Check Point Security Management vs USM Anywhere comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Jul 23, 2023

We compared Check Point Security Management and USM Anywhere based on our users' reviews in five categories. We reviewed all of the data, and you can find the conclusion below.

  • Features: Check Point Security Management is praised for its centralized management features, user-friendly interface, and extensive monitoring capabilities. USM Anywhere is highly regarded for its extensive reporting capabilities, thorough vulnerability assessment, seamless file integration, and user-friendly management features.  Check Point Security Management could improve by simplifying the migration of security policies, optimizing performance, and expanding its management API. Other pain points include threat tracking and documentation. USM Anywhere users have suggested improvements in self-service plugin management, database optimization, and third-party threat intelligence integration.

  • Service and Support: Check Point Security Management's customer service is widely praised for being knowledgeable, supportive, and reliable. Although some users had problems with inexperienced agents and coordination issues, the overall support experience is positive. Some users say that USM Anywhere's customer service is knowledgeable and responsive, while others have faced delays and incomplete answers.

  • Ease of Deployment: Check Point Security Management is generally seen as easy to set up if the user has some expertise. The initial setup for USM Anywhere is generally considered to be straightforward if the user has technical knowledge. Vendor assistance is also available during the deployment phase.

  • Pricing: Check Point Security Management is seen as a solid investment, offering flexibility and a good value for the price. USM Anywhere is seen as more cost-effective than premium solutions like IBM QRadar and Splunk, with pricing considered reasonable and relatively low.

  • ROI: Check Point users said the solution offers a steady ROI over time. USM Anywhere has garnered favorable feedback regarding its ROI.

Conclusion: Users appreciate USM Anywhere for its simple and hassle-free setup, user-friendly interface, and all-encompassing solution. They also commend it for not necessitating a dedicated SOC team and for providing valuable features like vulnerability assessment and cloud deployment. Although Check Point Security Management also receives positive reviews, USM Anywhere stands out for its user-friendliness and ease of implementation.
To learn more, read our detailed Check Point Security Management vs. USM Anywhere Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The company uses software called Harmony. Check Point integrates nicely, whether on an endpoint or mobile device. It integrates well with the firewall and can give me reports that I can check without going to an online portal.""It has a central management log server that helps us to easily identify faults and issues in the environment, especially during outages and incidents during the implementation of policy rules.""The log dashboard in the SmartConsole is very useful and convenient for monitoring and tracking.""The solution is ideal for use and deployment in a large infrastructure environment.""The management API is the best new feature for me. It allows us to further automate our customers' automated server ordering.""The additional features offered by the solution are excellent. We didn't have a lot fo these on a previous solution, and they've proven to be an advantage for us.""The fact that everything starts from the same unified management console makes it very easy to integrate new equipment or functionalities once the operator has become familiar with it, as everything will follow similar management or operation mechanisms.""We can track logs of each firewall which is very helpful."

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"Ease of deployment across various environments.""It allows you to define what alerts you want to see, or not to see, as well as if you want them grouped, or ungrouped.""The vulnerability manager and the file integration are very good.""SIEM log collection is great, and all of the rules that support updates with maintenance.""It is my "security person" looking at irregularities and letting me know when something has occurred.""It has streamlined log aggregation and analysis to meet organizational and regulatory needs.""AT&T AlienVault USM is good for ELK Stack, the user experience is great because of its architecture. The ELK has a great performance and it has very good speed in the search and Kibana. Additionally, the visuals and dashboards and very nice and customizable.""Asset discovery and vulnerability scanner are good features. The integration between this solution and OTX, which is an AlienVault platform for Open Threat Exchange, is also a valuable feature. It is also quick and easy to deploy, so you can quickly engage with a customer's environment."

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Cons
"They need to make a Mac version of the SmartConsole, in my opinion.""I would like the ability to have an overview, cross-site: One portal that does all firewalls. Also, the user interface is overly complicated.""Policy installation time can be reduced.""The migration from R77 Manager to R80 is a major upgrade. It's not very easy to do. There should be some kind of Wizard for a direct upgrade from the R77 to the R80. There should be an easy way for the customers to do the upgrade.""Check Point EDR has room for improvement, especially in the area of Data Loss Prevention where it currently lacks functionality.""In my experience, the place they can improve the most is in the technical support where I have had some serious problems that could not be solved in time due to a lack of knowledge of the assigned engineer.""In future releases I'd like to see better integration with other applications and solutions. Also, the cost of the license is too high, it's too expensive.""Some costs are ridiculously high."

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"Reporting is convoluted and difficult at times, although they claim to have hundreds of pre-built reports, very few of them are actually useful for anything but what the USM is doing.""Its reporting tools need improvements. It would be good if they can provide integration with other ticketing systems. Currently, we only have integration with Slack and Jira. It is also a bit slow, and its replication engine can be improved.""The UI and overall processes need a little bit more love. This shows in the error banners that come up when you select certain things. There isn't a day that goes by that the UI doesn't error out and I can't view events for an alarm.""The price of AT&T AlienVault USM could be reduced.""The only complex area of the setup was writing the custom scripts.""The only room for improvement I can mention is the initial installation procedures. I found that the online installation instructions for the product were missing important details, they lacked necessary steps.""The one thing I continue to dislike about the USM is the limitation on reports.""This solution could be easier to use."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Do the homework because Check Point is rather expensive."
  • "This product can be used for 25 security gateways on a basic license."
  • "Check Point is much cheaper than the competition ($4/server as compared to $17/server)."
  • "The solution is expensive and there is an annual license."
  • "Price-wise, it is an expensive solution."
  • "The solution is expensive."
  • "The pricing can be estimated around 3 or 4 out of 10 in terms of expense."
  • More Check Point Security Management Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "AlienVault is flexible on their pricing for unlimited licenses."
  • "Pricing is very competitive with other products and you get much more functionality from AlienVault."
  • "QRadar, ArcSight and Splunk are some of the most expensive SIEM products out there in the market and not everyone has the budget to buy them. In such cases, AV USM is a very cost effective alternative."
  • "Do the one month trial and try to work out the kinks during it, as it has free support and service hours."
  • "We checked out several competitors. For what it can do and the cost, it was the best option!"
  • "Use the AlienVault team. They are helpful and the documentation that they provide is second to none."
  • "​The price point is good.​"
  • "It has good pricing."
  • More USM Anywhere Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The most valuable feature of the solution is the ease of deployment that it provides to users. The integrations that the product has with third-party applications are useful.
    Top Answer:It is a product that is priced in a medium range, making it neither a cheap nor a costly product.
    Top Answer:The vulnerability scanning feature is one of the areas where the product has certain shortcomings and needs to improve. The tool has vulnerability scanning, but it is not that efficient. A mobile app… more »
    Ranking
    9th
    out of 94 in Log Management
    Views
    2,380
    Comparisons
    1,173
    Reviews
    28
    Average Words per Review
    490
    Rating
    9.0
    14th
    out of 94 in Log Management
    Views
    4,683
    Comparisons
    3,148
    Reviews
    10
    Average Words per Review
    551
    Rating
    7.7
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    R80.10, R80, R77.30, R77, Check Point R80.10 Security Management, R80 Security Management
    AT&T AlienVault USM, AlienVault, AlienVault USM, Alienvault Cybersecurity
    Learn More
    Overview

    Check Point Security Management is an advanced security management platform for enterprises. The platform integrates all aspects of security. A single platform manages the entire infrastructure, from data centers to private/public cloud deployments.

    Check Point Security Management is a reliable and easy-to-use security platform. It integrates all aspects of your security environment to strengthen the security posture without impairing productivity. The system has a layered policy model. This means the security policy can be separated into layers for network segmentation. Different administrators can manage different policies. The policy layer automates the tasks.

    The platform is extensible, scalable, and integrates easily with orchestration systems and change management.

    Basic Components of the Infrastructure

    1. Smart Console: The Check Point Graphical User Interface for connecting and managing Security Management Servers. The smart console provides an integrated solution via the following features:


    • Security policy management
    • System health monitoring
    • Multi-domain management


    The smart console offers several advantages. Changes in security policies and logs can be done with a click. You can navigate from an item within a log to the policy. There are also built-in multi-language support and accessibility features.

    1. Security Management Server: The server manages security gateways with set security policies and monitors security events on the network.

      The automation server is an integrated part of the management server. The API server is active by default on servers with 4 GB of RAM or more and on standalone servers with 8 or more GB of RAM.

      The automation server communicates with the management server the same way as the Smart Console. This architecture allows the same validation errors and warnings to be presented when using an automation session.

      The same audit logs generated using the Smart Console are also generated using an automation session. If you have a multi-domain environment, there is only one automation server that monitors all the IP addresses of the multi-domain management server.

      2. Security Gateway is placed at the edge of the network. It monitors and filters traffic and enforces security policies.

        Logging, Event management, and Monitoring

        With Check Point Security Management, logging, reporting, event management, and monitoring are integrated. The platform features widgets and chart templates that optimize visibility. One of the best features is the one-click exploration. This simplifies going from a general overview to specific event details.

        Benefits of Check Point Security Management

        • The platform keeps pace with dynamic network changes
        • Helps align security with business goals
        • Helps with threat prevention.
        • Reduces operational costs

        The unified console also means a single policy for users, data, applications, and networks. The granularity control helps accelerate administration processes. This feature, together with automation, is key to achieving reduced operational overhead. Security teams can automate tasks and even create self-service security web portals with the Check Point Security Management platform.

        Threat management is fully integrated, with reporting, logging, and monitoring all in one dashboard. This provides full visibility into the security of the network.

        Security Management Suite

        The Security Management Suite consists of the following modules:

        • Policy Management: Includes central management of different security policies across multiple domains and browser-based security management.
        • Operations Management: Includes compliance, provisioning, workflow automation, and user directory centralization.
        • Threat Management: Includes centralizing security event correlation for enforcement points. Centrally monitors Check Point devices.

        Reviews from Real Users

        A Network Security Engineer/Architect at a tech services company says, "The features we like and find the most valuable are the ways we can manage the policy, create objects, and drag and drop objects in our daily operation. It makes our daily operation on the firewall management much easier than going, for example, to one firewall, then going to the other."

        "The management API is the best new feature for me. It allows us to further automate our customers' automated server ordering," says a System Engineer Network & Security at OTTO GmbH & Co KG.

        A Senior Infrastructure Services Specialist at St.George Bank Limited adds that "The solution is ideal for use and deployment in a large infrastructure environment."





        USM Anywhere centralizes security monitoring of networks and devices in the cloud, on premises, and in remote locations, helping you to detect threats virtually anywhere.

        Discover

        • Network asset discovery
        • Software & services discovery
        • AWS asset discovery
        • Azure asset discovery
        • Google Cloud Platform asset discovery

        Analyze

        • SIEM event correlation, auto-prioritized alarms
        • User activity monitoring
        • Up to 90-days of online, searchable events

        Detect

        • Cloud intrusion detection (AWS, Azure, GCP)
        • Network intrusion detection (NIDS)
        • Host intrusion detection (HIDS)
        • Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

        Respond

        • Forensics querying
        • Automate & orchestrate response
        • Notifications and ticketing

        Assess

        • Vulnerability scanning
        • Cloud infrastructure assessment
        • User & asset configuration
        • Dark web monitoring

        Report

        • Pre-built compliance reporting templates
        • Pre-built event reporting templates
        • Customizable views and dashboards
        • Log storage
        Sample Customers
        Hedgetec, Geiger
        Abel & Cole, Bank of Ireland, Bluegrass Cellular, CareerBuilder, Claire's, Hays Medical Center, Hope International, McCurrach, McKinsey & Company, Party Delights, Pepco Holdings, Richland School District, Ricoh, SaveMart, Shake Shack, Steelcase, TaxAct, Taylor Morrison, Vonage and Zoom
        Top Industries
        REVIEWERS
        Manufacturing Company19%
        Security Firm16%
        Financial Services Firm14%
        Computer Software Company10%
        VISITORS READING REVIEWS
        Computer Software Company14%
        Security Firm12%
        Comms Service Provider9%
        Government9%
        REVIEWERS
        Financial Services Firm20%
        Healthcare Company17%
        Computer Software Company9%
        Comms Service Provider7%
        VISITORS READING REVIEWS
        Computer Software Company17%
        Comms Service Provider8%
        Government8%
        Educational Organization7%
        Company Size
        REVIEWERS
        Small Business34%
        Midsize Enterprise28%
        Large Enterprise38%
        VISITORS READING REVIEWS
        Small Business36%
        Midsize Enterprise15%
        Large Enterprise49%
        REVIEWERS
        Small Business54%
        Midsize Enterprise25%
        Large Enterprise21%
        VISITORS READING REVIEWS
        Small Business35%
        Midsize Enterprise18%
        Large Enterprise47%
        Buyer's Guide
        Check Point Security Management vs. USM Anywhere
        March 2024
        Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point Security Management vs. USM Anywhere and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
        765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

        Check Point Security Management is ranked 9th in Log Management with 55 reviews while USM Anywhere is ranked 14th in Log Management with 113 reviews. Check Point Security Management is rated 8.8, while USM Anywhere is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Check Point Security Management writes "Great DDoS protection, high availability, and useful firewall rule implementation". On the other hand, the top reviewer of USM Anywhere writes "Easy to use and affordable". Check Point Security Management is most compared with Wazuh, Fortinet FortiAnalyzer, IBM Security QRadar, LogRhythm SIEM and Splunk Cloud Platform, whereas USM Anywhere is most compared with Wazuh, AlienVault OSSIM, IBM Security QRadar, Microsoft Sentinel and Splunk Enterprise Security. See our Check Point Security Management vs. USM Anywhere report.

        See our list of best Log Management vendors.

        We monitor all Log Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.