021 patch. We have the open source solution because my boss does not want to pay for it. It's my approach to migrate the firewall, actually. If it was up to me, I'd probably migrate it to a FortiGate system.

I'm not very experienced with Check Point. But what I would like to see is a step-by-step initial installation of the firewall. That would be really helpful. Like in Oracle appliances, when you start it asks you, what's your current IP address? An initial setup should be a step by step and intuitive process. You click on "begin," it asks you some simple questions. You fill in the blanks - your current IP address, what you want to do, if you want to set up a site to site VPN, for example, that kind of thing. That would be the smartest thing to have.

I can't give it any review about Check Point technical support because I am only working here for about three years and by the time I started at the company it already did not have support.

I have no idea about the initial setup, but it seems like it's not so complex. The initial set up is probably not that hard, but not that easy, either. If I were to delegate the firewall system to a junior guy, I think that he's not going to manage Check Point, but he'll probably manage FortiGate.

In the past, my clients were all using Check Point Systems. When I reviewed it at that time, back 10 years ago, Check Point was number one, as far as I remember, meaning FortiGate wasn't a major solution in Turkey. Nobody was talking about FortiGate then. Now FortiGate, is a major player in the firewall industry in Turkey. Most of our clients are migrating to FortiGate because they say it's cheaper than Check Point. So when I see the Check Point's GUI, it's really complicated. My recommendation would be for Check Point customers to first learn about Check Point's GUI, which is pretty advanced, for me at least.

But when I talk to my friends who are managing IT, they are migrating to FortiGate. They say, FortiGate is very easy to manage and I should really think about it now. When I was first introduced to Check Point it was really advanced. I didn't understand when I first looked into it. I just wanted a solution. pfSense has the same problem. By the way, according to your report, some customers said that pfSense needs improvement on the management and the GUI and aspects like that, so maybe I'll need another review of OPNsense versus Check Point and FortiGate etc...

We didn't have any problems at all. Just in one case, actually. We have a rule that pops up from nowhere which we didn't create. When we restart our Virtual System firewall, it creates a rule which messes up all our internet connection. So if I were to give a number from one to 10, I would probably say Check Point is a nine out of 10. Other than that, we haven't had any problems. Check Point is pretty reliable. I think it's our company's problem that we couldn't patch it after it froze. Maybe an up to date, patched version doesn't have this problem. 

Overall, it's really working for us. I don't have any problems other than it's just outdated.

On-premises

The perimeter firewall provides me control over my perimeter servers and devices.

Current cloud applications are getting good protection from CASB solutions but they are limited to data leakage and application control. Beyond that, I require something to monitor my data that flows inside of my cloud application.

Sophisticated threats, such as zero-day attacks, can't be controlled by CASB solutions. Instead, they require something that can work using artificial intelligence. They should have a correlation with machine learning algorithms to defend against today's attacks for my cloud applications.

Sophisticated attacks can't be prevented using normal SaaS security. CloudGuard SaaS is a technology that prevents not only sophisticated attacks but offers protection email threats.

Most attacks that succeed are because of SPAM emails. When users fall into an attacker's trap, Check Point's industry-leading technology provides maximum protection. It is effective against email phishing attacks and provides visibility over shadow IT applications.

Along with an email security solution, CloudGuard adds another layer of comprehensive security and we can completely rely on it.

CloudGuard comes with the best feature sets that include protection from Zero-Day attacks, which we usually get when we have blades on the perimeter firewall. These are analyzed using SandBlast Threat Emulation and SandBlast Extraction.

We are able to easily identify users who are going to use cloud applications when they log in from either a trusted network or device.

We have complete visibility of attacks originating from email including spear-phishing, spoofing, etc.

Based on the reputation of the domain and URL, the firewall allows traffic to flow.

I would like this product to provide functionality like a web application firewall, where we can fully monitor all traffic passing both to and from the cloud.

The latency should be minimized by having multiple entry points all across the world. Nearby requests will have lower latency access to cloud applications.

It would be useful to have AD integration with an on-premises server.

The API integration is complex, which is an area that should be improved.

Onboarding this product takes some expertise because it is complex compared to other services that Check Point provides.

We have been using Check Point CloudGuard Network for more than a year.

Need to focus on stability.

This solution is highly scalable.

Technical support, along with presales engineers have good knowledge of the product.

We did not use another solution prior to this one.

The initial setup is a mixture of straightforward and complex.

We deployed vendor

Although I don't have specifics for pricing, based on my overall experience, I can conclude that Check Point provides the best pricing when comparing to other vendors.

We did not evaluate other products.

We have an AWS environment with servers and resources. We also have a Cloud environment and CloudGuard is our solution to protect the internet access to and from the database environment. For example, servers on the AWS that need to do upgrades go to the internet and cross the CloudGuard solution. People that need to connect to the AWS environment, to a server are protected by CloudGuard. The environment is protected by CloudGuard. It's our perimeter firewall on the AWS environment.

We were already used to Check Point products and we needed to protect the AWS environment. It was very straightforward. We could use the same policies that we use on-prem. We were already used to the logs, for the kinds of things Check Point shows in terms of what is crossing to the internet. We didn't need to get used to a new kind of log that we were not used to. It saved us a lot of time. We were able to seamlessly extend our on-premise protection to Cloud and didn't require any effort.

Two years ago, we didn't know what the best way was to protect the environment but we found out that we could use the same kind of protection that we use on-prem. It helped our security team to be confident that the cloud environment is protected. 

The use of unified security management has freed up security engineers to perform more important tasks. We saved a lot of time, especially managing the threat prevention profiles because when we want to do some kind of exception or enable a new kind of protection, we can enable it on all our firewalls, not only the AWS but also on the on-prem firewalls at the same time using the same profile. That helps us a lot and saves us a lot of time because we don't need to go to the AWS protection to do stuff and then to the other premise. It saves at least four hours a week.

Compared to the security provided by AWS, CloudGuard is very easy to understand why something is being blocked. We can see it on the SmartConsole for Check Point, which is one of our favorite products for security. It's much easier to understand what and why something is happening. 

The most valuable feature is that we can use the same manager server that we use on our own Check Point firewalls. We integrated CloudGuard on that manager and we can use the same kind of protections that we use on the on-prem firewalls, like the IPS and antivirus policy. We can have the same kind of protection on the Cloud environment that we have on-premise.

• The block rate is good. It's what we used on-prem. We feel protected by the Check Point threat prevention that we used for many years. We are confident that it blocks everything that needs to be blocked.
• Malware prevention is also a good feature. It's the same kind of malware prevention we use on-prem and we never had any issues. We have used on-prem prevention for many years. 
• Exploit resistance rate - we never had any problems with it. We never had any security issues due to exploits on our diverse infrastructure.

In terms of the comprehensiveness of its threat prevention security, it was very easy for us to start working with because it's the same. Check Point has a very wide group of protections, dozens of protections. It's very good in terms of protection.

CloudGuard is very good in terms of ease of use, especially because it's very easy to understand the blocks and why something was blocked. You can see in a log why something was blocked, if it was identified as some kind of malware or suspicious activity. You can immediately see on the log the rule or the threat prevention policy that was blocking it if you want to do some kind of exception, or if you want to verify why. And it's very well documented with the description of the threat and why it should be blocked.

CloudGuard functions just like any other firewall. It functions very well. The only thing that could maybe be improved would be to integrate some tools that are not integrated with the SmartConsole, like the SmartView Monitor that we need to open on a different application to access.

I have been using CloudGuard IaaS for two years. 

It was always very stable, so we deployed it and now we only manage the policy, the application control, and the IPS. In terms of stability, it's very stable.

Its scalability is one of the best features because of the auto-scaling groups.

There are three users in the company who are all network security engineers.

It's has a 100% adoption rate. Our Cloud environment goes to the internet through the CloudGuard solution.

Support is good. We never had anything that they couldn't help us with.

We did the deployment with vendor support. It's not straightforward, especially because the solution was fairly new when we started to deploy. There wasn't a lot of the commutation that there is now. We had help through remote sessions and the vendor. We managed to do it, but it's not very straightforward.

We had to get used to the concept. We use the auto-scaling groups, which is when there is low internet access needs, we only have one gateway. And when a lot of people access the internet, the product automatically generates more visual firewalls. This was a different concept than what we have on-premises, of course, because this is not what's on-prem. The concept of auto-scaling groups was something we needed to get used to.

It saves us money because if for example, we have three firewalls running but at night, no one is working, the internet access is very low. The solution automatically reduces the number of instances to one, which is the minimum. Then, if someone is doing a lot of things that need internet access, it automatically spins more instances. This saves us money.

The deployment took one week.

The implementation strategy was to first do a proof of concept, only for our Dev VPC. Only the Dev VPC was using the internet through this solution, and then when we were confident that it worked as we thought it should work. We deployed it in all our accounts, production, and corporate.

We are aware of the overall perspective of the Check Point security products and the rates. We were already aware that it meets the ones that we use on-prem. So we are always aware of those results. 

The fact that CloudGuard has been a leader for many years in industry reviews of network firewalls was also important, but the most important thing was that we can also use it on-prem and we are satisfied with it. 

The consultants were very helpful. 

Pricing for these kinds of products is always expensive but I would say that it's in line with the competition.

We didn't evaluate other solutions because it was a good fit for us and not worth evaluating other solutions.

If you are already a Check Point customer, this is the perfect solution. If you are not used to Check Point products, you should also analyze other solutions and compare them before you buy.

The biggest lesson I have learned is that with this product, you can secure the Cloud environment the same way that you secure the on-prem, which helps a lot with people that are new to the Cloud security environment.

I would rate Check Point CloudGuard IaaS a ten out of ten. 

We install the solution for our customers and Check Point is our preferred solution in any firewall deployment. The two-layer architecture with the administration and security makes a difference and in every instance, we know who the user is.

The touch features are very different than other brands. From the feedback I get from my customers, Check Point is the best.

Check Point gives us a strong solution that we can depend on when deploying it for clients.

The most valuable features are within the unique architecture that creates flexibility in the deployment.

The knowledge base that is available is limited and it is on a closed network where only a customer or certified engineer will know about it. A beginner who wants to learn about the product actually has to enroll in training or get certified and have a valid license or certification to access information. That is something I find strange as most users would like to know about it. The new users would like to be able to see those areas and what type of concerns or any configuration issues they may have before deciding to work with the product. To me, that is a simple open-mindedness. In terms of the availability of the system and functionality of the product, there's no concern. But the problem is that efficient VSX (Virtual System Extension) deployment is complicated. Most of our customers are afraid to deploy any configuration changes because they are afraid something will happen.

It's not the same situation as with other products. I guess the reason behind it is the kind of architecture which they are using. There are more possibilities to crash than other products. That is the feedback I normally get from end-users, but even so, for us, I would say it's one of the best product.

We've been using this product for over two years.

Check Point is very stable. I would say that initially there were a couple of issues we had during deployments. But now we have climbed the learning curve of the product and all installations are very stable. We have most clients running on version 7.3 and didn't upgrade most further from there because we know that 7.3 is stable and it is what we are running most of the customers now.

Scalability is fine. In fact, we are demonstrating the hyper scale with most of the customer now. There is no doubt about the scalability and it is not a problem.

Up until now, we have not had to register with technical support from Check Point. If we needed help we got support with the presale technical support team from our region. He was able to help us internally. The team helps us to get products stable. Up until now, we did not contact them. It is not very transparent. They approach resolutions through a partner and the partner solves the case. They seem to mostly depend on partners for the resolution of issues.

We deploy a variety of products for our clients depending on their needs. Check Point is one of the most reliable.

I would say that the installation is straightforward when you have learned about the architecture. Before that, the installations may be a little confusing.

We are partners with Check Point so we handle the installations and deployment. In the beginning, we did have some engineers from Check Point assist us in the initial installations, but after that it was fine and we were able to manage it by ourselves.

Check Point pricing is high. It is a sector where there is heavy competition so it does not help when trying to sell the product. But one thing is that the sales chain is fantastic. The price is usually the most difficult thing when we discuss Check Point with customers, their feedback is that it is not a competitively inexpensive product. Clients want to know why that is and if we could scale the price. Check Point can have more presence in the market, but if they want it to compete, they have to come down in price a little more. I would say 20 to 30% lower. The product is fine.

The web application firewall is commonly used in most firewalls now. If they can add that as a feature, it would be a very strong scenario. When we use Check Point on a perimeter or a DMZ zone, the first thing that clients ask is if there is wireless protection. Check Point has IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) but it does not have wireless protection. So if production is using the cloud if they can integrate mobile app protection, mobile shielding, there's more value for Check Point, but if they include that, Check Point could be the very best firewall option.

On a scale from one to ten, when one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate Check Point as an eight. It needs to do better in pricing and with broader features for mobile.

One thing that I learned from multiple installations of Check Point is that you have to train the customer before implementing. Unless the customer is already a highly skilled security engineer so that they know what they can get out of the product, they will not be as satisfied. Otherwise, just before the deployment, we have them go for training so they understand the product and what it can do.

They will be happier and they won't choose to go with another product in the future. Even with my engineers who understand many other products, I trained them properly before I send them out for deployments. Check Point is not a product that if you don't know you can just install without knowing anything about it. You have to know the architecture first. You have to know each and every option than work on the product. Then it will be far better and say no to certain features which are not important to use. On the other hand, knowing it is available is fantastic and becomes an option in the right situations.