Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs Illumio comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Jul 26, 2023

We compared Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation and Check Point CloudGuard Network Security based on our users' reviews in five categories. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:

  • Ease of Deployment: Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation has a lengthy setup process that lasts about six months, but it is generally well-regarded despite some complexities. The installation itself, however, can be finished in just a couple of days. In contrast, the initial setup for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is considered easy and straightforward. However, implementing it may be complex and may necessitate technical expertise.
  • Features: Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation provides useful functionalities like monitoring abilities, automatic policy creation, and clear visibility into application communication. On the other hand, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security offers valuable features such as VPN, IPS, URL filtering, and Applications Control Blade.
  • Room for Improvement: Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation can enhance its offering by increasing compatibility with additional operating systems and improving customer support. In contrast, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security has various aspects that could be improved such as its support system, features, and deployment flexibility.
  • Pricing: Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation has an expensive overall cost. In contrast, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is considered reasonably priced and cost-effective, particularly for growing businesses. 
  • Service and Support: Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation's customer service received a mix of positive and negative feedback. Some users appreciate the support team's responsiveness and round-the-clock assistance. However, there are also complaints about unhelpful replies and slow response times. On the other hand, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security's customer service has received both praise and criticism. Certain customers commend the technical support for being very good and supportive. However, others express frustration with delays in receiving feedback, particularly from global support.

Comparison Results: Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation has a straightforward setup process, taking approximately six months to complete. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is also easy to set up, but complexity may vary depending on the environment and requirements. Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation's customer service received mixed feedback, with some users praising the support team and others expressing dissatisfaction. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security's customer support team is generally reliable, but there are complaints about response time, especially for global support. Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation requires a subscription and is considered expensive overall. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is also considered expensive, but the cost may vary depending on the size of the organization and the country. 

To learn more, read our detailed Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs. Illumio 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 Capsule solution and application filters are the most valuable. It is pretty straightforward to implement, and it also has good stability and scalability. Their technical support is also really good.""The tool's most valuable features for us are threat prevention, HTTPS inspection, and the Anti-Bot blade. Threat prevention helps to protect our assets from threats. HTTPS inspection ensures secure communication, and the Anti-Bot blade is particularly helpful in detecting C2 servers, enhancing our ability to identify malicious activities and protect our network.""The most valuable feature for us is the cluster support.""The visibility is most valuable. It allows us to see all of our devices from one place, and it gives us the ability to manage push updates and things like that from one place.""All the features that we subscribe to from CloudGuard NGTP are valuable. All the threat prevention and access control features give us the network security that we expect.""Auto Scaling is one of the features that make me want to choose CloudGuard over actual HW.""We primarily secure our network using CloudGuard Network Security's next-generation firewall features, including anti-spam, IPS, and URL filtering. Our chosen package for the go-to-market strategy is NGTP. For customers seeking more features, we provide options to upgrade to the tool's advanced packages.""Its blades and VSLS (Virtual System Load Sharing) work fine."

More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security Pros →

"The product provides visibility into how the applications communicate and how the network protocols are being used.""The solution is easy to use.""The Explorer allows you to know the traffic between source and destination.""The features that I have found most useful is the ability to centralize all the rules and then distribute them across various locations. However, I've encountered challenges related to tagging policies, which can be complex to devise. It's a matter that requires careful consideration and stakeholder involvement before implementing such policies.""The flexibility of the solution is its most valuable feature.""The solution helps to maintain logs and monitor activities. It also helps us with access management. The tool helps us to secure organizational data that include files.""The most valuable feature of Illumio Adaptive Security Platform is monitoring. When I have no requirement from the other application, I can use the web block traffic to build.""It has helped us to understand internal network visibility and firewall policy implementation. We use the product to simplify firewall policy implementation."

More Illumio Pros →

Cons
"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.""Check Point support, beyond CloudGuard, does need some improvement.""Improvements needed include better integration with Azure features to match on-premises capabilities.""The migration to TerraForm is a little more complicated, but we made it work.""The relationship between AWS and Check Point could be better. We had issues related to the type of instance and how it interconnects with AWS or cloud-native solutions. We overcame the pain points that we had, and now, AWS is evolving in a way that will facilitate how Check Point works. Our pain points were minimized, but they were there.""The cost needs improvement as it is currently quite expensive.""People don't know about the tool's features. There's a lack of skill. Users require more knowledge on how to integrate it into the cloud environment and orchestrate routing. So, it's not necessarily a CloudGuard Network Security or Check Point issue but more about integration, knowledge, and understanding.""Lacks the ability to integrate with other security solutions."

More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security Cons →

"Illumio Adaptive Security Platform could improve by supporting more operating systems. For example, Cisco and Apache appliances.""The customer service is lagging a bit. It could be better.""Some of the features that can be improved is offer additional guidance on creating an effective and risk-free tagging policy would be highly beneficial.""It requires a low-level re-architecting of the product.""The solution is very basic and doesn't do anything other than the orchestration of layer four endpoint firewall rules.""I would like to see better data security in the product.""The interaction we've had with the support team hasn't been ideal. Technical support should be improved.""The product’s agents don't work very well in OT environments."

More Illumio Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "On average, it is normally on the lower end, being less expensive than Palo Alto or Cisco."
  • "It is more expensive than other solutions and would be more competetive in the market if it came down in price."
  • "We pay approximately ‎€150,000 ($166,000 USD) per year."
  • "Licensing is simply by the number of hosts that you are looking to protect within your environment. It makes it much easier to ensure that you are covering your environment."
  • "There is flexibility in the different licensing models that are offered."
  • "The pricing is pretty high, not just for your capital, for what you have to pay upfront, but for what you pay for your annual software renewals as well, compared to a lot of other vendors. Check Point is near the top, as far as how much it's going to cost you."
  • "Pricing of CloudGuard is pretty fair when you have a single account. It's comparable with other cloud providers. But for our use case, it got really pricey when we had to deploy multiple CloudGuards on multiple accounts in different regions, because you can't have CloudGuard protecting multiple regions. That's the big thing."
  • "The pricing and licensing have been good. We just had to do a license increase for our portion of it. We had that done within a couple of days. Given the fact that it's purely a software-based license, it ends up being even quicker than doing it for an on-prem firewall."
  • More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "There is a subscription needed to use Illumio Adaptive Security Platform and we pay every three years. Overall the solution is expensive."
  • "The product's pricing is around 10,000-15,000 USD. The pricing is on a yearly basis."
  • More Illumio Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The central management feature is a big plus, allowing us to manage both local and cloud gateways from one platform.
    Top Answer:The pricing is okay. I know the cost for the competitors and CloudGuard pricing is fine. It is cheaper than other firewalls.
    Top Answer:There is room for improvement in addressing bugs and support issues. Communication with support, particularly with certain teams, can sometimes be challenging and slow, impacting problem resolution.
    Top Answer:The features that I have found most useful is the ability to centralize all the rules and then distribute them across various locations. However, I've encountered challenges related to tagging… more »
    Top Answer:The product's pricing is around 10,000-15,000 USD. The pricing is on a yearly basis.
    Top Answer:Some of the features that can be improved is offer additional guidance on creating an effective and risk-free tagging policy would be highly beneficial.
    Ranking
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    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point vSEC, CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point Virtual Systems, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security
    Illumio Adaptive Security Platform, Illumio ASP
    Learn More
    Overview

    CloudGuard Network Security is a firewall solution that provides network security for cloud environments. It protects against cyber threats with multi-layered security for public, private, and hybrid clouds. 

    CloudGuard Network Security offers advanced threat prevention, firewall, VPN, and application security services, designed to secure cloud infrastructure, virtual networks, and cloud-based applications and workloads.

    CloudGuard Network Security Features

    CloudGuard Network Security has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Advanced threat prevention: The solution Includes anti-virus, anti-bot, and intrusion prevention to defend against known and unknown threats.
    • Firewall: It has a stateful inspection firewall and network address translation (NAT) to secure traffic flow between cloud resources and the internet.
    • VPN: CloudGuard Network Security offers secure and encrypted connectivity for remote users and between cloud resources.
    • Application security: It includes a web application firewall (WAF) and SSL inspection to secure web applications and protect against cyber attacks.
    • Cloud-native architecture: The solution is designed specifically for cloud environments and integrates with cloud-native services like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
    • Compliance and governance: It helps organizations comply with regulations such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR by providing detailed reporting and auditing capabilities.
    • Multi-layered security: CloudGuard Network Security provides a comprehensive security solution with multiple layers of defense for maximum protection.

    CloudGuard Network Security Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing CloudGuard Network Security. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Scalability and flexibility: The solution supports dynamic scaling and flexible deployment options to meet the changing needs of cloud environments.
    • Automated deployment and management: CloudGuard Network Security enables fast and efficient deployment and management of security services through a centralized, cloud-based management console.
    • Future-proof: Designed for the cloud and integrated with cloud-native services, CloudGuard Network Security helps organizations prepare for future cloud requirements and advancements.

    Reviews from Real Users

    CloudGuard Network Security is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it has good cloud security, is cost-effective, has no false positives, improves productivity, and much more.

    Bernard O., Technical Engineer at Harnssen Group Limited, says, "Check Point is one of the few solutions that pay attention to cloud security. Many others mostly focus on providing on-premises solutions."

    Another PeerSpot reviewer, Shrinkhala S., Senior Manager at Agriculture Skill Council of India appreciates the solution for many reasons: “There are no security lapses and 100% restriction of threat entrants in the system or server. It's a cost-effective solution with no false positive cases. The product helps in bringing productivity and enhanced customer experience for users.

    We have a happy workforce and more workforce retention and increased IT environment sustainability. There is 100% proactive detection of root causes and root sources. It is dynamic and agile, and its features and utilities continuously improve and evolve. It's the best-unified endpoint management solution for IT systems globally. The product is available for all kinds of business users.”

    "One of the main characteristics that CloudGuard Network Security has given us isgranularity and visibility,” explains Adriamcam, Consultant at ITQS.

    Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation is a cloud and data center security solution that helps stop breaches from spreading across hybrid and multi cloud IT environments. The solution is designed to stop ransomware, contain cyber attacks, and reduce risk. With Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation, users can understand relationships and communications to map exposure risk of systems and data, identify the right security posture and secure applications through least-privilege policies, and ensure a Zero Trust security posture.

    Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation Features

    Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Scalability: Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation scales up to 200,000 managed workloads or over 700,000 unmanaged workloads. These workloads can be in the cloud, on-premises, and in hybrid environments.
    • Single pane of visibility: The solution’s single pane of visibility improves your security posture and ability to prevent and respond rapidly to cyberattacks.
    • Simplicity: With Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation, setting up groups and tags is simple. The solution is easy to integrate with next-generation firewalls and can also integrate with IT service management tools to import workload tags to provide more context to workloads.
    • Ransomware containment: The solution provides enforcement boundaries to contain attackers from moving laterally across your organization, enabling security architects to immediately isolate any workload or endpoint compromised in an attack. Enforcement boundaries can be activated instantly through scripts or by manual control, isolating workloads and endpoints already infected from spreading across the organization.

    Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Visibility everywhere: The Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation solution helps ensure that every interaction on your network is accounted for. 
    • Least-privilege access: By implementing Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation, your organization can prevent unexpected breaches from propagating.
    • Adaptability and consistency: The solution guarantees consistent network behavior everywhere. 
    • Proactive posture: Using the solution enables your organization to always be on the lookout for an attack. 
    • Improve breach containment: With the solution, you can prevent unauthorized lateral movement and reduce your blast radius. Creating micro-perimeters around specific assets breaks up your attack surface and gives you the granular control needed to contain breaches.
    • Streamline policy management: The solution enables organizations to decouple segmentation from the underlying network to define policies based on the language that IT uses. Illumio's human-readable labels make policy creation much simpler and faster than traditional network segmentation approaches like VLANs, IP addresses, and port numbers.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it has a good auto policy writing feature, great mapping, and useful monitoring. 

    Shashi, Technical Consultant at a financial services firm, explains which features she really likes. “The auto policy writing is great. The feature will give you the option of inbound-outbound traffic. The Explorer allows you to know the traffic between source and destination. The illumination definitely stands out. Mapping is great. The application group mapping is useful.”

    The solution has “helpful support, useful monitoring, and high availability,” according to Edwin L., Security Architect at MGM.

    Sample Customers
    Physicians Choice Laboratory Services, Helvetica Insurance
    Plantronics, NTT Innovation Institute Inc.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Manufacturing Company14%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Security Firm10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company14%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Government6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise44%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise59%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise63%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise69%
    Buyer's Guide
    Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs. Illumio
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs. Illumio and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is ranked 7th in Cloud and Data Center Security with 112 reviews while Illumio is ranked 5th in Cloud and Data Center Security with 8 reviews. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is rated 8.6, while Illumio is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security writes "The solution has good threat emulation, threat extraction, and reporting features". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Illumio writes "Pprevents attackers or threats from spreading or moving laterally". Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is most compared with Azure Firewall, VMware NSX, Fortinet FortiGate, Cisco Secure Firewall and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, whereas Illumio is most compared with Akamai Guardicore Segmentation, VMware NSX, Cisco Secure Workload, Zscaler Internet Access and Microsoft Defender for Cloud. See our Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs. Illumio report.

    See our list of best Cloud and Data Center Security vendors.

    We monitor all Cloud and Data Center Security 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.