Cato Networks is a leading SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) platform, combining SD-WAN and network security to obtain a cloud-native service. Cato Networks optimizes and secures application access for users and identities. The platform delivers a next-generation secure networking architecture that minimizes legacy IT infrastructures’ complexity, costs, and risks. The goal of Cato Suite is to connect any user to any application securely and optimally.
Cato Networks offers valuable features such as CASB, cloud-native SASE, user-friendly UI, easy integration, and optimization of traffic from difficult countries. The solution is stable, reliable, and simple to use. The always-on VPN for remote workers and centralized management are also valuable. Additionally, web filtering and antivirus are good. The product is easy to deploy and everything can be done quickly. Cato Networks offers all the functionality found in other solutions and the life cycle management is stable. The security is okay, the initial setup is easy, and the solution is scalable. Technical support is helpful and responsive, and integration capabilities are not a problem.
Improvements can be made to Cato Networks by incorporating it to work with third-party platforms and offering more integration partners. The user interface could benefit from a little tweaking, specifically in terms of logging when troubleshooting. Adding extra plugs via API and readily available external integration points would make customers' jobs easier. The product could also benefit from offering more advanced features for networking and enhancing its intrusion detection and web application firewalling capabilities. Additionally, the different languages in the user interface should be enhanced to include other languages. Finally, the product's security could be improved and continued improvement in this area is desired.
Cato Networks has shown a positive impact on the company's expenses, with a reduction in costs for maintaining the inner branch network. One user suggests that it may take time to fully analyze the return on investment, but another user claims that the benefits are apparent when comparing Cato to traditional firewalling. Overall, there is a general agreement that Cato Networks has provided a return on investment.
Cato Networks' pricing is generally considered reasonable and competitively priced compared to other solutions. It offers its own fully-fledged cloud, which is an advantage. The cost is based on bandwidth and can vary depending on the customer's needs, with virtual and physical sockets available. It is more expensive than some competitors, but it works out of the box without requiring much programming. Overall, customers are satisfied with the pricing and rate it highly for affordability.
Cato Networks is used as a VPN connection for several branches of a company. It is also used by customers in different industries such as BPOs, banking, finance, and telecommunications. The tool is flexible and has a powerful management user interface. It is used for SD-WAN and securing connectivity between branch offices and remote workers. Cato Networks is proposed to clients by resellers and is good for large organizations that have many people working around the world with many branches. It is also used by individuals working from home.
Customers have generally found Cato Networks' customer service and support to be good, with technical support being particularly hands-on and responsive. The company is skilled at helping customers and can advise on configuration changes. Some customers have noted occasional inconsistencies in support due to the company's growth, but overall, support has been satisfactory.
Cato Networks has a straightforward and easy initial setup process. Implementing it takes anywhere from a few hours to six months depending on the number of branches. The product's ease of setup is rated highly and it is simple to configure policies and settings remotely.
The solution provided by Cato Networks is highly scalable and can be easily scaled up or down. It has its own independent infrastructure which makes it more advantageous over other solutions dependent on AWS. The solution is stable and can support a large number of users. The scalability mainly depends on the PoP and not on the appliance used. The solution is scalable for both small and large organizations, and Cato Networks have contracts with backend infrastructure to support exponential growth of VPN connections.
The stability of Cato Networks solution is excellent, reliable, and without any bugs or glitches. It is one of the top products in the SASE category regarding stability, and users practically forget that they are using it. The solution had a massive outage in the past, but it was fixed, and since then, it has been stable for a year without encountering any issues.
Cato Suite runs on a private global network of more than 65 PoPs (points of presence) connected via SLA-backed network providers. The service can connect branches, data centers, users, and clouds. Cato can be deployed in stages to augment legacy network services.
Cato Suite delivers end-to-end route optimization for WAN and cloud traffic. The architecture is self-healing, enabling a high service uptime.
Cato Features
Cato Cloud has a global backbone to deliver a reliable, global network. Here are some key SD-WAN features of Cato Cloud.
What challenges does Cato Network solve?
MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) networks are usually expensive and limited in their capacity. Cato simplifies migrating to a faster, higher-capacity internet and SASE cloud. Cato SD-WAN appliances enable customers to improve usable capacity and resiliency.
Customers who suffer from the challenge of high latency and network inconsistency can use Cato to deliver a consistent connection and user experience to access on-premises and cloud applications.
Cato’s complete network security stack connects all branch locations to the Cato cloud, therefore protecting all traffic, both internet-bound and WAN, with enterprise-grade, cloud-based security services. This capability avoids having to backhaul internet traffic to a data center or hub or having to implement stand-alone cloud security solutions.
Organizations using Cato notice an acceleration of cloud traffic. Cato achieves this by routing all traffic from the edges to the PoP closest to the data center. Because of the close distance between the two, the latency is near zero.
Reviews from Real Users
An IT manager/project coordinator at a healthcare company says that “[Cato is] a cloud-based solution that integrates well with everything. They are the classic SaaS solution.”
Yeong-Gi L., a network engineer at Snetsystems, notes that “The solution is very stable. The scalability is quite good. Technical support was always helpful and responsive. The integration capabilities are not a problem at all.”
"The most valuable feature is that it also works as a next-gen firewall because it has security features," says Lorenzo S., senior solutions consultant Lead at MDI.
Cato SASE Cloud Platform was previously known as Cato Networks.
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