Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls Valuable Features

Simon Webster - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Architect at University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

One of the best features is that Palo Alto NGFW can embed machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide inline, real-time attack prevention. We aren't using the AWS-offered firewalls in the cloud or Azure. When I read over the specs on it, it is more like a traditional firewall where a port is open to an IP address, and that is all you know. Palo Alto can decide if traffic is of a certain kind, regardless of what port and protocol it is using. Then, it can figure that out and I can write my rules based on that. That is a huge functionality and super important to me. The machine learning as well as being able to send stuff to WildFire is pretty important too. We like to get those types of reports and know that we have more protection from zero days than most traditional companies would.

The WildFire reporting and Cortex XDR platform have huge infrastructures in the cloud that secures the network against threats. So, we have the potential on the system, specifically for users, where we take care of this since the user is the most dangerous. We get reports back from WildFire on a minute-by-minute basis, rather than a daily or weekly update like I used to with different AV vendors. These features can detect viruses and malware more quickly, which is super important.

We have some large data movers that we can't put behind the firewalls. We don't have the largest firewalls, we have the 5200 Series firewalls. Their throughput is about 20 gigs a second, and it is protecting networks that have 100 gig connections. So, we have to be kind of choosy as to what we put behind the firewalls, but for the stuff that we put behind it, the latency really isn't problematic at all. Even though the firewall location is just one aspect, we have three different areas that talk to each other over multiple 240 gig links or 200 gig lengths. The firewall is not hindering that at all.

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Donald Keeber - PeerSpot reviewer
President at Margate Net

Machine learning is definitely here to stay. Machine learning has to be a part of everybody's solution now, especially going out into the cloud where we don't have as much hardware control. We don't control our perimeters as much anymore. We need to have machine learning. So, machine learning has been a critical point in the evolution of this product.

DNS Security incorporates Unit 42, WildFire, and all the rest of their antivirus and threat features. It can be very effective because it will know about these bad actor zones and DNS hacks before it gets to your network, which is important. Everybody should be using it, but I haven't found as many people adopting it as they should.

For anything manipulating TCP 453 or any type of DNS-type application, you will want to be all over that. It is definitely a big problem.

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Matt Gahafer - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at Samtec, Inc.

The WildFire feature that they offer is very nice to have. The URL filtering that they offer has been a great help to us as well. We have found with the URL filtering that they offer that we are able to categorize what traffic can go outbound to the Internet from our internal network. By doing the URL filtering, we are able to say that we are not allowing gambling, adult content, or certain URL categories that we just don't want to allow. Then, with WildFire, that helps detect any viruses coming inbound or on east-west traffic inside of our network.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls embeds machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide inline, real-time attack prevention, which is very important. I got an email saying that there was going to be a new 400 series firewall, and it was talking about the ML and AI features that it is offering. That is very exciting to see coming for all our firewalls.

We have the Palo Alto Next-Gen firewalls as well as Cortex XDR for the antivirus side. We are making use of Cortex XDR and Data Lake to correlate the data. We definitely see the benefits of having all that in one unified platform. Some of my colleagues are able to see how certain malware security incidents can correlate to how the virus or malware came into the network, then how it traversed our network based on the XDR information.

I can manage 1,000 firewalls from a single pane of glass.

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Buyer's Guide
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
767,847 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Marcin Chudzik - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Security Engineer Implementation&Support at T Systems Poland

The security features are the most valuable aspect of Palo Alto's Next-Generation Firewalls. It has all the typical static threat protection based on signatures and WildFire dynamic analyzers. I love this feature. Palo Alto Networks updates the signatures of global threats on the cloud every 60 seconds, so we are protected against the latest threats. 

It also has SD-1, but unfortunately, very few customers in Poland want to enable SSL decryption. From time to time, we have customers who want to test this. Machine learning is crucial to security features like anti-spyware and URL security profiles. Palo Alto was one of the first firewalls to have this capability. It helps us analyze real-time traffic using machine learning instead of signatures. Palo Alto has a better web interface than other firewalls I've used.

The DNS Security checks if your DNS queries are valid because infected computers try to connect to the DNS domain. We have this configuration to block access to the domain. We can use the application to block the DNS tunnel link. 

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MartinFerguson - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director/Co-Founder at Azured

I like the native integration into Azure AD and the solution is fantastic from the perspective of managing user access and using the VPN client. The TLS inspection is a fantastic service that's offered in Palo Alto NG Firewalls. In my opinion, the solution is best of breed, which is one of the reasons why we adopted it in the first place.

We have had a couple of DNS attacks and predictive analytics and machine learning for instantly blocking DNS attacks worked well. 

Depending on the license skew, we implement the zero delay signatures feature for some of our customers.

I can enable the features I want and configure the policies based on the user and network traffic, making firewall management much easier.

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NimeshaBalasuriya - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Engineer at Sri Lanka Telecom Ltd

Most of the features in Palo Alto are very valuable. Recently, in the COVID pandemic situation, we used SSL VPN through GlobalProtect from Palo Alto, which was very helpful for us to do work at home. We use general category-based filtering. Palo Alto is a very sophisticated firewall.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls machine learning in the core of the firewall to prevent attacks is very important. Previously, our country was not targeted by attackers, but recently, we have identified that there are a couple of situations happening in our country. Recently, there has been an unstable political situation in our country, and during that time period, many attackers have been trying to infiltrate our networks. We definitely have to go to the next-generation features such as the Next-Generation Firewalls.

Having a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities is a great feature. We previously used a single management platform, Panorama from Palo Alto, across all of our Palo Alto products. However, Panorama is no longer being supported, due to its end-of-life status.

Having a unified platform helped to eliminate security holes. Between the UTM platforms, and Palo Alto, all features are available in one firewall, so we don't need to buy different products or separate IPS devices and separate antivirus devices. In Palo Alto UTM firewalls, most of the features are available such as antivirus with filtering, which is very important.

The solution is user-friendly.

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John Sayer - PeerSpot reviewer
President at JTS Network Consulting, LLC

One of the simple features I like about Palo Alto firewalls is that it's extremely easy to find out what's happening in the network. The reporting is phenomenal, and it's easy to find which threats have been detected and what traffic is going through the box. When a customer notices something is wrong, you can quickly check the amount of traffic going through the firewall around that time. If there is anything out of the ordinary, you can decide it needs to be investigated further.

I talk to customers a lot about simple aspects. Palo Alto firewalls have vast technical capabilities in the signature database, which is constantly updated. Palo Alto does a lot of work to find threats in the wild, which is rare among vendors. From a practical and operational standpoint, the ability to see what's happening at any time, live or historically, is a huge benefit compared to other firewalls that are out there.

Machine learning is a massive part of it. Threats are always evolving, and they can constantly update the signatures they're hunting and the raw data streams they're looking for outside of something that's been defined as a true signature type of attack.

Most of my customers use what Palo Alto refers to as the Wildfire functionality. Their online analysis team checks every 15 minutes to find anything new that has been detected in the wild anywhere in the world. Once their team finds something, they immediately disseminate that information down to the firewalls so they can start looking for something new. That includes anything that has evolved from one version of an attack to another. So far, we have not run into any issues with changing attacks creating problems for customers with a Palo Alto firewall in place.

It's rare for our customers to use the zero-day intelligence feature to upload information to Palo Alto. Still, receiving anything from Palo Alto that others have detected out in the wild is beneficial. Any zero-day signature people find in a data stream can be pushed down to the firewalls, and it's a huge benefit to know that the firewall can stay on top of the changes in the attack world.

The PA 400 series is excellent. It's the product that they were missing. Years ago, there was a Palo Alto 200 and a Palo Alto 500. The 500 was a relatively low-cost platform that focused more on team-sized businesses. It reached the end of its life, and they replaced it with an 800, a similar form factor but quite a bit more expensive. The 200 was replaced with a 220, which was at the low end cost-wise in the product family, but they never had anything in the middle. 

They didn't have something that offered high performance at a reasonable cost. The 400s provide that missing link inside their product family to cater to small and medium-sized businesses. Because more and more, even though companies are small, with 50 to 100 people in a company, internet bandwidth has gotten so cheap that they're typically running 1+ gigabit-per-second connections out to the internet.

While they may not be using that much bandwidth today, that will change as they do more and more online. We saw during the pandemic how that could change quickly. Suddenly, everybody's working from home, and internet connectivity is the company's lifeblood. The 400 series gives customers decent performance at a lower price point in a small form factor. It's a product they can deploy, knowing it will protect them and provide the performance they need for years.

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Ali Mohiuddin - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Architect at a educational organization with 201-500 employees

One of the key features for us is product stability. We are a bank, so we require 24/7 service.

Another feature we like about Palo Alto is that it works as per the document. Most vendors provide a few features, but there are issues like glitches when we deploy the policy. We faced this with Cisco. When we pushed policies and updated signatures, we ran into issues. With Palo Alto, we had a seamless experience.

The maintenance and upgrade features are also key features. Whenever we have to do maintenance and upgrades, we have it in a cluster and upgrade one firewall. Then, we move the traffic to the first one and upgrade the second one. With other vendors, you generally face some downtime. With Palo Alto, our experience was seamless. Our people are very familiar with the CLI and troubleshooting the firewall.

It's very important that the solution embeds machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide inline real-time attack prevention. There is one major difference in our architecture, which we have on-premises and on the cloud. Most enterprises will have IPS as a separate box and the firewall as a separate box. They think it's better in terms of throughput because you can't have one device doing firewall and IPS and do SSL offloading, etc. In our new design, we don't have a separate box.

When we looked at Palo Alto about five years ago, we felt that the IPS capability was not as good as having a separate product. But now we feel that the product and the capabilities of IPS are similar to having a separate IPS.

Machine learning is very important. We don't want to have attacks that bypass us because we completely rely on one product. This is why any AI machine learning capability, which is smarter than behavioral monitoring, is a must.

There was a recent attack that was related to Apache, which everyone faced. This was a major concern. There was a vulnerability within Apache that was being exploited. At the time, we used the product to identify how many attempts we got, so it was fairly new. Generally, we don't get vulnerabilities on our web server platform. They're very, very secure in nature.

We use Palo Alto to identify the places we may have missed. For example, if someone is trying something, we use Palo Alto to identify what kind of attempts are being made and what they are trying to exploit. Then we find out if we have the same version for Apache to ensure that it protects. Whenever there are new attacks, the signature gets updated very quickly.

We don't use Palo Alto Next Generation Firewalls DNS security. We have a separate product for that right now. We have Infoblox for DNA security.

Palo Alto Next Generation Firewall provides a unified platform that natively integrates with all security capabilities. We send all the logs to Panorama, which is a management console. From there, we send it to our SIM solution. Having a single PAN is also very good when we try to search or if we have issues or any traffic being dropped. 

Panorama provides us with a single place to search for all the logs. It also retains the log for some time, which is very good. This is integrated with all our firewalls. Plus, it's a single pane of glass view for all the products that we have for Palo Alto.

When we have to push configurations, we can push to multiple appliances at one time. 

Previously for SSL offloading, we utilized a different product. Now we use multiple capabilities, IPS, the SSL offload, and in certain cases the web browsing and the firewall capability altogether. Our previous understanding was that whenever you enable SSL offloading, there is a huge impact on the performance because of the load. Even though we have big appliances, they seem to be performing well under load. We haven't had any issues so far.

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Muhammad-Nadeem - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Network Security Engineer at PTA

The application IDs, application controls, URL filtering, visibility, monitoring, and reporting are the most valuable features.

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MJ
Senior Network Administrator at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees

Application layer firewalling has been the most valuable feature because it gives thousands of application IDs that we can use to control traffic into and out of our environment. The second most important feature has been the GlobalProtect VPN feature.

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QV
Director Of Technology at La Jolla Country Day School

It is pretty important to have embedded machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide inline, real-time attack prevention, because all these different attacks and threats are constantly evolving. So, you want to have something beyond just hard pass rules. You want it to learn as it is going along. Its machine learning seems pretty good. It seems like it is catching quite a few things.

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AG
Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

The most valuable features of Palo Alto Network NG Firewalls are policy editing and rule assigning for firewalls, as well as Wildfire. The solution does a great job of identifying malicious items and vulnerabilities with URL filtering. When combined with Fortinet, we have instant results.

Palo Alto Network NG Firewalls is doing impressive work with its AI technology, which is important to our organization. I have forwarded the papers to the director board in a recommendation to make the solution public-facing. We are considering using Palo Alto as an internet-facing firewall for our next project because the solution is an excellent firewall appliance with impressive features and a great UI.

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Sachin Vinay - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Administrator at Amrita

The most important feature is advanced threat prevention. It stops most malware. It provides 96% or 97% prevention against malware. It has a leading intrusion prevention system in the industry. It is really good at malware prevention. It ensures that files are saved in a good and secure environment. It automatically detects and prevents unknown malware with its powerful malware prevention engine. 

It has a unique approach to packet processing. It has single-pass architecture. We can easily perform policy lookups, application decoding, and integration or merging. This can be all done with a single pass. It effectively reduces the amount of processing required to perform multiple actions. This is the main advantage of using Palo Alto.

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GH
CyberSecurity Network Engineer at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees

Wildfire has been a very good feature. It allowed us to get rid of our honeypot machines, as well as our IDS/IPS solution. When we put it on the border, it was blocking everything that we were getting ahead of time, and we weren't getting any hits. This includes URL filtering, spam prevention, and anti-virus.

We are using a data lake for our log storage. Because our Splunk license is only so large, we couldn't do a lot of logging. Palo Alto does not create small logs, like a Cisco box. In fact, with Palo Alto, you can't capture all of your logs.

From a layer three network perspective, Palo Alto is a workhorse that gives us the best value.

This solution provides a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities, which is 100% important to us. This is a great feature.

The user interface is beautiful. They've done their homework on UI design. There are small little tweaks but that's really a preference more than functionality.

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Ishan Kumara - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Data Servicers at Union Bank of Colombo

The performance of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is the most valuable feature.

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AdamBrenner - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at NTT Global Networks Incorporated

The product stability and level of security are second to none in the industry. We value the security of our client's infrastructure so these features are valuable to us. 

An example of a very valuable feature behind Palo Alto is the application-aware identifiers that help the firewall know what its users are trying to do. It can block specific activities instead of just blocking categories. For example, you can block an application, or all unknown applications. On one occasion, I was alerted by Palo Alto that something unusual was happening through a particular port at a client location. I blocked the port access because I didn't know what exactly was going on and alerted the client. Then the client called me up and said, "Hey, I need the port that was blocked because [of this]." We could then test what was going on in a secure environment where it couldn't affect anything else to be sure the behavior was not something to be concerned about. In this case, Palo Alto kept the client totally safe. That is a fantastic capability.

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KUMAR SAIN - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Network and Security Engineer at Shopper Local, LLC

The solution provides the ability to process the packets regularly saving us processing time and that is very valuable.

The user ID, Wildfire, UI, and management configuration are all great features.

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OM
Chief Architect at a recruiting/HR firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

The firewall feature is great because we didn't have specific firewall capabilities beforehand. The anti-malware features and the ability to plug into our mail scanning are valuable as well, so we can share data between our email antivirus scanning solutions. That integration has been quite useful.

Palo Alto NGFW embeds machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide inline, real-time attack prevention, which is another string to the bow of our layered security approach. So, it is important. It is not the big reason we bought it, but it is a useful component to our layered security approach. Security best practices push for a layered approach because there are so many different factors that you need to cover: 

  • Email threats
  • Malware
  • Viruses
  • Accidental human mistakes made internally to your network.
  • Malicious humans in your network and outside your network. 

Therefore, a multi-layered approach really is a security best practice way of attacking security. You can't just worry about the parameter; you need to worry about what's inside your network and how things come in.

The key thing is that we don't have to try and play Whac-A-Mole. The machine learning-powered firewalls do that for us. As a recruitment company, we can never have the necessary technologies available to us to try and do this ourselves, so leveraging the machine learning power from Palo Alto reduces the risk for us.

Palo Alto NGFW provides a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities, which is very useful. This prevents us from having to go to a lot of different systems, and in some cases, many different systems in many different regions, because we are a global company with 60 remote offices around the world in 30 different countries. Its centralized platform is really what we look for in all services, whether it be security or otherwise.

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GT
Network Security Engineer at Diyar United Company

I'm using most of its features such as antivirus, anti-spam, and WAF. I'm also using its DNS Security and DNS sinkhole features, as well as the URL filtering and application security features.

In terms of application filtering and threat analysis, it's a little bit better as compared to the other UTM boxes, such as Sophos or other brands. It is secure and good in terms of application classification and signatures. It is a trustable solution.

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BR
Manager - Project at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

There are many valuable features, such as wireless cloud features. The IP and signals are updated regularly, and all UTM features provide good basic gateway-level security.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide real-time attack prevention is a basic requirement for our private security network.

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Ishan Kumara - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Data Servicers at Union Bank of Colombo

With secure application enablement, we can protect against application ID. 

Another feature is its malware detection and prevention. DNS Security filters URLs, blocks malicious domains, and provides signature-based protection. They also have Panorama security. We prefer Palo Alto Networks for our parameter security because of these features.

It is not like a traditional firewall. It has sophisticated technology that uses machine learning against cyber attacks, preventing them.

The DNS Security feature is capable of proactively detecting and blocking malicious domains, which are a headache because you can never filter enough. Malicious domains increase in number everyday. That is why using machine learning is a perfect solution for preventing these types of malicious domain attacks.

We don't have to use other advanced technologies due to the solution's UTM capabilities, such as antivirus, anti-spam, and anti-spyware.

With its single-pass technology, the firewalls are capable of analyzing SSL traffic using less CPU and memory.

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Afzal H. Shah - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Manager (IT Security & Operations) at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

The packet level inspection is the most valuable feature. The traffic restriction features allow us to restrict the sub-features of any platform.

I really like the security aspects. That's why it's highly rated on Gartner. The antivirus definitions, updates, and malware detection are pretty good.

It embeds machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide inline real-time attack prevention, which is a very nice feature. It's part of the add-on services subscription. The autonomous behavior toward malware and potential risk is pretty good. 

Machine learning is really good to have. We received some false positives with machine learning, which was the main problem we had with it.

It's very important to me that the solution integrates natively with security solutions. Inside attacks are very rare. Most attacks are generated from the outside or from a public site, so having Palo Alto is really important on a public site.

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AA
Specialized Engineering Services at Netcontroll

The trackability is most valuable. When a port is open for a protocol, such as port 443 for HTTPS, it can look inside the traffic and identify or verify the applications that are using the port, which was previously not possible with traditional firewalls.

It is very important that Palo Alto NGFW embeds machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide inline, real-time attack prevention. If something is different, the firewall identifies that based on the behavior of the traffic and alerts us. It can also block that so that nothing more happens.

We use Panorama to manage all firewalls. There is a dashboard, and there is a tab that shows you the real-time traffic that is passing through the firewall. We are able to get all the insights about the traffic.

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JS
IS&S Europe and Global Infrastructure Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

The most valuable features are the threat prevention and policy-based routing features. 

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NS
Head Of CERT at a logistics company with 10,001+ employees

Application layer security and integration with other components that we have in our networks are valuable features.

Compared to other firewalls from Check Point, Fortinet, and Cisco, for example, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls use the most advanced techniques. They have sandbox integration and others in the orchestrator. Palo Alto's security features are at a higher level than those of the competitors at the moment.

It's very important that we be able to integrate all security capabilities within the firewall. This is one of the key reasons why we chose to go with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls.

We are heavily investing in technology that uses machine learning. Thus, it is important for us that Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls embed machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide inline, real-time attack prevention.

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MC
CISO at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The centralization capability is the most valuable feature of this solution as it enables us to monitor our systems efficiently. Additionally, the firewalls are excellent, with straightforward configuration and comprehensible interfaces that our engineers can set up with ease.

The cloud firewall solution offers a unified platform that integrates social security capabilities, but it comes at an additional cost.

I think having the ability to see the big picture is important for us, and that's not always easy to achieve. 

As for how important it is for us to have Palo Alto NG Firewalls and defense machine learning at the core of the firewall for real-time attack prevention, I think it's a bit premature to say. There are many players in that field currently, and I would prefer to see them get it right before jumping in just for the sake of being there.

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AP
Sr Network Engineer/DBA at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees

The DNS sync code in your filtering is the most valuable feature of the Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls.

It helps us stay informed about the activities of our end users.

As I learn more about the unified platform, I see that Palo Alto is integrating well with other standards and are innovating, so the solution works effectively.

Maintaining a good security posture is important for our organization, particularly when it comes to threats like ransomware. ITM Security plays a vital role in this, and Palo Alto Networks equipped us well to be proactive in our approach. As a result, we prioritize the importance of ITM Security within our group.

Incorporating machine learning into the firewall's core to provide real-time attack prevention is highly beneficial, particularly with features like WildFire. We have had instances where it effectively stopped zero-day attacks on the first day, and we were one of the first to encounter the issue. Within a couple of hours, they notified us that it was a security issue, allowing us to take action promptly.

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HP
Security Architect at a government with 10,001+ employees

Decryption is one of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls' best features because we can decrypt by category. For instance, we can decrypt everything except for bank traffic so that we don't interfere with the passwords and two-factor authentication of those checking their bank accounts at work. We can still monitor for malware and other threats that come through a secure channel. It's seamless for users. The URL filtering and IPS are both great as well.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls provide a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities. WildFire stops a lot of viruses and malware that come in from the outside. In addition, when you decrypt the traffic you'll be able to see a lot that you couldn't before. You can then integrate that into a SIEM and have visibility into all the different things that are going on. Integration with WildFire provides sandboxing and tells you if it's malicious content or not. Then, you can do URL filtering for the endpoints. All of this data goes into the SIEM. Thus, it's a really good, well-integrated software.

This native integration is very important to us because of the cost. When we get an enterprise license and get all these features on one device, we don't have to buy five devices or virtuals or set up a virtual or cloud farm to do the five things that the solution will do automatically, natively out of the box. We have been able to save money because we are able to get rid of our decryption software and are getting close to letting go of our filtering software.

It's important to us that Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls embed machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide inline, real-time attack prevention. This is important because those who exploit us daily use new tactics that are not seen at all times. They employ tactics that use applications that we currently use, such as PowerShell. If a PowerShell script comes in and it's decrypted, launched in WildFire in a sandbox, and blocked, it cuts our threat vector down tremendously.

When we go across all the workspaces, it's simple. The web-facing servers are protected with IPS, and the endpoints are protected with URL filtering in the sandbox and decryption. We log all of the MAC addresses, so we block hackers from getting into different websites when staff use a Wi-Fi connection off-site. In terms of securing data centers consistently across all workspaces, our whole ecosystem depends on having Palo Alto so that we can have one centralized SIEM where all the data is. Our SOC can investigate all the alerts that we get from all of these different areas.

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AF
Chief Data Center Operations at a government with 10,001+ employees

Security is the biggest thing nowadays, including threat response, incident response, and root cause. We found that a lot of the logging and dashboard capabilities offered by Palo Alto fill the missing skill gap that you run up against. It makes it easier for our tier-two staff to get involved in some of the deeper root cause analysis. The dashboards, logs, and reports make it easier for our staff to dive right in and not get lost in what tools they should use. It's easy because they're all right there.

Our firewall engineers like the automations that are involved with the firewall rules. For example, we integrate with Azure, and Azure constantly updates the IP addresses for their whitelists. There are hundreds. With the previous solution that we had, our firewall administrators had to hand-jam a lot of their IP addresses, so it became more of a deterrent to manage the firewall because of the overhead involved. Now that it's automated with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, they've been more apt to use the tool than they did previously.

It allows our firewall administrators to speak more confidently when we have an incident response. When they detail their root cause analysis and possibly what the problem is, the leadership receives that information with a little more confidence, and it's a little more palatable. This makes our lives easier when dealing with an incident response.

From a leadership perspective, the reports are genuine, palatable, and easy to understand. They allow me to make logical leaps.

There are servers that go along with Palo Alto, at least for the identity management part. We chose to use a Windows platform, so the only maintenance involved is the patching of the servers and then the occasional agent upgrade for the servers. Palo Alto versions would need to be upgraded as well, along with security patches.

For the most part, we don't see it as a lot of overhead in terms of maintenance. We try to have a maintenance weekend each month for our network team, in addition to a patch maintenance weekend for our system administrators. Overall, we really haven't had to patch.

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Gabriel Franco - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Service Delivery Engineer at Netdata Innovation Center

The first time I came across these firewalls, what surprised me the most was their web user interface. It is complete and gives you a lot of information. You can do 80% of the things related to your network and firewall through the web UI. In some of the other devices, the UI is not as complete. App-ID is also very valuable in customer networks. When you're seeing a lot of traffic in your network, you can see in your web UI which users have the applications that are consuming the most bandwidth. You have a broad context, which is very good.

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RG
Security Operations Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls provide a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities. They have a couple of solutions in the cloud that we are trying to add to our ecosystem.

Because Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are installed in our data center, it is very important that Palo Alto embeds machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide inline, real-time attack prevention. We need to protect our servers.

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SK
IT Specialist at a government with 501-1,000 employees

In my opinion, Palo Alto has consistently been one of the best firewalls for enterprise security. 

We have encountered numerous instances where we have observed threats and attacks targeting our systems, and Palo Alto has proven to be highly reliable in blocking any malicious activity.

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YP
Network administrator at a educational organization with 201-500 employees

There are many valuable features within the solution. This includes security, a user-friendly firewall, antivirus, and global protection.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls' documentation, features, and user-friendliness are excellent.

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YN
Network Solutions Architect at Ecobank Transnational Incorporated

Setting up a VPN is quite easy. 

It gives you a lot of information when you are monitoring traffic. 

In terms of user experience, Palo Alto has very good user administration.

Machine learning is important. Although we have not exhausted the full capabilities of the firewall using machine learning, the few things that we are able to do are already very good because we have an integration with a third-party. We are leveraging that third-party to get threat intelligence for some destinations that are dangerous, as an example. Any traffic that tries to go to those destinations is blocked automatically. There is a script that was written, then embedded, that we worked on with the third-party. So, machine learning is actually critical for our business.

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TG
Senior Network Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

The most valuable features include the different security zones and the ability to identify applications not only by port numbers but by the applications themselves.

The DNS Security with predictive analytics and machine learning for instantly blocking DNS-related attacks works fine. We are happy with it.

And with the single-pass architecture, it provides a good trade-off between security and network performance. It provides good security and good network throughput.

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RP
CIO at a government with 201-500 employees

The fact that I can perform several security functions in one device at wire speed is a valuable feature. I don't have to slow down my business transactions, and I don't have to inconvenience my users with 16 different solutions. I can have it all in one box, and it protects my organization at wire speed.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls catch a lot of things that other firewalls may not catch and support more current security practices. We get updates several times a day from WildFire, and the firewalls do a great job of keeping us protected.

Within their domain, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls provide a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities. This is critical because I don't want to deal with multiple devices. I want to do it all with as few devices as possible and have it all work successfully.

It's very important that these firewalls embed machine learning into their core because the only way to keep up with the changing threat environment is to keep learning about it.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are the gold standard right now for securing data centers consistently across all workplaces, and I'm using them across all of my locations. They provide a consistent experience for the management team as well as the end user.

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HI
IT Supervisor at a educational organization with 51-200 employees

The SIM's ability to analyze traffic and take appropriate action is the most valuable feature of this solution.

It is an extremely powerful solution as it provides visibility into all the network traffic, and offers a range of actions such as blocking websites or graphics, as well as load balancing. It's a great tool.

The solution's user-friendly interface and clear network visibility are highly valuable to us. It makes management easier, especially for those without extensive technical knowledge.

The benefit we derive from this solution is not only its ease of use but also how it enables collaboration among our team for special activities in our network.

Additionally, the reports that we can generate from the software are very valuable.

Using Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls has helped us reduce downtime.

Compared to our previous solution, I believe it was Fortinet. It saves a lot of time, you know, especially running your reports and analyzing the traffic. I believe we save thirty to forty percent.

It provides a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities.

It has seamless integration with all our devices, including Mac and Windows, and also with our secret server. Moreover, it is even integrated with the Microsoft streaming application that we use.

The embedded machine learning functions seamlessly and can be easily accessed through the dashboard's dedicated tools. Its ease of use is impressive.

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ImranKhan3 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Consultant at Ericsson

The solution's most valuable feature is the robust firewall, which we can also use as a UTM device. 

The Wi-Fi analysis and zero-day threat prevention are very good features. 

The product defends our production, blocks files, and prevents data leakage. It's a complete package for advanced security, which is excellent for a firewall.

It's beneficial and vital to us that Palo Alto NGFW embeds machine learning in the firewall's core to provide inline, real-time attack prevention. Suppose it observes any abnormalities in our traffic. In that case, the product can detect that through machine learning and generate a lock so we can mitigate an attack or a vulnerability in the system.   

Palo Alto NGFW's machine learning works well to secure our network against threats that can evolve and morph rapidly. A particular strategy we encounter on our system is when a packet comes in and behaves abnormally. Palo Alto detects the abnormality, generates an alert, and responds based on our policies by blocking or discarding the package.   

We use the firewall's DNS security, and it's excellent for blocking DNS attacks thanks to the continuously updating Palo Alto threat database. For example, the product blocks users from accessing sites with a known malicious DNS.

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JG
Sr Security Analyst at a mining and metals company with 5,001-10,000 employees

I like being able to investigate anonymous VPNs and also like to use traffic-capturing features. We've had some anonymous VPNs coming to our network, and we're trying to make sure that internal users are not able to use those to get past our security.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls have a very nice interface for logging and monitoring. I find it easy to navigate and use, and the interface is organized as well. I can find answers within a couple of hours and have seen time savings.

We have Azure firewalls that are licensed through Palo Alto. It's super important that Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls provide a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities because we are moving almost entirely to Azure. Thus, the more Azure integration we have, the better it's going to be for us long term.

These firewalls have been efficient at securing data centers consistently across all workplaces.

We haven't had many downtime issues with Palo Alto.

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DS
Sr. Infrastructure Solution Architect and Engineer at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees

The fact that the Next-Gen firewalls are integrated with identity is the best. It gives us the ability to track what an individual is doing and helps us provide access to only what they need in order to do their job.

Because we want to free up our operators from the routine tasks of investigations, it's important to us that Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls embed machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide inline, real-time attack prevention.

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Satria Ady Pradana - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at PT. Mitra Integrasi Informatika

The most important feature is the firewall. We can make rules to filter the application layer of traffic. It's a very helpful feature.

The interface is user-friendly. It minimizes clicks and the need to type comments. With the GUI, we just have to drag and drop. It's quite helpful. For those who don't have a lot of experience with Palo Alto, there's a lot of good documentation.

The machine learning is very good. From our tests, the detection is quite good. I would rate the machine learning a nine out of ten.

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Srinivasa Rao R - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

We like the fact that this product can provide multiple layers of protection depending on our clients requirements, and can be configured to whatever level of protection and the specific protocols that they want.

We also like the fact that this solution has a wide range of features covering all types of system security, not focusing on just one area. Everything is geared into a single module, which means we no longer need several different devices.

As well as the single module functionality, this solution allows us to easily see the active sessions and how many users we have connected. Complete information, on one screen.

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HE
System Engineer - Security Presales at Raya Integration

The most valuable features are the power of the threat prevention and the WildFire service. Its strength comes from the huge number of sensors all over the world. The firewalls have a rich library of signatures.

Also, the new generation of Palo Alto firewalls includes machine learning embedded in the hardware itself and that is effective in the new era of attacks. Nowadays, we don't know the behavior of the attacks, so we need a product to learn along with us: How an attack will affect us and how the attack will enter a corporate environment. That's why the machine learning aspect is important.

They also provide a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities. You can configure or change anything in the firewall itself from the management console, and there is a separate console for managing all the firewalls you have, called Panorama. It's a very good central manager. I like Panorama. It is the most powerful and capable central manager of firewalls. It gives you very rich information about your environment, and what is moving inside it. It helps you to configure it easily.

It's also important that the NSS Labs test report from July 2019 about Palo Alto's NG Firewalls showed that 100 percent of the evasions were blocked. NSS Labs is the most accurate public report that all my customers want to see. All my customers ask about NSS Labs and where Palo Alto is positioned in their reports. To position Palo Alto, I will show my customer the NSS Lab report. It's the most important report.

In addition, in the last two series, Palo Alto separated the engines. That means you will not face any issue with the performance or the firewalls. There is an engine for performance, an engine for the IPS, and another engine for other features. There isn't only a single engine responsible for all these features.

View full review »
Amol Kurane - PeerSpot reviewer
Deputy General Manager IT at ARAI

I like the sandbox feature, and it's very good. It kills each malware deployment in the sense of signatures within five minutes. So, we can secure our network and infrastructure very well within the stipulated time.

The WildFire functionality is very good because a few files are also getting blocked. It's critical as malware attacks are also getting ignored, and the logging is very well maintained in this firewall.

The most valuable solutions in this field are application-based firewalls. That is the main criteria of the firewall and functionality. We can get all the logs related to this and each and every packet. I like that the firewall is working as an application. The application-based entity we have deployed is well maintained and working very well.

We were able to find lots of vulnerabilities when we deployed it, but we could not disclose all. But there were vulnerabilities we could block by updating the firewall and taking actions on clientside machines. So, we got to know that we have lots of vulnerabilities inside the organization too, and we took lots of steps and resolved the number of vulnerabilities.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is an all-in-one solution. It provides every entity log, which is a very good functionality of this firewall. It gives every packet and aspect that the firewall is performing through its logs, and it does it very well.

This firewall's unified platform helped eliminate multiple network security tools. If anyone uses P2P sites, cryptocurrency websites, or any illegal sites, we can block it easily. It gives us a proper alert for these kinds of sites, and it properly secures our network. Monitoring is the best thing we are doing here, and we can block this kind of vulnerability as soon as it comes to us.

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LuisSilva6 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Information Technology at Four Seasons Hotels

I like that they are more stable than the previous ones, and they allow a lot of other features.

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AC
Engineering Manager at a security firm with 11-50 employees

Some of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls' valuable features are their powerful capabilities and user-friendliness. 

Our security team has found it easy to learn and obtain the necessary certifications and training from Palo Alto.

Overall, we have had a very positive experience with this suite of solutions, including the training they have provided us.

We like the Palo Alto ecosystem and how its different suites of products integrate seamlessly. 

The sharing of information has enhanced our security posture as a company. Overall, our experience with Palo Alto has been very positive.

I believe that It is important that the firewall integrates machine learning to take advantage of all the information that is available, all the data that is available.

You have to integrate machine learning AI and things like that to be able to be a step ahead of the hackers.

Using Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, we have experienced zero downtime.

The solution is user-friendly, which is important as it allows us to concentrate on other essential aspects of the company rather than spending time and effort maintaining the solution.

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Gokul Anand - PeerSpot reviewer
Deputy Manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

The most valuable features are application inspection and sandboxing. Application inspection decides where traffic is transmitted. If I have a perimeter report for a particular service, then other services or malicious services cannot use an open port. In this way, application inspection is doing a fantastic job. We also have a very good sandbox with almost no rate limit. It will inspect any file that comes in and goes out in a dedicated patch to identify malware. Therefore, these two things help me to protect our organization from any bad actors.

It is extremely important for me that Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls embeds machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide inline, real-time attack prevention. The way that they handle the traffic is very useful for us. The firewall creates a benchmark of known traffic patterns that every endpoint would have using machine learning. Machine learning creates a baseline of how the traffic goes in and out. When there is a deviation in the normal behavior, it gives me a threat indication via a reporting feature that shows us how the current traffic has deviated from the usual traffic. This is a very good feature, which is important for my organization to have on a daily basis.

It gives me a better experience when handling security holes. 

Our upgrades brought some rule reviewing features by default, without having to depend on third-party tools to perform the rule reviewing. That has been a good feature.

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Özden Aydın - PeerSpot reviewer
Technology Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

One of the most valuable features of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is application symmetries. I like this feature.

Also, the embedded machine learning in the core of the firewall means the device learns about threat types. The machine learning also enables the solution to secure networks against threats that evolve rapidly.

The solution also provides a unified platform that integrates all security capabilities, which helps prevent external attacks, and eliminates the need for multiple network security tools and the effort needed to make them work together.

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TL
Cloud Infrastructure Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

The key aspect of this solution that provides the most value is its next-gen capabilities, which represented a significant change for us. Previously, we had been using Check Point.

We switched to this solution due to its advanced next-gen capabilities, which allowed us to create rules based on applications rather than ports or protocols. As a result, the solution became much more relevant to our needs compared to our previous solution.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls allowed for more flexibility in defining rules, as it was based on applications rather than strict port and protocol definitions. This made it easier to adapt to changing needs and configurations.

We were able to automate things using the API. Savings are minimal, but we save a significant amount of time when we deploy rules that we learn when we deploy the policy. Is the process still the same? Perhaps the implementation will take only a few hours or minutes.

We have been exclusively using it for the Next-Gen firewall, MDPN, and remote access for a while.

It integrates the core capabilities into one.

To make it more affordable, we had to separate the integrated features into individual components. The integrated solution was more expensive than when we broke it down into separate components.

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JB
CISO at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

Palo Alto offers better Layer 7 protection than competing solutions by Cisco and Fortinet. I also like the VPN client more. The interface is simple, so administrators can deploy and configure it much faster than other firewalls. The interoperability with other vendors is excellent. We can connect Palo Alto firewalls to all our other solutions. 

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KP
Solutions Architect at HCL Technologies

The most important thing is that it's really user-friendly. I have almost stopped using the CLI because I like the graphical interface. You can do whatever you want on a single screen, including all the configuration and implementation, using Panorama. You don't have to switch from one place to another. And the best part is that you can manage multiple Palo Alto devices. We do have other companies' devices and for them we need to go to the CLI. But with Panorama, you almost get everything you need. It is very important for managing all the technology and features on the device, and for adding multiple devices, on one page.

Palo Alto also gives you a lot more options to troubleshoot and fix problems. That really helps our operations team.

Another valuable feature is the sinkhole option. If a malicious packet travels across the firewall, the firewall detects it as malicious traffic but it doesn't stop the traffic then and there. That way the attacker assumes that they have been successful but they have not. It's a type of honeytrap. It allows us to keep on responding to those packets.

Also, when the firewall does network discovery it can detect a malfunction or bugs or a configuration issue. That is very important. If your endpoint system is not functioning properly, it gives you an extra layer of protection in the network discovery field. It shows you all the options and all the data if your system is not compliant.

The Single Pass architecture is a nine out 10. A single pass is always good.

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RC
Security Team Technical Manager at ECCOM Network System Co., Ltd.
  • Application identification
  • Antivirus
  • Vulnerability protection
  • URL filtering
  • SSL VPN
  • IPsec VPN

Palo Alto NGFW provides a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities. Most of our customers are busy. They cannot afford the time to learn very complicated user interfaces and configuration procedures. With Palo Alto Networks, they offered a unified user interface for all its NG Firewall products and Panorama. I think it reduces some of our customers' maintenance time. 

Palo Alto NGFW’s unified platform has helped our customers eliminate security holes. With a unified platform, customers can deploy the NG Firewall both in the data center edge, inside the data center, and in the product/public cloud environments. They have the same user interfaces and platform, so they can be maintained by a single unified platform called Panorama. Customers can use Palo Alto Network NG Firewalls in all the places where they need to protect their environments. This helps to decrease security holes.

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SC
Network Engineer at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees

I like the remote access and URL filtering features that are available on global products. There are also other features, such as application-based access, that allow us to provide user IDs based on the type of access needed.

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LM
Manager, Cyber Security Risk & Compliance at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

The inline, real-time attack prevention provided by embedded machine learning is not bad.

Also, the firewalls are moderate in terms of securing data centers consistently across all workplaces, i.e., from the smallest office to the largest data centers.

We have been able to reduce downtime because we have better visibility. We're faster and can act preemptively.

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Security and IT Infrastruture Senior Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls provides a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities which is important to our organization.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls' zero-delay signature feature is important, and it receives daily updates.

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TC
Compliance Analyst at a international affairs institute with 11-50 employees

Prisma Access is the most valuable feature of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls.

The ability to provide secure access to people without having to carry an additional device around really benefits us in the defense industrial base.

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MS
Security Unit Manager at EEMC

All of the features are good. The new release of the new basic platform provides you with a huge number of features, such as policy review, DNS security, Machine learning, Network traffic profiling, Bare metal analysis

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AA
IT engineer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

The application awareness feature that recognizes application IDs and vulnerability protection are Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls' most valuable features.

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AV
CAO at Bank "LVIV"

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls enable efficient application search, viewing, and configuration access across various services for different user groups within our company.     

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NP
Head of Engineering at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls' IPS is more complete and is very good. This is a user-friendly solution that is easy to install, and it provides the best protection.

It's very important that Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls embed machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide inline, real-time attack prevention because all components are moving laterally these days. We need tools that follow the zero-trust model.

These firewalls have helped reduce downtime in our organization as well.

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TM
Team Leader at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees

I like the navigation of the general Panorama solution. I can easily navigate around and get to the thing I need. I'm not wasting time trying to find something.

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AM
Security Presales Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

A feature introduced by Palo Alto with the version 10-OS is embedded machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide inline, real-time attack prevention. Machine learning analyzes the network traffic and detects if there is any usual traffic coming from outside to inside. Because of Palo Alto, organizations detect around 91% of malicious attacks using machine learning. The machine learning helps customers by implementing firewalls in critical and air gap areas so there is no need to integrate with the cloud sandbox. 

I integrate Palo Alto with different Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions as well as Active Directory to control the traffic based on users and integration with the email server to send notifications and look at domain recipients. I also integrate Palo Alto with Duo as a multi-factor authentication, which is easy to integrate. 

They have introduced more security components that can be integrated. We are talking about Cortex XDR and WildFire. These are natively integrated with Palo Alto Networks. These help to predict malicious attacks on the endpoint and network. WildFire is easy to deploy and integrate.

SP3 architecture helps distribute the bucket into different engines. Each engine has their own tasks: the networking engine, the management engine, and application and security. Each one of these tasks is done by a single task or dedicated CPUs and RAM for handling traffic.

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Tuvshinjargal Batsaikhan - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at DLP

IDM is the most valuable feature.

View full review »
PC
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees

Their Prisma log collection is pretty great. Our product collects the logs, and it definitely makes the configuration of log collection easier.

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BT
Manager, Global Security Operations at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees

I like that Palo Alto Networks does a good job of keeping the firewall updated with the latest threat signatures.

We use Panorama, so we're able to manage an entire array of firewalls in one console. It's really useful because we can make one change and deploy it to all of our firewalls.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls do a great job at providing a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities. For example, we can easily export our firewall logs into our SIEM. We have so many tools to manage that having a unified platform makes our job easier.

This firewall is great at securing data centers consistently across all workplaces.

We have high availability, and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls helped reduce downtime.

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RS
Senior Network Analyst at a non-profit with 1,001-5,000 employees

The features I like are the debugging and troubleshooting through package capture. It's easy to capture from the CLI and it's also easy to get logs from the CLI.

It's very important that Palo Alto NG Firewalls embed machine learning into the core of the firewall to provide inline, real-time attack prevention. That increases our security posture. It gives us real-time anti-cyber activity and enables us to look at it. The firewall is able to capture it and flag it and it is easy to mitigate as soon as we see something like that happening, to secure the environment more, in real time.

These firewalls have the zero-delay signatures feature, which is really important because you don't want to be lagging behind with any kind of security updates. It doesn't affect our security a lot, but without it, we could be compromised a little bit. If updates are delayed by a couple of hours, there's an opportunity for the bad actors to execute something in that time frame. It gives us a little bit more security, but it's not like it's a high-severity situation.

Overall, they're doing great with the features. They're improving them day by day and year by year, which is really good. They're making new products that are compact inside, which is also really good. Instead of a full rack, they have tiny devices that have the same or even better performance compared to the bigger ones. They are doing well in improving the units, features, and security.

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ES
Network Analyst at a recreational facilities/services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It is fairly intuitive. 

The central management of Panorama actually works. It is what FortiManager aspires to be, but Panorama is usable. You can push config down, do backups, and use templates from other sites, copying them over. The reliability and throughput, plus Panorama's control features, are its main selling features.

It is a combined platform that has different features, like Internet security and the site-to-site VPN. Previously, there were different components that did this. If it was a remote access VPN client, then you would have to go onto one platform and troubleshoot. If it was a site-to-site, it was on a different platform so you would have to go onto that one. It would be different command sets and troubleshooting steps. From that perspective, having that combined and all visible through Panorama's centralized management is probably one of the better benefits.

We had a presentation on Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls a few years ago. I know the number of CPU cores that they have inside the firewall is crazy, but it is because they have to pack all the performance and analysis in real-time. It is fast. I am always amazed at the small PA-220s and how much performance they have with their full antivirus on it. They can pass 300-megabits per second, and they are just about the size of a paperback book. As far as how that single-pass processing impacts it, I am always amazed at how fast and how much throughput it has.

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WD
Director IT Security at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees

Mechanically, all firewalls work in a similar fashion, but what makes Palo Alto different is that it also has some of the threat hunt capabilities. It is a little bit better than other vendors.

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TI
Senior Network Security Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

I like the configuration of the product. The configuration is quite simple to understand. The product is easy to manage.

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KK
IT Network Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees

I like all the threat alerts and WildFire. I also like scanning because everything that comes into our network via customers is scanned. We're an electric company, so every one of the bills is scanned and emailed in and out of our network. 

View full review »
DB
Program Manager, Cybersecurity at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees

The most valuable feature is advanced URL filtering. Its prevention capabilities and DNS security are also valuable. It pinpoints any suspicious activities and also prevents the users from doing certain things. For example, DNS security prevents users from reaching certain websites, so it's really interesting.

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JP
Security Engineer at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees

In general, I appreciate the regular firewall function of the Palo Alto Networks NG Firewall.

Overall, it is a good networking device product.

From my perspective, having machine learning integrated into the core of the Palo Alto NG Firewalls is very important for enabling real-time attack prevention.

As far as I know, the use of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls has resulted in reduced downtime, but I am not directly involved with that department.

View full review »
BM
Cloud and Data Center Ops at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

The most valuable aspect of this solution is pre-sales and post-sales because of the support and relationship building.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls provide a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities. 

The integration of all security capabilities in Palo Alto NG Firewalls provides a unified platform, which is crucial as it reduces complexity.

Having machine learning embedded in the core of the solution for in-line, real-time attack prevention is of great importance to us, it is a top priority. 

This is significant because it enables automation, reducing the number of man-hours needed.

When evaluating the ability of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls to secure data centers consistently across all workplaces, I would give it a rating of eight out of ten.

By using Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, we have been able to decrease our downtime by several hours per month.

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IK
Security Expert at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees

The strengths of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are application visibility and application awareness. Their strong point is identifying applications for traffic. So all of the policies that are configured are related to the application and not to a port.

For example, let's say you want to allow HTTP traffic and the server is not listening on the standard http port which port 80 but listens on port 25 which Is the standard port for SMTP, this is not an obstacle has the firewall is focusing on the application, it identify the HTTP application and allow the HTTP application and block any other application on port 25. So we don't care on which port the app traverses.

It is easy to install and is stable too.

View full review »
Faisal Ghaus - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Presales Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

The best feature is the packet inspection; compared to solutions like Cisco and FortiGate, Palo Alto's packet inspection is much less CPU intensive, allowing it to detect threats embedded within packages more quickly and efficiently. 

Palo Alto Networks NGFW provides a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities; it's easy to integrate with other platforms, and we never faced any issues doing so.  

Using Palo Alto Networks NGFW's unified platform, our clients have eliminated multiple network security tools and the effort needed to get them to work together.

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CD
Deputy Project Leader for CVE at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls saves us time. The solution's firewalls have secured our company, and we don't have to worry about anything.

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NK
M&B at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

The most valuable feature of the solution is the network protection.

We decided to use Palo Alto because they are the leader in the market.

Palo Alto does provide a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities.

These days, DDoS attacks are becoming more frequent, especially in external data centers. Therefore, we need to enhance the DDoS attack block list and update patches in our national data center.

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Ahmed Hesham - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Engineer at Raya Integration

I like all the functions and features.

View full review »
Nils Paley - PeerSpot reviewer
Network responsible at NMD

The product’s most valuable feature is security.

View full review »
TH
Manager IT Security & Infrastructure at Currimjee Jeewanjee & Co. Ltd.

There are a lot of helpful features

  • monitoring
  • reporting
  • WiFi.

You can easily integrate it with Active Directory, and you can use the GlobalProtect VPN for internal and external purposes. The URL Filtering is also clear and the application filtering is a plus. The application filtering is much better when you compare it to FortiGate or other firewall vendors.

Also, the fact that Next-Gen Firewalls from Palo Alto embed machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide inline and real-time attack prevention is very important. Nowadays, all the modern attacks, hackers, and bad people are becoming more intelligent and automating attacks. Embedding AI is a good idea.

We have complete visibility through the logs and the alerting. It depends on how you configure the firewall. You can configure it to get alerts whenever there's an attack or whenever something is happening. That's how we can assess if the firewall is doing the job correctly or not. We are happy with the way the firewall does its job.

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ŁC
IT Architect at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees

The technology's very good. We have had a lot of good experience with this solution. We have done a lot of implementation for our clients and we have not had a lot of problems with this solution.

View full review »
GP
Server Administrator and Operation Manager at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees

The solution is very helpful in controlling spam.

The product offers very good web content control and various aspects of security.

The stability of the product has been good over the years.

The initial setup is very easy. Compared to Cisco or other solutions, Palo Alto is very easy to implement and administer. They are both very easy.

View full review »
JH
Information Security Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

I typically get involved with it when it comes to audit and compliance and having to gather evidence of those firewalls, routers, and rule sets. The evidence that I typically need is there.

We got a lot of integrations into it, but I don't know if it integrates with all.

View full review »
LH
Information Security Specialist at a government with 501-1,000 employees

The most important part of this solution is its reliability, as it just works without any fancy features. Users are mainly concerned about their ability to function consistently and dependably.

I believe that companies could potentially gain an advantage by leveraging their engineers' familiarity with certain interfaces. Typically, the familiarity factor plays a significant role in product selection, and if they have experience using certain interfaces, they are more likely to opt for those products.

In terms of the interface, I don't feel there is any distinction between this vendor and others. I believe that familiarity with the products itself is an important consideration.

View full review »
Ferenc Balku - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at a tech vendor with 1-10 employees

All the features are valuable, but my main one is the straightforward and well-designed GUI. I'm over 50 and have been in this business since the internet started. I'm not a GUI guy; I prefer using the command line. The product's GUI is excellent, and so is the threat intelligence. It's also straightforward to configure and flexible. The solution even has good networking, such as VLAN and subinterfaces, which is great because, in my experience, if the firewall is good, then the router usually isn't and vice-versa, but Palo Alto has both.

We use the on-premises solution, and it's very impressive; both flexible and intelligent. The machine learning functionality is excellent, and I love the product as a support guy because it makes my job much easier. I have very little troubleshooting, and our customers haven't had a single security incident since implementing Palo Alto. I'm deeply impressed with this solution.

The machine learning against evolving threats works well. The best thing I can say is that none of our customers have had any security issues; I can't find any problems with the solution.

The support is outstanding; we are always alerted about potential issues such as bugs in advance, so we have time to adapt and prepare. Palo Alto has grown more effective; most importantly, there haven't been any security issues. I would give the product a 10 out of 10 for flexibility and at least a seven for security. I can't say precisely what security threats our customers face, but nothing has gotten through.

The solution provides a unified platform, which is essential because there is a significant shortage of experienced IT specialists in Hungary and elsewhere. Their effectiveness is amplified by the quality and straightforward nature of the solution, and the result is more robust security.

I don't have a direct view of our customer's security threats as it is privileged information, but I can say that there have been no security breaches. I would say the solution does eliminate security holes. 

Our Palo Alto firewalls have the zero-delay signature feature implemented, and it works fine. There haven't been any issues with us or any of our customers. This feature makes the whole security system more efficient. 

The network performance is top-notch; I would give it a 10 out of 10. Intelligent firewalls tend to be slower, but this solution is fast. Previously, I used a simple packet filter or zone-based packet filter in conjunction with an intelligent firewall, but Palo Alto is fast and secure enough for standalone use. I've been familiar with the solution's architecture from the beginning, and it's a very nice platform.

I recommend this solution to any engineer; technically speaking, it's the best product on the market. I know it isn't the cheapest, and decisions are often made on a financial level, but Palo Alto in Hungary always gives us a good deal. 

View full review »
MA
Network Security Head at a government with 51-200 employees

We chose Palo Alto for its security features. It's quite nice. It's very user-friendly, powerful, and there are barely any bugs. 

View full review »
JC
Network Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

The ease of use and the ease of configuration of our policies are the most valuable features.

View full review »
VV
Vice President of Digital Transformation at Sysnet Global Technologies

The most valuable features of this solution are all of the services it provides. 

The application layer to the hardware Layer is good, as are all layers it offers.

It's a very comprehensive solution.

View full review »
SG
Network Administrator at a real estate/law firm with 201-500 employees

The machine learning in the core of the firewalls, for inline, real-time attack prevention, is very important to us. With the malware and ransomware threats that are out there, to keep abreast of and ahead of those types of attacks, it's important for our devices to be able to use AI to distinguish when there is malicious traffic or abnormal traffic within our environment, and then notify us.

The fact that in the NSS Labs Test Report from July 2019 about Palo Alto NG Firewalls, 100 percent of the evasions were blocked, is very important to us. 

View full review »
MV
Senior Staff Security Engineer at a renewables & environment company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The App-ID feature is the coolest feature because you don't need to open a new port. Apps are directly linked to the port. It provides one of the best ways to lock down the additional port switch.

View full review »
Jorge Huaman - PeerSpot reviewer
Technology Manager at Italtel

The feature that I have found most valuable is the connection. It's very easy for the clients to connect to their information. They use an SSL connection by BPM.

View full review »
MV
Quality engineer of the 1st category at Modern Expo

The value of this solution for me is the protection from a single packet and ease of making security rules. It also doesn't require a special dedicated network team, I'm able to do it myself. It's a time saver for me and now in this pandemic period, users have access from home.  

View full review »
VP
Head of IT Infrastructure at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Identifying applications is very easy with this solution.

View full review »
Ryan Dave Brigino - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at Es'hailSat

The solution has a lot more features than other firewall solutions, including Cisco, which we also use. It's very rich. There's so much there and we don't use a lot of it, although it is nice to have the option.

The solution itself is very user-friendly and quite easy to use.

You just need a web browser to manage it, unlike Cisco, which requires another management system.

The solution is quite stable.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

View full review »
AK
Chief of IT security department at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

We have found the DPI ability to understand web applications and build access rules on web application categories first to be a great feature. The firewalls have good integration and good log journals' integration with Qradar. This is how the system produces user logs, how they build, how they structure the logs is stable to integrate with SIEM. For example, Check Point is not so good in this category.

View full review »
AM
Partner Alliance Director at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

The active features on the solution are excellent.

The dashboard and management console are both very user-friendly. Everything is easy to navigate.

The interface is very nice. We generally like the UI the product offers.

View full review »
VinodPol - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President and Head - IT Telecom, Software License Management and Collaboration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

The most valuable feature is the security provided by the ATP. It is definitely better than the security provided by other firewalls.

The API is available for integration with tools for automation and AI, which is very good.

View full review »
AM
Information Security Specialist at UAEU

I like the training material they provide and the reporting is very good. The solution is very easy to configure, and very easy to understand and explain. Compared to firewalls offered by their competitors, I find it easier to use and more thorough. The most important thing the solution provides is, of course, the firewalling up to the application level.

View full review »
ST
Technology consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

The GUI is very simple in Palo Alto and I like that. We rarely have any issues but when we do, the stability of the solution is very good. All the options they offer; creating objects, configuring VPN, it's all pretty simple and straightforward. The solution is continuously in use in our company. 

View full review »
RK
Sr. Product Management Specialist at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

The Unified Threat Management (UTM) module, which consists of the basic firewall and IPS services, is what the majority of our customers use in Palo Alto Firewall.

View full review »
Ragesh Alappurath - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer at Almoayyed Computers

The best feature of this solution is the GlobalProtect, followed by the App-ID feature which is very good. I also like the VMS feature. 

View full review »
KR
Sr. Solution Architect at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees

The solution has many great features. I don't know if there's one single one that stands above and beyond everything, however.

The application visibility is excellent. There is no other solution that does it quite as well. Palo Alto definitely has an edge in that sense.

The ability of the security features to adapt is also very good. They offer great DNS protection.

They include everything from a network point of view and a security perspective. For the most part, the endpoints are great.

The interface and dashboards are good.

View full review »
MH
Vice President, Security Engineering at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

The most valuable feature is the ease of use of the central Panorama to control all firewalls as one unit for baseline rules and then treat each firewall separately when needed.

View full review »
GS
Analyst at a non-tech company

I like the firewall's vulnerability management features, which give you reminders to update your system and update your OS. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls provide a unified platform that integrates all security capabilities. It provides pretty good consistency across locations. 

View full review »
JH
Marine Consultant/Captain/Senior DPO at Jan Arild Hammer

Its flexibility is the most valuable.

View full review »
it_user1049139 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

I found Palo Alto NG firewalls more intuitive compared to other products. I value the capability to identify a cloud solution.

View full review »
reviewer1132443 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

The most valuable features are blocking traffic by country, and URL filtering to improve policy compliance and our overall cybersecurity posture. The ad blocker is also pretty handy. Moreover, the VPN client has turned out to be more useful than I initially thought, and the users love the 'one-click' connect. 

View full review »
GP
Professional Services Consultant at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Its security profiles are a valuable feature. 

All the logs can be stored in a single place.

Panorama lets all the devices be managed centrally in a single place. This provides the best view for admins into any particular firewall, which decreases those admins' tasks because they can view everything in a single place. 

The machine learning tracks how many packets per second are coming into the firewall.

Any request coming in will go into the DNS sinkhole first, not to the user. We protect our users that way.

Within this one platform, you are getting everything that you want. This single device can provide you with antivirus, anti-spyware, volumetric protection, URL filtering where decryption is required, and file blocking with Wildfire analysis.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls have a Single Pass Parallel Processing (SP3) Architecture, which has a different kind of code doing the work. It increases the packet processing rate. Whereas, without the SP3 Architecture, you are waiting for each job to complete, even if you have 100 jobs assigned.

View full review »
TB
Network Security Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

IoT security is most valuable in the current version. Content IDs, DDoS protection, zone protection, and DLP are the most prominent features in Palo Alto Networks NG Firewall. It is easier to configure than other solutions.

View full review »
ST
System Engineer at asa

The most valuable features are the content ID, IPs, and the URL filtering service to enable protection. 

The structure is much faster and more sophisticated than Cisco.

Their cloud support is smart.

View full review »
RK
Vice President & Head Technology Transition at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

We are using pretty much all of the features. This is deployed in our parameter and pretty much provides for different functionalities, for all incoming traffic and outgoing traffic.

View full review »
GS
Security Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

From my experience, comparing it to other products, the granularity you can have in the application is very good. The application detection is excellent. It's certainly one of the best. 

The engine detector application is usually one of the best compared to any other firewall on the market, in my opinion.  With it, I can do a lot of rules based on the application. If you have multiple internet links, you can have an application export from one link, and an application wire from another link. You can have security on the application. The security, for example, can have different functionalities. Basically, the granularity of rules is amazing in Palo Alto.

They have a good reputation for their antivirus capabilities.

The solution offers a strong URL based system or detection for malicious URL or malicious files. 

They even have a machine learning algorithm. They do a lot of very advanced detection for files and URLs. 

Once you deploy the product, you can basically forget about it. It has high customer satisfaction because it's always just working.

View full review »
MG
Presales Specialist at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

We had a small project with the PA-800 Series appliance where we implemented DNS Security. DNS Security is a good feature because, in the real world with web threats, you can block all web threats and bad sites. DNS Security helps to prevent those threats. It's also very helpful with Zero-day attacks because DNS Security blocks all DNS requests before any antivirus would know that such requests contain a virus or a threat to your PC or your network.

In general, Palo Alto NG Firewalls are 

  • easy to manage
  • good, reliable appliances
  • easy to configure.

They also have a good balance between security and traffic. They have good hardware and, for management, they have their own data plane. If traffic is really overloading the data plane, you still have the ability to get into the management tools to see what's going on. You can reset or block some traffic. Not all firewalls have that feature.

They have really good clients, such as a VPN client. You can also enforce security standards on workers in the field. It's a really good product. And now, for endpoint security, they have Cortex XDR. You use the same client, but with additional licenses that enable more features.

View full review »
IG
Head of Information Network Security at FRA

We have found the application control to be the most valuable feature. Also, Layer 7, because all other products are working up to the maximum capacity. But Palo Alto is benefiting us, especially in application control management. We are able to differentiate between Oracle traffic and SQL traffic.

View full review »
DL
Sales Solutions Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

The WildFire feature is one of the best features in this firewall. WildFire extends the capabilities of Palo Alto firewalls to block malware. The best feature for the reseller is Service Lifecycle Reviewer, SLR. You deploy Palo Alto Network Firewall to the customer environment and it collects data about customer environment, customer traffic. After a week, Palo Alto generates a report to review the traffic. The report tells what applications were touched and how users used these applications in the environment, as well as additional details. So for resellers, you just go to the customer, deploy the Palo Alto in the basic mode so the customer doesn't need to customize anything in their environment because Palo Alto works to meter traffic out of the box.

Of course, the reports register app ID, user ID, the space of the app IDs, the database of these app IDs and other common data. It is a great feature in the Palo Alto product.

View full review »
MM
Head, Information Technology at a construction company with 201-500 employees

It has the typical features of a next-generation firewall. It can do application control, antivirus, content filtering, etc. And in terms of performance, the value for money of the model that we bought is sufficient for our size.

View full review »
Chong Kah Wooi - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Manager at Ipenet Solutions

The solution is user-friendly. It's secure and easy to understand your network visibility, control the network, and prevent attacks.

View full review »
SM
Technical Manager at PSR

The sandboxing is valuable and they are frequently updating their signature database. We get new updates every five minutes. That makes it easy to detect new and unknown attacks.

View full review »
JJ
Solutions Architect at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

I love the Policy Optimizer feature. I am also completely happy with its stability.

View full review »
SZ
Team Lead Network Infrastructure at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

It's a next-generation firewall and it's pretty stable. You don't have to worry about if you restart it for some maintenance. It will just come back. Basically, it would come back in a straightforward manner. There are no stability issues.

The one thing that I like about Palo Alto is it's throughput is pretty straightforward. It supports bandwidth and offers throughput for the firewall.  The throughput basically decreases.

Palo Alto actually provides two throughput values. One is for firewall throughput and other is with all features. Whether you use one or all features, its throughput will be the same.

It's performance is better than other firewalls. That is due to the fact that it is based on SPD architecture, not FX. It basically provides you with the SB3 technology, a single path parallel processing. What other brands do is they have multiple engines, like an application engine and IPS engine and other even outside management engines. This isn't like that.

With other solutions, the traffic basically passes from those firewalls one after the other engine. In Palo Alto networks, the traffic basically passes simultaneously on all the engines. It basically improves the throughput and performance of the firewall. There's no reconfiguration required.

View full review »
AE
System Engineer at IRIS

The most valuable features are web filtering and application filtering.

The IPS functionality is very good.

The performance is good.

View full review »
KH
Assistant Manager at Net One Systems

I like that it has high security. 

View full review »
SP
Senior information technology consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

We have found the SSL decryption within this solution to be great; you can enable this feature and have the ability to see more of what is happening across your network.

We also really like the Wi-Fi service feature of this solution.  It has a great base of information, and uses machine learning to improve recognition of issues and threats.

View full review »
MS
Senior Network & Security Administrator at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees

The feature that I like the most is its IPS model, the WildFire model. I really like how the whole threat protection model functions, including the vulnerability and anti-spyware aspects. That is really awesome.

View full review »
MM
System Administrator at a mining and metals company with 51-200 employees

Everything is easy in Palo Alto Networks NG Firewall. It is very stable, easy to configure, and easy to upgrade. It is also very easy to create custom policies and applications. Everything can be done with the click of a button. 

It is also good for the protection of web services. Nowadays, they have a rather new DNS security feature, which is pretty good and functional. We did a one-month trial, and it is the best product for the firewall network.

View full review »
MG
President at MT-Data

The solution allows us to set parameters on where our users can go. We can block certain sites or ads if we want to.

The firewall capabilities are very good.

View full review »
AP
Security Engineer at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.

Apart from the security, Palo Alto NG Firewalls have nice features like App-ID and User-ID. These are the two most useful features.

With App-ID, we can identify exact traffic. Even if someone tries to fool the firewall with a different port number, or with the correct port number, Palo Alto is able to identify what kind of traffic it is.

With User-ID, we can configure single sign-on, which makes things easy for users. There is no need for additional authentication for a user. And for documentation and reporting purposes, we can fetch user-based details, based on User-ID, and can generate new reports.

Another good feature is the DNS Security. With the help of DNS security, we can block the initial level of an attack, and we can block malicious things from a DNS perspective.

The GlobalProtect VPN is also very useful.

View full review »
BE
Network Security Engineer at Data Consult

Visibility and Protection

It gives us good visibility into the network, and this is very important because it's the core of the network. All the packets go through the firewall.

MFA is a new feature in Palo Alto and it's good to use it.

View full review »
RR
Network Engineer at Acliv Technologies Pvt Ltd

The most valuable feature is the ability to deeply analyze the connection or connection type.

View full review »
AL
Cyber Security Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

The application control portion of the solution is its most valuable aspect.

The malware protection on offer is excellent.

The initial setup is very easy.

We found the scalability to be quite good.

The stability is excellent.

Technical support is great.

The interface is very user-friendly.

View full review »
EW
Cyber Security Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Innovative, advanced threat protection is the most valuable feature. 

View full review »
EB
Senior Technical Consultant at Exclusive GRP

The accessibility, antivirus, and stability features are the most valuable. It's so stable, the customer can use the decryption features without impacting performance.

View full review »
AS
Director, Middle East, East India & SAARC at DMX Technologies

It worked fine normally.

View full review »
PS
Technology Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

I have found it to be reliable and very easy to use. I haven't really encountered many problems with it because its documentation is clear and readily available on their website.

View full review »
TM
Sr. Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

The solution offers many different capabilities.

It's one of the best products I've worked with. It's typically a market leader on Gartner. It's a very respected brand.

The solution offers very good security, especially in relation to antivirus activities.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

The product is extremely reliable.

View full review »
HC
Cyber Security Trainee at Macroview Telecom Limited

The most valuable feature is WildFire, which blocks sophisticated attacks and distinguishes it from other traditional firewall functions.

View full review »
JC
Technical Manager El Salvador at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Overall, it is a good solution. It is stable. We use URL filtering, which is useful for blocking undesired URLs.

View full review »
KK
Regulatory Specialist at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees

Operationally, it is easier, and the manageability and their security features are good. Vendor support is also good.

View full review »
ST
Senior Network Security Engineer at Locuz Enterprise Solutions Ltd

The most valuable features are the IPS/IDS subscriptions.

The user interface is fine.

View full review »
MS
ITSM Engineer at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees

The App-ID, Content-ID, User-ID, and encryption and decryption are valuable features.

View full review »
MJ
CIO/CTO at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees

The most valuable feature is the application firewall.

The GUI is user-friendly.

View full review »
TA
Senior solution architect at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

The management options are good.

View full review »
KZ
Network Security Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Initially, there were no application controls offered in the legacy firewall. Now you can log each and every application. It provides valuable control and is the main feature in addition to the security features they're currently offering. All the firewalls - Fortinet, Cisco, Palo Alto -  provide complete visibility and control over your network which you didn't previously have. Now you have user ID and you can implement URL filtering as well, there is control over your network. End user logging is far better with Palo Alto than Fortinet or Cisco, and it helps you to troubleshoot. I'd rate Palo Alto on top. It's comfortable and that's my experience. Cisco and Fortinet provide good services, but Palo Alto offers a very good product.

View full review »
AJ
System Engineer at E-smart systems

Palo Alto is easy to use, feature-rich, and it has good technical support. You can fetch users, so you have visibility by username, IP address, destination, application, and you can even define a custom application.

In the GUI, you can easily find blocked traffic and the reason for it.

View full review »
VS
Team Leader at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

There are plenty of features available in this solution, such as attack blocker and spam blocker. Additionally, it is very robust and in-depth.

View full review »
ME
Security Presales Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

In general, its performance and ease of use are the most valuable. Its performance is good, stable, and reliable. The user interface is friendly and easy to use. Customers find it easy to work with and easy to learn.

View full review »
SK
Network Security Engineer

The best features of this solution are URL filtering and traffic visibility.

View full review »
RN
Lead Consultant at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

This firewall will scan the network for vulnerabilities and malware.

It can prevent unauthorized access to the network.

This solution has a DLP function.

They are regularly releasing new versions that include more integration with third-party services. Examples of services that have already been integrated are Splunk and two-factor authentication.

View full review »
BF
Network Engineer & Security Specialist at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Application control, IPS, and sandboxing towards the cloud are the most valuable features. It is a very user-friendly product with a very easy-to-use interface.

View full review »
TT
Cloud Security Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

URL filtering and WildFire features are most valuable. It is very user-friendly. 

It is a very solid product, and it definitely works.

View full review »
VK
Information Technology Project Manager at JSC "Penkiu kontinentu komunikaciju centras"

The configuration is very simple. 

View full review »
HD
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

I like the architecture because it separates the management plan process and the data plan process. When I perform something CPU-intensive on management configurations, it doesn't disturb the data plan.

On the data plan, it uses parallel processing. This makes the security process and network process is more efficient.

View full review »
reviewer961413 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Technician / Support
  • GlobalProtect
  • URL filtering
  • Threat prevention. 

These features are great, but they have drawbacks and could be a bit better, flexible, and easy to manage since it takes the admin time to get them right. 

View full review »
KN
Service Delivery Engineer - Network Security Lead at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

It's a flexible solution and integrates well with apps and other security tools like SIEM, web applications. They can share their data orchestration. It's robust and fast in terms of architecture and data processing, there aren't any bottlenecks.  

View full review »
it_user1056699 - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Executive Officer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

The app ID is very good.

View full review »
OO
Sales Engineer at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees

I find the configuration the most valuable.

View full review »
TM
Partner & vCISO at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

The firewall has a lot of sub-capabilities underneath it.

View full review »
AA
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Some of the valuable features in this solution are traffic monitoring, GUI functionality, and it very easy to troubleshoot if there is any problem that happens.

View full review »
AL
Sr. Security and Enterprise Architect at a security firm with 11-50 employees

The graphical interface is easy to troubleshoot because it has a drill-down sequence. It is easy to monitor traffic. 

View full review »
it_user1009449 - PeerSpot reviewer
CTO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Most features in Palo Alto are okay, but we have had some issues like publicity not working. Comments have some delay, but overall, it's a good product.

View full review »
Buyer's Guide
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
767,847 professionals have used our research since 2012.