Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs Check Point CloudGuard Network Security comparison

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

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

  • Ease of Deployment: Akamai Guardicore Segmentation offers a straightforward setup process, although it can be time-consuming due to labeling systems. On the other hand, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security has a simpler initial setup, but it may require technical expertise for implementation, as it can be complex. 
  • Features: Akamai Guardicore Segmentation allows for the creation of security zones with flexibility and includes valuable features such as query insight and process-level policies. On the other hand, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security offers advanced threat prevention, centralized management, and enhanced data protection.
  • Room for Improvement: Akamai Guardicore Segmentation could improve by offering an agentless option, better support for Kubernetes and service mesh, and reducing costs. On the other hand, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security requires enhancements in its support system, features like cluster creation and data visibility, and increased flexibility in on-prem deployment.
  • Pricing: Akamai Guardicore Segmentation's setup cost is not mentioned, but reviewers generally find Check Point CloudGuard Network Security to be pricey. However, some reviewers consider CloudGuard to be reasonably priced and cost-effective, particularly for expanding businesses.
  • ROI: The availability of ROI for Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is unclear. However, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security has demonstrated a favorable ROI, resulting in estimated savings ranging from 80% to 85%.
  • Service and Support: Akamai Guardicore Segmentation stands out for its exceptional customer service, as they have a responsive and empathetic technical support team. On the other hand, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security has received varied feedback regarding customer service, with some customers expressing satisfaction while others have encountered delays in response time.

Comparison Results: Akamai Guardicore Segmentation provides great flexibility in establishing network security zones and offers strong coverage for older operating systems. However, it may pose challenges for large organizations and lacks support for certain Kubernetes and service mesh. Conversely, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security has a simple initial setup process and offers a wide range of valuable features including VPN, IPS, and URL filtering. Nevertheless, it has room for improvement in terms of support, visibility, and user-friendliness.

To learn more, read our detailed Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security 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 most valuable feature is the visibility of processes and connections.""The tool is a complete package that offers many features like visibility. You can get a graph with real-time workflows and visibility into server-to-server communication. We get visibility into many things happening within our environment.""The label-based segmentation is the most valuable feature.""The solution is very scalable, especially when connected to the cloud resources.""I found the solution to be stable.""Guardicore Centra offers the best coverage specifically in backward compatibility with legacy operating systems.""The tool's most valuable feature is its visibility.""Its deception features are great, providing a rich telemetry of lured origins, and are a great resource for any active defense strategy."

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"The most valuable feature for us is the ability to run the gateways as virtual machines in our virtual data center. The tool protects the virtual data centers.""One of the main characteristics that Check Point CloudGuard Network Security has given us is granularity and visibility.""Some retail customers find the scale-up and scale-down features valuable, particularly with scale sets. This is useful for handling increased loads on devices and utilizing firewalls, similar to on-premises setups with active standby configurations.""Identity awareness, URL filtering, IDS, DLP, Content Filtering, VPN, and Application Control are all excellent.""It's possible to sync the Check Point Management with the cloud portal, therefore allowing automated rules to be set in place whenever creating a new VM.""The installation process doesn't take very long.""The most valuable feature of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is the ease of use. It was not difficult to learn.""The product has allowed us to develop applications from the cloud - even with large environments and well-segmented security lines."

More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security Pros →

Cons
"Customers would want to see the cost improved.""The long-term management of the security policies could be improved with some kind of automation platform, something like Chef or Puppet or Ansible, to help you manage the policies after day-one... to then manage the policies and changes to those policies, going forward, through some type of automation process is not turning out to be really easy.""Guardicore Centra should incorporate automation so that we don't require to write custom scripts and APIs. The tool also has limitations on rules where it allows only sixty thousand rules. Our clients have also commented that there are too many manual clicks and effort to do changes. I think that the incorporation of automation can help our clients make changes with confidence and without the possibility of human error.""Clients would like to see that the security policies of GuardiCore can continue to be comparable to all the major firewall players out there.""The maps could go a bit faster. They are useful but slightly slow.""Incident tagging could be improved. Other vendors offer semi-automatic tagging, which Guardicore doesn't yet have.""It would be very helpful for beginners if the solution had more windows to help with the terms inside instead of going to the documentation.""The dashboard needs improvement. It should be more flexible so that I can easily see what I want or need to see."

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"The migration to TerraForm is a little more complicated, but we made it work.""The initial deployment using the ARM template in Azure was straightforward, but migrating to Terraform added complexity, although we managed to make it work.""CloudGuard Network Security's pricing is expensive. We have encountered issues with its licensing.""Improvements needed include better integration with Azure features to match on-premises capabilities.""We have the product deployed on Azure China. One crucial concern is the version limitation; unfortunately, in Azure China, we are restricted to running version R80. Our architecture has a Load Balancer, VMSS CloudGuard, etc. The duplication in this setup prevents the application from seeing the original client IP. This poses a problem for certain applications that require the original IP for login purposes. Although we managed a workaround with a different architecture involving a WAF, it is not as straightforward as the standard Azure setup.""The only pain points we have had with it were when we did major version upgrades. Rather than being able to do incremental upgrades on those, we had to completely redeploy. I know that has changed recently, but we had some hiccups when we did the upgrades. This is the only issue we have had.""I would like to see more focus on east-west traffic inspection and AWS.""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."

More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "GuardiCore has made some new changes to the license now. We've seen monthly and annual licenses based on a subscription. We have a few clients that pay anywhere from $25,000 a year."
  • "Compared to the pricing we were seeing from both Illumio and Edgewise, Guardicore was very competitive."
  • "Guardicore Centra provides better value for money than NSX, was the other solution that we looked at, which was too expensive for what it does."
  • "This is not a cheap solution but you have to consider the bigger picture, which is what it is giving you."
  • "The customer would complain about the cost."
  • "The solution is reasonably priced and I would rate it a six out of ten. The tool's licensing costs are yearly."
  • "The price is the same as other products in the market. There's no price argument to choose one or the other product, it will cost the customer approximately the same."
  • "Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is expensive."
  • More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation 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 →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Guardicore Centra offers the best coverage specifically in backward compatibility with legacy operating systems.
    Top Answer:The pricing is too high. Based on market standards, I'd recommend lowering the price. I would rate the pricing a five out of ten, with ten being affordable. The DQE feature increases the license cost… more »
    Top Answer:Customers would want to see the cost improved.
    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.
    Ranking
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    5
    Average Words per Review
    442
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    7.5
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    Average Words per Review
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    8.5
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Guardicore Centra, GuardiCore
    CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point vSEC, CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point Virtual Systems, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security
    Learn More
    Overview

    Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is a software-based microsegmentation solution that provides the simplest, fastest, and most intuitive way to enforce Zero Trust principles. It enables you to prevent malicious lateral movement in your network through precise segmentation policies, visuals of activity within your IT environment, and network security alerts. Akamai Guardicore Segmentation works across your data centers, multicloud environments, and endpoints. It is faster to deploy than infrastructure segmentation approaches and provides you with unparalleled visibility and control of your network.

    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.

    Sample Customers
    Santander, Frontier Airlines, OpenLink, Intermountain Healthcare, Cellcom, BancoBASE
    Physicians Choice Laboratory Services, Helvetica Insurance
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    University20%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Educational Organization10%
    Consumer Goods Company10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    Government5%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Manufacturing Company14%
    Security Firm10%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company14%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business29%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise53%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise71%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise44%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise59%
    Buyer's Guide
    Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is ranked 3rd in Cloud and Data Center Security with 17 reviews while Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is ranked 7th in Cloud and Data Center Security with 112 reviews. Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is rated 8.2, while Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Akamai Guardicore Segmentation writes "Allowed us to build out a data center topology without worrying about placement of physical or virtual firewalls that can create bottlenecks". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security writes "The solution has good threat emulation, threat extraction, and reporting features". Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is most compared with Illumio, VMware NSX, Cisco Secure Workload, Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks and Orca Security, whereas Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is most compared with Azure Firewall, VMware NSX, Fortinet FortiGate, Cisco Secure Firewall and Illumio. See our Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security 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.