Cato SASE Cloud Platform Reviews

It is a primary router for the network. It is a cloud solution with on-prem routers. Basically, we got a router here, and we utilize our network connections to get to Cato Network's cloud. We route our traffic through their cloud for security and everything else.

It helps with network stability and reliability.

The WAN aggregation feature is the most valuable.

Its functionality is a bit limited in some areas as compared to a Cisco solution. It is not as granular. It doesn't have the manageability, feature set, and capabilities of a larger or an enterprise-level solution. It just needs a more robust feature set and granularity.

I have been using this solution since June, that is, about six months.

Its stability is pretty good so far. I had a couple of minor issues here and there, but not too bad.

It is hard to say because we don't have a lot of demands or requirements for that. We're not a large shop, so we're not looking to expand so much that we would have to replace them, upgrade them, or push the boundaries of the current system. It is expected to last us for a while at this capacity and configuration. We have 200 users, and it is just a typical office warehouse environment.

They are good and responsive. They solved all the issues.

We were using Palo Alto.

It was pretty basic. It is easy to manage.

You require one experienced IT person for its deployment and maintenance. It wasn't complicated for me, but I've been around. Somebody new to IT or a desktop support guy won't be able to deploy it. Somebody who is a network person and has a good network or IT experience can deploy and manage it with little or no assistance in a company of our size.

We had support from Cato Networks. They helped us with the deployment, and they were good.

It is going to give a return on investment. We have AT&T, Comcast, and a couple of others, but AT&T stability was hit or miss, and it would go down. The ability for this system to handle outages on one circuit out of four meant that we didn't have any downtime because of one of our circuits going down or having a performance issue. It kept our network up, whereas our previous solution, even at the cost of it, had to fail over, and even when it failed over, there were manual things you had to do for the other issues, which caused the downtime.

You pay yearly based on the speed of your network. If you increase the speed of your network, you increase the cost for your throughput. It is by bandwidth for the most part and then licenses for VPN. There is some per-seat licensing for VPN access, but the majority of it is minimal. It is like $30 a year per client. The rest is based on how much bandwidth you'll use. You pay for that upfront for the year, and if you have to increase it, you increase it, and then they let you send more data through. There are no additional costs in addition to the standard licensing fees.

We looked at other SD-WAN solutions, such as Fellow Cloud, Palo Alto, and Cisco. There were a couple more in there. Price, capability, and ease of deployment and management made us go for Cato Networks.

It is worth looking at for a small to medium size environment, but it has got to fit your situation. We don't use it for what it was really made to do. It just has one feature that affects us, so we use it for that. In all honesty, it is not something that we are really using to its full potential.

I would rate Cato Networks an eight out of ten. It is fairly new, so there are some things that it should do, and they're working on it. 

We have been using Cato Networks as a solution for firewall and secure web gateway.

It's provided us the solution for firewall and secure web gateway.

The main features we use are the firewall and secure web gateway.

There isn't much to improve as we have a close relationship with them, providing information for research and development. We cannot disclose further details due to a nondisclosure agreement.

We have been working with Cato Networks for two years now.

I would rate the stability of the solution as ten on a scale of one to ten.

We chose Cato Networks due to its scalability and ability to expand the network.

Our customer service experience is excellent, however, this might be due to our special partnership with them.

Positive

We did a lot of evaluations. Most competitors didn't meet our needs due to pricing and functionality.

The initial setup was done in-house and was simple.

The setup was handled in-house, without the need for consultants.

I would rate the pricing as seven out of ten. The pricing is flexible due to our special partnership with Cato Networks.

We compared it with competitors like Versa and Prisma.

I would definitely recommend Cato Networks to other users.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We primarily use the platform for monitoring purposes. It serves as a SaaS solution integrated with SD-WAN and security functionalities.

The product's most valuable features include advanced firewall capabilities for robust security, a secure gateway for safe data transmission, and next-generation anti-malware for threat prevention. Additionally, the SASE framework integrates well with our operational needs, ensuring comprehensive security and compliance.

The product's technical support could be more responsive.

I have been using the Cato SASE Cloud Platform for around seven months.

I rate the product stability a nine. 

The product accommodates varying customer requirements effectively, facilitating easy scaling as needed.

I would rate the scalability an eight. 

The technical support services need improvement. 

Positive

The initial setup process was straightforward, taking about one to one and a half hours. It involved minimal complexities, handled efficiently by two individuals, primarily myself.

Based on studies from Forrester, our organization has achieved a significant return on investment of approximately 246% within less than six months of deploying Cato.

The platform is expensive. 

Cato's user-friendly dashboard has contributed positively to our experience, making it suitable for our current operational needs.

Integrating SD-WAN has significantly optimized our network performance by enabling path selection for optimal traffic routing, WAN optimization through protocol acceleration, and seamless traffic encryption without compromising performance.

I rate it an eight. 

We use the tool in our backend and offer it to our customers; we have a lot of customers interested in using the solution, including BPOs international MPLS lines replacement, banking, and finance branch to DC, and telecommunications companies. 

Cato is usually a cloud-native platform. However, it can be integrated into sites using sockets or by integrating the existing firewalls or routers with IPsec. The tool is flexible and has a powerful management User interface

When we hit the pandemic, it became challenging to migrate us and customers to have an auto-scaling VPN for the remote user. Cato gave us much hope because it works as fast as we need. It also helps our customers replace MPLS lines, or simply interconnect branch HQ and Cloud using its SASE. It stands out against other brands, which is why I highly rate it. 

• Competitive Cost with great features

• Full cloud native SASE with very skilled and responsive technical support

• The UI is accessible and user-friendly

• Integration was very straightforward

• My customer saves millions of pesos when we remove the line dependency for MPLS/IPVPN for domestic and international sites.
  

When I first encountered Cato, I didn't know how to use it, but after a week of training, I could onboard our systems to it, so the solution was easy to learn and navigate.

A little tweaking or improvement of the UI in terms of logging when troubleshooting. Overall the UI is perfect and very powerful. It will remove your stress when you came from silo solutions and old-school multi-branch connectivity.

Extra plugs via API would be a welcome feature, as the solution is a closed loop. Readily available external integration points would make our job easier for customers looking to integrate monitoring tools.

We have been working with the solution for about two years. 

The solution's stability is excellent; we didn't encounter any issues in a year. Cato Networks had a massive outage in 2017 or 2018, but they fixed it.

The solution is highly scalable because Cato Networks has its fully-fledged cloud and independent infrastructure. This is an advantage over other solutions dependent on AWS, for example, because a small business migrating to enterprise-level could be required to shut down its system for the upgrade. However, with Cato, it's much easier to scale up and down. I recently worked with a call center and was able to increase their capacity as they requested, which is very helpful in the IT industry.

We have 15 users in our company, and our largest deployment for a client is 22,000.

The technical support is very hands-on, even during the deployment process. They are skilled at helping their customers, so I rate them highly. As a dev, I didn't have to do anything, Cato took care of it, and I don't have any negative feedback for them. Our customers and we are delighted.

Positive

The initial setup was straightforward. 

The product is very competitively priced, and that's compelling. They don't charge the customer based on the operational cost like other brands such as Palo Alto. Cato has its own fully-fledged cloud, with their own data centers, equipment, and so on, which is an advantage. I rate the solution five out of five for affordability. 

I compared many solutions because I received an initiative to find one to fit into our market. I asked the industry leaders for POCs, and Cato stood out because of their platform; they were the first in the SASE domain.

I rate the solution nine out of ten. 

If we require remote site deployment, for example, if we have applications sitting in an on-premise data center, there are two ways of doing that. We need an IPsec channel going from the data center to Cato Cloud, and the first way of doing that is using the existing network component, either router or fiber, as long as they have IPsec. Second, we can use Cato Network's sockets if we want visibility, packet loss monitoring, the SD-WAN component, etc.

Cato Networks is an excellent solution in the retail sector, especially for companies with multiple sites or international branches, like Jollibee. The product is less applicable for a telco because it can conflict with the consumer-facing side of the operation. Cato can accommodate VPNs with a remote access solution, and SD-WAN is necessary, allowing business to connect their international sites using the solution as the platform.

We're an implementer. We sell this solution to our customers. We've done some POCs with clients so far. 

The solution is stable and reliable. 

Our customers haven't had any complaints about its quality.

It is quite simple and easy to use. 

The support, overall, has been okay.

So far, we find the setup process to be simple. 

I haven't seen any issues so far. I might need to do another implementation and work on it longer before noting any flaws. 

They're not English. If they were English, I'd give them an overall rating of ten out of ten. 

There's no principal in Malaysia, only a distributor. 

I just recently started using the solution. I

I've used the solution for about six months. 

The solution has been stable and it is reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

On our POC we have about 300 users. 

Technical support has been good so far. We find them to be helpful and supportive. We're in Malaysia and our closest principal is in Singapore, and they always get back to us.

Positive

I'd rate the product's ease of setup at a 4.7 out of five. It's very straightforward and easy to implement. There isn't really any complexity. 

We deployed the product as a POC within a week.

It's too early to really analyze ROI. 

I have compared the pricing against other solutions and found it to be very reasonable. I'd rate the cost, in terms of affordability, eight out of ten. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. It's simple to use and easy to set up. On top of that, they are very supportive.

The solution is used similarly to a VPN connection but using a cable network. It is used for the several branches of the company.

The most valuable feature of Cato Networks is the CASB and the documentation is useful.

Modifying or incorporating Cato Network to work with a third-party platform, such as Microsoft, or other Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings would be beneficial. Having more integration partners would help the users implement the solution.

I have used Cato Networks within the past 12 months.

Cato Networks is stable.

The solution is scalable.

The support has been good overall.

I have used Zscaler and it is a better solution than Cato Networks because they are more aggressive and have many partners, such as Microsoft and Dell. The implementation of Zscaler would be a more resilient solution.

The initial setup of Cato Networks is straightforward. For 100 branched the implementation took six months to implement.

The vendor helped implement the solution with us, and it was a seamless process

The price of Cato Networks is in the middle range compared to other solutions. NetFoundry is a less expensive solution than Cato Networks.

In the Philippines, there is a good market for this solution. There is a 50 percent SaaS implementation of this solution.

I rate Cato Networks an eight out of ten.

The primary use case of this solution is to replace the routers we have and to combine the various ISP into one trunk.

It gives us higher internet bandwidth.

The feature that I find to be the most valuable is the bandwidth aggregation.

They can't do one-to-one NAT (Network Address Translation) in AP (their access point), and that is something that Palo Alto can do.

I have been using this solution for a few months.

We are using the most current version. It's a SAAS solution.

Cato Networks is stable.

It seems to be scalable, but we are a small company. Everyone in the company uses it. We are using their VPN for everyone who is working at home. All of the internet traffic is flowing through it. We have 175 people int total.

The technical support is very good. I would rate them a nine or ten out of ten.

They have been quite good for us.

Previously, we were using Palo Alto. 

We switched from Palo Alto because the renewal costs were getting expensive.

The initial setup is straightforward.

The price is not an issue for us, as it is priced more competitively than some other vendors.

It's a cloud solution. It has local hardware, but it's a could solution.

If it's a good use case for you, then it's a good solution. Cato Networks seems to do everything we wanted it to do.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

What I found most helpful in Cato Networks is that it works out of the box. One of its main advantages is that it's a simple product to deploy. You subscribe, and you're ready to run.

For a packaged solution, needing external intervention or a system integrator to get other features not offered by Cato Networks could be an area for improvement.

Cato Networks does what it's meant to do and is even overstretching capabilities when introducing new features. The product can only have very few features added on top of what its currently doing. Managed service providers can deliver the extra features you'd need. It's a set of managed services, and what Cato Networks does is very comprehensive.

So, for the time being, when the actual incarnation of the SASE solution is deployed, Cato Networks is a very effective product. Naturally, technology will evolve, so everybody knows that in three, four, or five years, there will be a new kid on the block, a new game. Still, at the moment, Cato Networks only needs to improve a little regarding SASE delivery. The product is doing very well, but one feature the Cato Networks team is doing right is preparing for the future through deploying the SSE 360, so the security service is at that edge. It's an excellent strategy to prepare for the future. SSE 360 is what Cato Networks should invest in the most to keep prospering.

I've been using Cato Networks for about three years.

Cato Networks is a very stable product. It's one of the top products in the SASE category, especially regarding stability.

Scalability-wise, Cato Networks is entirely scalable for what it does. I never found any problems scaling it. Apart from being very stable, Cato Networks is also very scalable.

The technical support team for Cato Networks has to be inevitably involved, especially in interfacing with other networks and data centers. I found the support very responsive. It's a very professional company, and I'd rate technical support as five out of five.

Cato Networks has a straightforward setup. There's very little to set up because it's a SASE solution, so there's no complexity in terms of programming it.

I'd rate its initial setup a five out of five.

Cato Networks is an expensive product, but it works out of the box, so that's the usual trade-off, make versus buy. If you decide to buy a product that doesn't require much programming, then you'd want to go for Cato Networks, which will work naturally, and immediately without any complex setup. However, the product is a little bit more expensive than the competitors.

On a scale of one to five, I'd rate the pricing for Cato Networks as four.

I have some experience with Cato Networks and its competitors.

My advice to anyone who wants to install or use Cato Networks is that the technical aspects would not be very relevant for a SASE solution because, today, you have outstanding solutions in the SASE realm. However, suppose you're undertaking a digital transformation effort. In that case, you must have an excellent consultant who can guide you in choosing among the myriad of products available in the market. You must define a clear digital strategy to understand if Cato Networks matches your digital strategy.

The next step involves checking if Cato Networks can meet your specific needs or use cases. The product is straightforward, but that also means it has some limitations. If you don't want to program as much, Cato Networks is for you, but that could also mean sacrificing other features, such as increased flexibility and total control of the system. Cato Networks is a black box, so you connect and use it, but you don't know what happens inside, though it's precisely what some clients want. Cato Networks is the perfect solution if the client wants to connect offices and premises in different regions.

You have to be fully aware that Cato Networks doesn't allow you complete control over it, but it's easy to use. There's no perfect solution in the market. It would be best if you had a system architect or consultant to guide you in your choice. If you make the wrong choice, you could have an excellent product that doesn't fit your needs. Making the right decision sometimes isn't based on the technology but on the IT strategy. This is what ninety-nine percent of companies miss today. Technology is all good, but you need a sound IT strategy for making your decision.

My rating for Cato Networks is eight out of ten because it's an excellent product, especially for what it offers. It isn't a ten for me, simply because when you deploy a SASE solution, especially in the environments my company serves, you need to implement additional features which aren't part and parcel of what Cato Networks is delivering, such as an integrated solution.

Suppose a client wants a perfect solution rated as ten out of ten. In that case, the client needs to employ a system integrator or a managed service provider that can add additional features to the top, as it's not the mission of Cato Networks to deliver other features. Cato Networks does an excellent job, but it wouldn't get a ten from me. However, no packaged SASE solution can cover all aspects and all client needs. You'll need an external intervention or someone adding features to what Cato Networks delivers. This is more of a category limitation rather than a company limitation. Cato Networks does an excellent job, so it gets the maximum score that can be assigned to the category for packaged solutions, which is an eight.