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Fabian Miranda - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud computing at Tech Data Limited
Real User
Top 5
Strengthens and centralizes all the security infrastructure and reduces attacks
Pros and Cons
  • "It presents a real-time database that is always updated."
  • "The support it provides is not very good. They should improve it since we have had several setbacks due to support issues."

What is our primary use case?

Check Point CloudGuard Intelligence Security is one of the most robust tools on the market. That's why we decided to implement it in our company when all our operations were migrated to the Azure cloud area. 

We needed a tool that would provide security in the network and help analyze any vulnerabilities that we might face in these new environments. We wanted to be able to attack all the weak points that we have in the cloud in order to guarantee effective and stable security. We also have some applications in our systems that deserve excellent security.

How has it helped my organization?

Check Point CloudGuard Intelligence came to strengthen our security and has helped the IT department achieve excellent network security. 

In addition to that, it has helped us centralize all the security infrastructure in this tool and helped us a lot to counteract vulnerabilities that were present. With this product, we were able to reduce the rate of attacks that we had. The database that they have is in real-time and updated instantaneously. All these factors helped a lot to reduce vulnerabilities.

What is most valuable?

Check Point's CloudGuard Intelligence tool presents some features that should be highlighted. For example:

It presents a real-time database that is always updated.

The environment can be centralized within Check Point Infinity, and thus we can have several security tools.

It also presents a forensic analysis that helped us to determine the root of several issues. 

Integration with Sentinel can be made, which allows us to obtain more security data and analyze it.

It presents a portal that is relatively easy to use and configure.

What needs improvement?

The tool works perfectly and improvements should be made, if any, in various technical and administrative aspects.

Buyer's Guide
Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
823,875 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

It was implemented approximately one year ago.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Check Point CloudGuard Intelligence has good stability. We have not presented performance problems or any other that would lead to a forced restart of the tool.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The tool presents very good and functional scalability. To this day, we have not presented any problems.

How are customer service and support?

The support it provides is not very good. They should improve it since we have had several setbacks due to support issues.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, there was no tool in the company's infrastructure. We needed the solution when we moved to the cloud and decided to improve security.

How was the initial setup?

The implementation of the tool is very easy. There are several steps in the wizard where it gets complicated around the configuration, however. If you do not have extensive knowledge of the tool, it becomes complicated.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was done through the vendor, who gave us a support engineer to help us with the implementation and configuration of the tool. We also received some training.

What was our ROI?

By making an investment in security tools, we are doing ourselves a great favor. With this tool, we are protecting our information while maintaining operations. It is always a great investment to acquire these tools. Also, afterward, there is a noticeable economic return.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Whenever an investment is made in a security tool, it is high due to many factors. that said, investing in security will provide economic returns in the short or long term since it will greatly lighten workloads and provide security.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated many options on the market, such as Fortinet, Sophos, and Cisco NGFW. However, Check Point had better features.

What other advice do I have?

With the time that I have used this tool, we have noticed that it is a very good solution and that it has excellent features. It provides very secure connections.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Sr Manager IT Security at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
The IAM role gives us complete control over the cloud environment
Pros and Cons
  • "It helps us to analyze vulnerabilities way before they get installed in production and the web. It gives us more security in the production environment."
  • "Automatic remediation requires read/write access. When providing read/write access to third-party applications, this can add risk. It should have some options of triggering API calls to the cloud platform, which in turn, can make the required changes."

What is our primary use case?

  1. Visibility for cloud workloads, including server, serverless and Kubernetes.
  2. Security configuration review along with automatic remediation.
  3. Posture management and compliance for a complete cloud environment.
  4. Centralize visibility for a complete cloud environment of the workload hosted on multiple cloud platforms (AWS and Azure).
  5. Baseline for security policy as per the workload based on services, such as S3, EC2, etc.
  6. Visibility of an API call within the environment.
  7. IAM management providing access to the cloud network in a controlled manner.
  8. Alerts and notifications for any security breach/changes in the cloud environment.
  9. Flow visibility of traffic to and from the cloud environment.
  10. Real-time alerting for any security incidents.

They provide support for Azure, Amazon, GCP, and Alibaba. However, we just have AWS and Azure.

How has it helped my organization?

  1. Provides complete visibility of the workload hosted on different cloud platforms (AWS and Azure) along with multiple tenants. 
  2. Helps in enhancing security for cloud environments by providing reports, both in terms of security and compliance. 
  3. Provides complete visibility of traffic flowing to/from the cloud platform.
  4. Provides best practice policy that helps to strengthen the security of the workload.
  5. Assets inventory and API calls can happen from the cloud.
  6. Provides control in terms of accessing the cloud workload. As a policy is created, this will block direct access to the cloud environment in case the same is not define or approved in Dome9.

Security visibility with Dome9 is excellent. Normally, without this type of solution, especially if you have some workloads hosted on Azure, they give you minimal tools to be able to analyze the loss. There are different consoles that need to be checked for analyzing any incident. In the case of Dome9, it gives you the loss provided in a report on a centralized console. It gives you complete visibility, including the IP to IP Flow, which is happening from the workloads to the Internet or the Internet to the workloads. Even in case of getting a threat intelligence from Check Point, which we have the integration, if some workflows are communicating any suspicious IPs, then the reports are available on the flow logs. On top of that, it also provides a report where you will be able to find out from which location or country you are getting the traffic to your workloads. Therefore, if you want to block certain geo-locations from communicating with your network, then you can also do that using Dome9.

The workload, which was taking a day's time, now can be turned out within hours. We are able to analyze the logs in real-time. Previously, if we enabled some services, then the email needed to be sent to the security team who would do the scanning, might submit the reports, and post some action to be taken by the developers. Using this solution, we are getting the reports in real-time. The remediation can also be applied automatically. The developer can take the necessary action immediately. It provides us what action needs to be taken.

Unless we did some scanning, we used to not know that there were security flaws within particular services. However, by using Dome9, as it has complete visibility, we are getting those details much faster.

The firewall normally has been managed by security team. Admins can bypass through firewall to create any policy. They can go outside and downloading/uploading anything from their workloads. This solution provides that control as well.

What is most valuable?

  1. The IAM role gives us complete control over the cloud environment. In case someone tries to bypass and create a user or policy locally, which is not allowed or defined in Dome9, changes will be rolled back and a notification will be sent to the concerned team.
  2. It's always ON and available on a mobile device using the app.
  3. There is complete visibility of the traffic flow with threat intelligence provided from Check Point. It even provides communication detail on any suspicious IPs.
  4. Provides detailed information if some workload tries to directly access and bypass any firewall policy.
  5. Provides a granular level of reports along with issues based on compliance standards, which are defined depending upon organizational requirements.
  6. Task delegation as a particular incident can be assigned to a particular individual. The same can also be done manually or automatically.
  7. Customizes queries for detecting any incident.

The solution is pretty straightforward to use, as it is only a SaaS model. You just need to enable the accounts for which Dome9 needs to do validation, and that's it.

Compliance checking capabilities: When you enroll your account, we have multiple accounts. Once you enter that on Dome9, it does a complete scan of your account based on these flow logs. It checks: "What are the security flaws?" So, the compliance depends on the company and what they are using as a benchmark. Normally, for India, we use the CIS as a benchmark, then whatever flow logs are available, those are provided in the reports. Then, we check those compliance reports against the CIS benchmark, and accordingly, take actions. We can then know what are the deviation on the cloud platform and on the account, with respect to the CIS.

There are some use cases where you will not have reports readily available or not get the dashboard for particular outputs. You can create a query on the console for those, e.g., if a particular EXE file started on a workload, we can find out if that is running anywhere in the cloud. While it does not provide details on the process level, it will provide us with which sensor is communicating to which IP addresses as well as if there are any deviations from that pattern.

It has remediation capabilities, and there are two options available:

  1. You can do automatic remediation, where you need to define the policy for which unit that you are doing remediation. 
  2. It can be assigned to a particular team or group of people for its particular vulnerabilities of security flaws. That ticket can then be raised to service quotas be remediated manually.

What needs improvement?

  1. Policy validation should be available before it is deployed in a production environment using a cloud template.
  2. Automatic remediation requires read/write access. When providing read/write access to third-party applications, this can add risk. It should have some options of triggering API calls to the cloud platform, which in turn, can make the required changes.
  3. A number of security rules need to be added in order to identify more issues. 
  4. The reporting should have more options. The reports should be more granular.
  5. It should support all container platforms for visibility of a complete infrastructure single console, such as, PCF.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Until now, we have not faced any issues in term of downtime or outages. It seems to be quite stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is not an issue. There are a number of workload licenses that need to be procured, then it is straightforward.

There are between eight to 10 security admins and auditors who have access to Dome9.

Our complete cloud workload is managed through Dome9.

How are customer service and technical support?

The support is excellent. They regularly review our cloud infrastructure and provide suggestions to help us have a better security posture.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Initially, we were using tools provided by the service provider, such as, ScoutSuite, AWS Config Rules, AWS Trusted Advisor, or Amazon GuardDuty for monitoring, and similar tools for Azure as well. Then, we needed to go through a different console to identify any incidents.

Initially, we used submit a report, but there was no remediation nor information provided how to remediate workload issues. In our current scenarios, we are able to get the complete visibility. The complete visibility of the solution has been a key to the increase in our productivity.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. The only thing that was required from our side was a cloud template, which was provided by Dome9. We need to executed that template in our cloud environment for AWS and Azure. It automatically creates a read-only ID on the AWS platform for Dome9 to connect with. There is some configuration which needs to be done on Dome9 as well as AWS, but the deployment takes around 15 to 30 minutes.

What about the implementation team?

Check Point's team was available, but we implemented it in-house with our support team.

We don't require staff for deployment and maintenance of this solution.

What was our ROI?

As it is a security product, the ROI will not have that much importance because it is enhancing your security and/or providing more security to your infrastructure. If there are any security incidents, then Dome9 is able to protect us.

Initially, once the solution was deployed into production, then the scanning used to happen and we used to see the environment's visibility. In the current situation, as everyone is moving to the DevOps environment and using the CI/CD pipelines, it helps us to analyze vulnerabilities way before they get installed in production and the web. It gives us more security in the production environment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing and costs are straightforward, as they have a baseline of 100 workloads (number of instances) within one license with no additional nor hidden charges. If you want to have 200 workloads under Dome9, then you need to take out two licenses for that. Also, it does not have any impact on cloud billing, as data is shared using the API call. This is well within the limit of free API calls provided by the cloud provider.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks and Trend Micro Cloud One Conformity.

Normally, the policies are accessible only on the browsers, e.g., if you compile them from Prisma Cloud, they're available as a part of a browser. However, for management users, especially for CIOs and CTOs, it becomes difficult for them to type URLs, then login. In the case of Dome9, they provide an app. With that app, you can directly login with single sign-on. It is much easier to access using the app compared to the browser option.

Most things are the same for all three providers. The major difference between Dome9 and Prisma is the IAM roles. The maturity of IAM roles available in Dome9 are much better than the other two solutions. Currently, our focus is mostly on what is happening and who is making the changes in the environment. Another thing is the visibility that Dome9 provides through its intel is better than the other two solutions.

The other two solutions have system capabilities better than Check Point.

I would recommend Prisma as well as Dome9 because they both have the visibility. In our case, the IAM was a critical piece of our requirements.

What other advice do I have?

The cloud and on-prem environments are completely two different networks.

They should offer the cloud in India. Soon, there will be GDPR and India will have its own data protection laws. This might create some issues in the case of the data residing outside India. Because we are collecting metadata from the internal networks for the cloud environment, this is the reason that I suggest that they should have some plans to have the cloud in India. However, neither Prisma nor Trend Micro have cloud in India.

I would rate this solution as an eight out of 10.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
823,875 professionals have used our research since 2012.
PeerSpot user
Geography and History Teacher at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
Enables us to detect incidents and vulnerabilities in our code with one click
Pros and Cons
  • "CloudGuard's best feature is real-time detection. We can detect incidents and vulnerabilities in our code with one click."
  • "I would like CloudGuard's pricing to be cheaper, but I think that's impossible. The pricing is the only thing I think they can improve."

What is our primary use case?

We use CloudGuard to secure apps we develop in the cloud.

How has it helped my organization?

Before Check Point, we didn't have a cloud solution. Having a CNAPP solution gives us confidence that our cloud apps are secure. From day one, we saw that the product was working and detecting issues in real-time. 

What is most valuable?

CloudGuard's best feature is real-time detection. We can detect incidents and vulnerabilities in our code with one click. I was amazed by CloudGuard's VM protection. It's easy to deploy, and I feel safe. I'm absolutely satisfied with it. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used CloudGuard for about one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

CloudGuard is stable. I haven't had any issues. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

CloudGuard is scalable. We've had no problems implementing it for our cloud infrastructure. 

How are customer service and support?

I rate Check Point support 10 out of 10. Check Point's technical support is excellent. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The implementation was fast and easy, and Check Point's professional services are highly effective and professional. We deployed it with an in-house team of two to three people. 

What was our ROI?

The cost-effectiveness of this investment was high. The money was well spent because I solved my security problems. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I would like CloudGuard's pricing to be cheaper, but I think that's impossible. The pricing is the only thing I think they can improve.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP nine out of 10. I recommend that complex corporations test CloudGuard before implementing it. When you see the solution in action, you can witness its security and power.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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Shay Zer - PeerSpot reviewer
Presale security at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Help us detect anomalous behavior and respond to threats before they become an issue

What is our primary use case?

We mainly use it as a CSPM solution.

How has it helped my organization?

It gives us clarity.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the ability to see our customers' environments if they use more than one cloud provider, such as AWS, Google, and Azure.

Also, CloudGuard CDR's intrusion detection and threat hunting capabilities are good enough. They help us detect anomalous behavior and respond to threats before they become an issue.

What needs improvement?

There are regulatory requirements. I would like to be able to pick the regulation I would like to scheck compliance with and it would tell you where you stand on that regulation and what you are missing to reach compliance. And it shouldn't matter which cloud we're dealing with; we would have these possibilities.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP for about two years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability really isn't an issue with everything in the cloud. That's the essence of a cloud product: the scalability you get compared to on-prem.

How are customer service and support?

Their technical support is perfect. When we contact them, they answer immediately. Their support knows the platform very well.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not use a different solution before.

How was the initial setup?

It's very simple to set up because it's all in the cloud.

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return on investment. It can reduce the human resources we need. Also, there is ROI from everything connected to the fact that it's in the cloud: I don't need someone for management or to pay for on-prem resources, such as CPU.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

If I compare the price of CloudGuard, Palo Alto is more expensive and others are less expensive. CloudGuard CNAPP is in the middle.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at other solutions, but with CloudGuard everything is located in the cloud. It's very convenient for us to manage our assets in the cloud.

What other advice do I have?

If they could reduce the price and provide more capabilities, it would be better.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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reviewer2379465 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Development Manager- Cybersecurity at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
Offers comprehensive reporting capabilities and delivers efficient cloud security management
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of CloudGuard CNAPP are its reporting capabilities for aggregating vulnerability information and scoring."
  • "Scalability, particularly in workload protection, is an area that needs improvement."

What is our primary use case?

I use CloudGuard CNAPP to protect and gain visibility into vulnerabilities across our cloud workloads in a multi-cloud environment spanning AWS, GCP, and Azure. By implementing CNAPP, we have successfully reduced vulnerabilities in our cloud infrastructure by 70-80% over the past two years.

How has it helped my organization?

CloudGuard has significantly improved our organization's security posture over the past few years by reducing critical vulnerabilities by up to 80-90% across various workloads. This enhancement has led to lower security costs and enabled us to effectively communicate our improved security stance to stakeholders, putting us in a much stronger position than before.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of CloudGuard CNAPP are its reporting capabilities for aggregating vulnerability information and scoring, as well as its CloudBot feature, which automates remediation deployment across our diverse workloads in various accounts and regions.

What needs improvement?

One area where CloudGuard CNAPP could be improved is in its reporting capabilities. Customization options for building tailored reports would be beneficial, as it would allow for different views on vulnerabilities based on specific criteria such as tags or dimensions. Currently, the reporting features have some limitations in providing the level of customization we require.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP for about three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We haven't had any stability issues with the solution so far.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability, particularly in workload protection, is an area that needs improvement. It is challenging to roll out workload protection to different teams, and there is room for enhancement in this aspect.

How are customer service and support?

I would rate Check Point's service and technical support as an eight out of ten. The pre-sales team was excellent, providing expert assistance, and our experience with the technical team has been good so far. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?



How was the initial setup?

The initial deployment of CloudGuard CNAPP was extremely straightforward since it is agentless and seamlessly integrates with public cloud tools. We began with a POC, then gradually rolled out the solution across all our cloud accounts, starting with AWS and expanding to GCP and Azure.

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return on investment in terms of reduced vulnerabilities.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I find CloudGuard CNAPP's pricing and licensing to be flexible, allowing us to explore new features without hard limits. Currently, we operate under an enterprise agreement with the flexibility to utilize the tools we need effectively.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We initially evaluated Palo Alto's cloud security posture management solution but ultimately chose CloudGuard CNAPP due to its faster implementation process and cohesive reporting capabilities. CloudGuard CNAPP's simplicity and comprehensive reporting aligned better with our need for efficient deployment and intuitive data analysis, making it the preferred solution for our cloud security requirements.

What other advice do I have?

The benefits of using CloudGuard CNAPP were realized very quickly, almost immediately after deployment. The implementation process was straightforward and seamless, leveraging agentless integration with existing cloud security tools. The positive results were clear from the start.

We use CloudGuard CNAPP's CSPM capabilities extensively. We assess CSPM for identifying misconfigurations by running automated processes to scan all our cloud accounts. We prioritize risks, work with technical teams to explain vulnerabilities, and initiate fixing processes, deploying available solutions or performing manual/automated remediations. We then report progress to our teams and iterate on the process as needed.

The effectiveness of CloudGuard CNAPP's CSPM for providing compliance rules and security best practices is high. Its policies align well with common standards like NIST or CIS frameworks, enabling effective assessment against known vulnerabilities. This alignment facilitates communication and understanding between teams, streamlining the resolution process for identified vulnerabilities.

CloudGuard CNAPP's CSPM effectively identifies risks critical to our business, particularly focusing on exposure and availability ratings. It saves us significant time, likely reducing the resolution process for critical risks by around 30-40%, as it provides pre-configured assessments and clearer insights compared to starting from scratch.

The CloudGuard CNAPP team provides excellent visibility into incident investigations by simplifying access to cloud workload configuration logs and integrating with tools like SIEM platforms. This enables the incident response team to ingest data from CloudGuard CNAPP and correlate it with internal indicators, streamlining the investigation process.

We use CloudGuard CNAPP across eight countries in South America and North America, with around 130,000 employees and approximately 5,000 engineers. We manage over 100 AWS accounts and support various applications, including e-commerce tools, generating over 10,000 notifications.

My advice for someone evaluating CloudGuard CNAPP would be to start with a hands-on exploration of the dashboards and data provided by the solution, then focus on internal selling and localized deployments. The biggest lesson I have learned from using CNAPP is that while it is easy to start with, achieving full adoption and maximizing its potential requires thorough preparation and dedicated effort from the team.

Overall, I would rate CloudGuard CNAPP as an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Network Engineer at LTTS
Real User
Secure, gives us complete visibility of cloud traffic, and the support is excellent
Pros and Cons
  • "We can monitor each activity from our mobile devices, so there is complete visibility of our cloud traffic flows, with threat intelligence provided by Check Point."
  • "In Dome9, there should be a policy validation option where we can validate the policy before we push it into production."

What is our primary use case?

CheckPoint Dome9 is a cloud security management solution for our Azure cloud environment, and we have Azure for our cloud services. With this solution, we manage our network security policy management and automation for our cloud environment across providers, accounts, and regions.

Dome9 provides us policy compliance based on our requirements. If we request SOX or HIPPA, based on that we will enable the policy and we will get the reports as well.

We also create users and set policies and we can monitor the logs.

How has it helped my organization?

Dome9 is a very good product for us as we are using a hybrid solution. We have some of the services on-premises and some of the services on the cloud. With Dome9, we very well manage our security policies and also set the compliance policies based on requirements.

Now, we can also support the asset management of our cloud resources, posture management, and many more.

What is most valuable?

IAM is a very good and unique feature of Dome9. IAM gives us complete control of our cloud environment. For example, if someone tries to bypass the policy and attempts to configure or create some users, then it will not allow them to do so. Also, it sends a notification to the concerned person.

We can monitor each activity from our mobile devices, so there is complete visibility of our cloud traffic flows, with threat intelligence provided by Check Point. The IAM provides us complete safety and security.   

What needs improvement?

In Dome9, there should be a policy validation option where we can validate the policy before we push it into production. This option is very important, as we are working in a critical and complex environment. This option would give us more confidence in our activities or policy pushing.

We could see the option is available for on-premises devices. 

Automatic remediation requires read/write access.

Otherwise, overall this product is very good for our cloud environment, and we are satisfied with this.  

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Dome9 for the past six months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a very stable product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Dome9 is very good in terms of scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is excellent.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not use another solution prior to Dome9.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented using a vendor team.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other options.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Ajenthan Aiyathurai - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager - IT at NVCL Group
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Full visibility and control with advanced threat prevention capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "The platform's full visibility and control across many cloud environments allows us to effectively monitor the security posture, uncover vulnerabilities, and consistently enforce security standards."
  • "For businesses with varied IT ecosystems, increasing the integration capabilities with additional third-party products and services would increase flexibility and user-friendliness."

What is our primary use case?

As a manufacturing company, we always ensure our production and workloads are not being interrupted by anything. Therefore, we are making sure our automated processes are not hindered by any means. 

As we have many cloud-based applications, CloudGuard gives us prime support in terms of the security of the system. This includes securing cloud workloads, applications, and data by integrating threat prevention, detection, and response capabilities. 

It also ensures compliance and governance across multi-cloud environments.

How has it helped my organization?

It provides complete visibility and control over cloud-native applications and infrastructure, allowing our security teams to monitor and manage every part of their cloud environments. 

CloudGuard CNAPP also assures compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements by automating governance and risk management procedures. This streamlines security management and lowers the operational strain on our IT teams, allowing them to focus on strategic goals. We are able to work freely by putting aside some additional stress.

What is most valuable?

The most useful element of Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP is its advanced threat prevention capabilities. This functionality is vital because it proactively addresses security issues before they affect cloud applications and notifies a real-time incident, ensuring the integrity and availability of critical services. 

Furthermore, the platform's full visibility and control across many cloud environments allows us to effectively monitor the security posture, uncover vulnerabilities, and consistently enforce security standards.

What needs improvement?

The management and monitoring of security regulations and incidents might be made easier by improving the user interface, which could be made more intuitive and user-friendly. 

For businesses with varied IT ecosystems, increasing the integration capabilities with additional third-party products and services would also increase flexibility and user-friendliness. 

To further reduce the amount of manual work required by security teams, the future release could benefit from more sophisticated automation capabilities, such as automated incident response and remediation workflows. 

In order to facilitate better decision-making and strategic planning, improved analytics and reporting capabilities would also be beneficial. These would provide deeper insights into security occurrences and patterns.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for two years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I'd rate stability nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I'd rate scalability nine out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support has to be improved.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have not used a different solution previously.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is complex.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it through the vendor. I'd rate the services eight out of ten.

What was our ROI?

Our inhouse IT department's workload has reduced considerably since using the product. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Setup cost and licensing are quite expensive. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other solutions. 

What other advice do I have?

For two years the product has done its job perfectly. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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PeerSpot user
Owner at AD Internet Consulting
Real User
Provides central firewall administration capability, real-time compliance checking, and good technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "The two most valuable features for us are the central firewall administrator and the real-time cloud compliance monitoring."
  • "The false positives can be annoying at times."

What is our primary use case?

CloudGuard is a SaaS security solution that handles compliance and security for cloud.

There are two major functions, and the first is to operate as a central firewall monitoring and management system in the cloud. We have more than 100 firewalls in the cloud, and CloudGuard allows us to manage them.

The second function is its role as a compliance suite that helps you in keeping your cloud platforms compliant with PCI or ISO 27001.

For the most part, this is what I used it for. In the beginning, CloudGuard did not have many features. There were only these two.

How has it helped my organization?

Using CloudGuard, I was able to manage a multi-cloud platform based on AWS, Azure, and Google for a multinational company in Europe with only three engineers.

CloudGuard enables customizable governance using simple, readable language. The biggest advantage is that when there are things to be changed because of compliance problems, the engineers receive a plain-language text that instructs them on what to do. This also means that you don't have to have as many cloud specialists available.

What is most valuable?

The two most valuable features for us are the central firewall administrator and the real-time cloud compliance monitoring. The vendor has been building on these features, but they are the two that are most important for us.

With respect to how the compliance frameworks affect our security and compliance operations, it is important to consider that first of all, in the cloud, anybody can change a firewall. We wanted to have a central firewall administrator, with our more than 100 firewalls, so that we could make sure that our platform would stay secure. CloudGuard alerts if somebody replaces something and puts it back, which is the biggest feature that we wanted.

Then, as an added feature, they have a real-time audit platform where you constantly have audits of your clouds to see that engineers don't forget to put all of the compliance in place.

CloudGuard's accuracy when it comes to compliance checking is very good, and it is done in real-time. I would rate it a nine out of ten. It is not perfect because sometimes you have false positives, although I don't think that you can get rid of them entirely. Overall, for compliance and diverse compliance methodologies, I would rate it a nine.

On the topic of accuracy, I would rate remediation a nine out of ten as well. It is easy to do because it is written in plain language, and also because there is a manual on how to remediate.

What needs improvement?

The false positives can be annoying at times.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using CloudGuardfor five years.

My experience with CloudGuard began about five and a half years ago when I was working with a company that was building a multi-cloud platform. I was one of the first customers for CloudGuard, before the Check Point acquisition, and I was using it to manage my multi-cloud platform.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten. It has always worked and I've never had a bad thing happen with it. In the beginning, when they introduced new features during beta testing, there were issues. However, it was always stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

CloudGuard is a SaaS solution, so it scales with your cloud. When you get hundreds of firewalls, perhaps 200 or 300 of one, then the complexity becomes the same in CloudGuard as the thing that you want to solve in the cloud, so I don't think that they can extend to that.

I have a deployment that is European-wide, multi-cloud, with approximately 480 virtual machines. There were a lot of other components as well, so it was a really huge use case.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support from CloudGuard is really good. In fact, for me at the time, it was really good because I had direct access to the American team, so I just had to call if there was an issue. I also had monthly meetings with them to discuss things to improve and see if their service was okay for us.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Initially, we used another solution but that was not for firewall security. Rather, it was for compliance.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is really easy. Just submit the cloud key. It takes between an hour and two hours to deploy. When I installed it, the process did not take longer than an hour.

My implementation strategy fits into the way I design secure private clouds or multi-clouds, based on public cloud providers. It's almost a necessity. You can do it in other ways by using the local ACLs, etc, but then it becomes cumbersome. CloudGuard takes a lot of the work out of it and gives you a single point to manage all of your security firewalls.

What about the implementation team?

I deployed CloudGuard myself. In my previous role, I was the head of cloud development and I directed two out of the three engineers in the team.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

In the beginning, the price of CloudGuard was cheap, whereas now it is not.

I haven't gotten the latest pricing, but my advice is that you need to balance it out with your cloud business cases. It all depends on how many machines, servers, and the size of the cloud that you have. It's probably not useful if you have only a few machines and some network security groups to manage them. In this case, it's not something that you need.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I did evaluate another tool initially. I cannot recall the name but it had ".io" after it. Ultimately, we decided not to use it because it only had the compliance component and it was more expensive.

The native cloud security controls provided by the cloud vendors, when it comes to features like transparency and customization, are very weak. That's why you need CloudGuard. On their own, I would rate the native cloud security controls a four out of ten. They are complex, and the biggest issue is that it's difficult to secure if you want to centralize your security operation.

When maintaining and scaling security services and configurations across multiple public clouds using CloudGuard, versus using native cloud security controls, I find that it is much better. It's the same interface in CloudGuard, regardless of the cloud. Of course, your firewall administrator still needs to have knowledge of what he's doing. That doesn't change. The important point is that the interface is much better and it doesn't change between cloud environments.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate the accuracy of the security visibility slightly lower than nine out of ten because it's still complex to do, even with CloudGuard. The biggest feature of CloudGuard is that it rolls back the changes when somebody has changed it in the cloud without authorization, yet the complexity of managing a lot of firewalls is still there. I would rate the accuracy of security visibility a seven and a half or eight out of ten.

I would rate the solution's comprehensiveness for cloud compliance and governance an eight out of ten. The false positives are a little bit annoying at times.

CloudGuard helps to minimize the attack surface and manage dynamic access, although I didn't use the dynamic access in my setup. For my use case, it was primarily minimizing the internal attack surface because I didn't use it for external connections. I had a different role there. When you only have three engineers, you need to trust them. The reason that we used CloudGuard was to be able to do it with a few engineers.

CloudGuard provides a unified security solution across AWS, Azure, and Google, but not for anything else. To that end, I don't think that any other cloud provider would be a market contender at this point, and Google will probably even disappear after a while.

My advice for anybody who is considering CloudGuard is to try it. If you're looking to manage a large security defense platform, in-depth, with a lot of firewalls, try it and you'll be surprised.

One of the things that I learned from using CloudGuard was that it offered support for compliance. I was originally just looking for a way to manage all of these firewalls, and that came as a pleasant surprise. It helped us a lot with our ISO 27000 and PCI certification.

Overall, in terms of functionality, CloudGuard is fairly well made.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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Buyer's Guide
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Updated: December 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.