Check Point NGFW Reviews

We use Check Point NGFW as a perimeter firewall.

The most valuable feature of Check Point NGFW is the unparalleled distribution of the network traffic. The central management station they have allows you to manage everything from one place.

Check Point NGFW could improve by introducing machine learning and more modeling dividing the way they manage the ports. However, they have evolved over the last year.

I have been using Check Point NGFW for approximately 15 years.

Check Point NGFW is a stable solution. However, similarly to many other solutions, the stability comes from the engineer that deploys it. It requires a knowledgeable engineer to implement it in the correct way. If you undersize it, for example, you can experience instability.

Check Point NGFW is scalable. The hyper-scale platform can scale up or scale-out. You can buy different powers and stack them.

Check Point NGFW has the most mature technical support in the industry. 

The Check Point company has been around for approximately 30 years and they have everything well documented, similar to other vendors, such as Juniper and Powervault.

I have used other solutions in the past, such as Palo Alto and it has been more expensive. 

The implementation of Check Point NGFW difficulty level depends on the environment. For example, from the initial deployment, it can be easy, but you have to keep your teams learning, they have to consider their traffic size and many other factors. However, the configuration can be difficult, you need a lot of knowledge. Integrating Check Point NGFW with different networks requires a lot of knowledge about the infrastructure.

There are competitors that have more expensive solutions than Check Point NGFW, such as Palo Alto. There are times when Check Point NGFW can have good offerings with a three-year license. The presence of Palo Alto has been heavily invested in marketing. 

From Check Point's perspective, I am not sure how they compared with other vendors. I'm not heavily involved in the process of the quotations.

I have evaluated other solutions.

Check Point NGFW is trying to innovate in the market, but all the other vendors in the market are doing more the same.

I rate Check Point NGFW a nine out of ten.

We deploy solutions for customers. We don't engage in buying. 

We are both consultants and implementers.

We have not had any issues with the firewall.

Support is good and it's centralized architecture.

We are also working on load balancers. We don't have the option to work more with load balancers, we would like to see what else can come out of this in terms of security.

Technical support and scalability both require improvement.

I have been working with Check Point NGFW for the last ten years.

Check Point can scale but at times we have experienced some issues.

Palo Alto is better compared to Check Point. I would rate Palo Alto as superior support to Fortinet or Check Point.

We used to work with Fortinet for approximately five years, and the Palo Alto Appliances was some time back.

I believe the Palo Alto support is excellent, and it has more features than Fortinet. Many businesses, in my opinion, are choosing Palo Alto.

Palo Alto support is very good.

Fortinet's main issue is the support. We can't take it to the enterprise level because the Fortinet support is not very good.

Check Point has previously held a large market share, but perhaps not recently. I think that the price point in India is a bit different. Check Point offers options. I don't see that Check Point is very high, but it is geared more towards enterprises.

We have evaluated Palo Alto Networks VM-Series to see what was available, and recently, I researched the Azure VM series to know how it worked.

I'm leaning toward the now cloud. The appliance base has now been removed. We are now concentrating our efforts on the Azure Cloud, AWS, and other similar platforms. I believe that people must mature in order to work on it. That's where things stand. As a result, we must learn how this is implemented on cloud platforms.

I would rate Check Point a seven out of ten but NGFW a six out of ten.

I'm at a university in Queretaro, Mexico and it's used to protect our infrastructure: wireless, LAN, PCs.  Since the solution prevents attacks, we have the checkpoint in all our equipment, from the critical infrastructure to the directors' and employees' cell phones.

This is the best enterprise solution. Almost every university in Mexico has Fortinet or VXN, but our mission is to have the best cybersecurity protection for our information and our users. We're a private university and our clients and information are the priority. This is the reason why I chose Check Point NGFW.   

The solution interface is good. It has three different ones: the NGFW, the Endpoint, and Harmony Mobile.

I've been using this solution for five years.

It is very stable.

The scalability of this solution is good.

Because my employees work in other departments, we used the deployment consultant. The service was very good.

The setup was simple because we had the checkpoint expert support. The time it took was standard and once the installation was complete, there was no problem at all.

The setup was simple because we had our partner and checkpoint expert support.  The time it took was standard and once the installation was complete, there was no problem at all.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. This is a very good solution. It's complex because it's not too easy to use, but the brand and our partner help us with NG Firewall configuration issues or other solutions like Harmony.

The university is growing every year and with that, I purchase more endpoint licenses and Harmony Endpoint because the firewall works well on the dimension and capacity. Next year, we plan to integrate Harmony Email and Office. The solution also prevents threats to Office 365.

It is a bit expensive according to the required blades but it is a platform that is worth having as security in a corporate.

I have worked for several years with the Check Point platform (NGFW) and it is by far the most stable in hardware and software.

It is a very friendly platform and easy to configure. It is true that it is a bit expensive (according to the required blades), however, it is a platform that is worth having as security in a corporate environment. 

I've used the solution for more than five years.

We have a pretty small office and therefore, a small network environment, and the SMB appliances from Check Point were a perfect fit and exactly what we were looking for in order to improve our overall security posture in the office.

It was critical for us to be able to secure our network, including intrusion detection and prevention along with threat emulation and extraction for zero-day threat help, and Check Point fit perfectly.

After implementing the solution, we were able to get through a third-party penetration test of our network without issue.

Check Point NGFW has improved our organization by making our corporate network much more secure. Once our SMB appliance was installed, configured, and up and running, we could rest a little easier knowing that unauthorized access to our network just became much more difficult.

By turning on the various software blades, intrusion detection and prevention were in place, we had threat emulation and extraction in place, etc. It was a one-stop-shop for us and gave users on our network a certain peace of mind knowing that there was something in place to help keep them safe from malicious actors.

There are many aspects of Check Point NGFW that are valuable and important to our organization, but I'd say the top three are intrusion detection and prevention, threat emulation, and threat extraction. These three features have set a good baseline of security on top of the normal application URL filtering and other services of the firewall.

The way in which a computer is immediately isolated if it starts behaving badly and I get a notification of an infected computer is also extremely nice and a great feature.

When first looking into the Check Point offerings, it was fairly confusing trying to determine the differences between the different offerings. Specifically, SMBs versus other models, and which one would work best within my environment for my use case. I think we ended up in a good spot after speaking with a reseller in the area, but it would have been nice to be able to get there independently.

The WatchTower app that can be used to access the SMB appliance remotely is a nice touch, but it doesn't allow for many actions to be taken and therefore is relegated to mostly notifications. At that point, it requires me to gain local access to go further. It would be nice to add more features to the WatchTower app to be able to perform certain administrative functions without the need for local access. 

We have been using Check Point NGFW for two years.

This product is stable and we have had no issues.

We did not use another solution prior to this one.

Easy setup and configuration by a non-network/security person.

Check Point brings good value for the money and is competitive in the market.

We evaluated Fortinet FortiGate but Check Point seemed like a better fit for us in terms of features and value.

Our primary use case is to secure the perimeter and users in our network.

We use IPS/IDS, deep packet inspection, and VPN.

Our network performance and safety have improved. The reporting also gives us more information about our network, including cost and risk reduction.

This solution helps to keep our network safe and secure, protecting our investment.

The most valuable feature is the powerful, deep packet inspection engine.

The management console and diagnostic tools are powerful and we are happy with them.

The reporting is detailed and helpful.

There should be better integration with our current NAC solution to increase the granularity of policies that we implement.

We have been using the Check Point NGFW for two years.

Overall, this is a very complete tool.

The primary use is to protect the organization from any kind of attack. It is able to isolate, secure, and control every device on the network at all times. Solutions should have the ability to block infected devices from accessing corporate data and assets.

It provides access to the Internet for corporate resources in a secure manner. Our resources are used to host applications and services that are accessible to end-users over the Internet.

It is used to provide required/limited access for third parties who want to connect to our corporate network. Access is granted based on application type and should be independent of port or protocol.

It provides next-generation protection including IPS/Web Filtering/SSL decryption and more. 

It offers centralized policy management capabilities for all firewalls.

This solution was able to provide access to our internet-based resources using our application/FQDN.

The license offers different modules for NGTP and SNBT. It provides multiple functionality or blades, which can be enabled on the firewall depending upon organizational requirements.

Other than stateful packet filtering with the NGTP license, it provides blades such as IPS/URL/VPN/Application Control/content awareness/Anti-Bot/Anti-Virus/Anti-Spam. With SNBT, it provides additional security using the SandBlast Threat Emulation and SandBlast Threat Extraction for Zero-day attacks in real-time.

Any file, before it reaches an endpoint, is executed in a virtual environment for analysis. Based on the verdict and configured policy, a decision will be made as to whether it should be delivered to the endpoint or not.

It provides the flexibility to use any module with the NGTP and SNBT license. Depending upon the requirements, the blades/module can be enabled on the firewall security gateway and it can be deployed easily.

In case SSL decryption or IPS need to be enabled on any security gateway, it is simple to do. We can go ahead and enable the module/blade and then create a policy, deploy it, and it will start to work.

It has a default five-user license for Mobile/SSL VPN, so the organization can check the solution any time or can even provide access to critical users on an as-needed basis, without getting the OEM involved, all on the same box.

For smaller organizations with the correct sizing of the appliance, they can use the full security solution on a single box. It will provide financial benefits along with reducing the cost of purchasing additional solutions or appliances. 

For example:

• URL Filtering Module: It can replace the proxy solution for on-premises users with integration of application control and the Identity module. Active Directory access can be provided based on the User ID and the website or application.
• SSL VPN or SSL decryptor, and more. 
  
• Core assignment for each interface, which can be done using the CLI. If the administrator determines that a particular interface requires more compute, he can manually assign additional cores accordingly. This is done by enabling hyperthreading on the firewall. 
• The policy can be copied from any security gateway and pasted onto another one.

This is a zone-based firewall, which differs from other firewall solutions available on the market. It changes the way the admin manages firewall policy. The administrator has to be careful while defining policy because it can lead to configuration errors, allowing unwanted access.

For example, if a user needs to access the internet on the HTTPS port, then the administrator has to create a policy as below, rather than using NAT for assigning the user's machine to a public IP.

Source: User machine
Destination: any
Port: HTTPS
Action: allow (for allowing the user's machine access)

This has to be done along with the below policy:

Source: User machine
Destination: Other Zone created on Firewall
Port: HTTPS
Action: block 

The two policies, together, mean that the user's machine will not be able to communicate with any other L3 Network created on the firewall.

The firewall throughput or performance reduces drastically after enabling each module/blade.

It does not provide for standalone configuration on the security gateway. Instead, you need to have a management server/smart console for managing it. This can be deployed on a dedicated server or can be deployed on the security gateway itself.

I have been using the Check Point NGFW for more than eight years.

This solution is very much stable and does not require frequent changes in architecture. The patch frequency is limited and it does not require frequent maintenance windows in terms of downtime.

This firewall is very much scalable. The introduction of Maestro has changed the concept of hyperscaling.  

The technical support is excellent. The center is located in major cities in India along with the Check Point presales team.

We did not use another solution prior to this one. We have been using Check Point for a long time.

During the initial setup, support is excellent. It is a well-known OEM and they have people ready to resolve any issue that should arise.

Our in-house team deployed it with support from the OEM.

Cost-wise, it cheaper than industry leaders such as Palo Alto. The licensing is straightforward; there are only three types of licenses that include NGFW, NGTP, and SNBT, so the organization can choose its license according to their requirements.

We have evaluated solutions by Juniper, Cisco, and Palo Alto.

Before implementing the security gateway, you need to be sure about the license and modules that you are going to enable. This includes determining the proper size, as it can affect throughput drastically after enabling each module. This is especially true for SSL decryption.

The architecture needs to be studied before finalizing, as the configuration is done remotely using the centralized smart console. All of the security gateways need to be connected to the management server for any policy configuration, and they should be available at all times.

In today's world, we can't completely rely on traditional signature-based devices, as technology involving cyberattacks is becoming more sophisticated. We require an all-in-one solution that can defend against newly-created attacks, necessitating the usage of NGFW firewalls. This is where Check Point comes into the picture.

Our environment contains multiple roaming users, where we have to extend trust beyond the organizational network. Not only is there east-west traffic to deal with, but a large volume of north-south traffic, as well. We are required to monitor all of the traffic, which includes many branch offices connected centrally.

Monitoring Data via DLP in such a scenario, we require a single solution, which is nothing but Checkpoint.

It has not only improved our environment but the entire organization. Adopting it brings better functionality.

Starting from the basic firewall blade to sandbox threat emulation and threat extraction, it works seamlessly to protect against both known and unknown malware.

After the version 80.xx migration, Check Point stability and security have improved tremendously.

Through the management server, it has become very easy to manage the configuration for each of the blades, as well as the day-to-day operations. With central management, it has become possible to manage endpoint devices as well.

Check Point has the best technical support, which I feel if we consider other firewall vendors in the market, is an important distinguishing point.

Stateful inspection is one of the strongest points in this product, which is applicable while creating policies for application and URL filtering.

Check Point provides dedicated blades to monitor network traffic, which helps while troubleshooting network and packet-related issues.

It is easy to filter traffic based on source-destination services, time, etc, which is an enhancement over other firewalls in the market.

Check Point fulfills our requirements but it is important that they stay on top of competitors by addressing certain points.

There are issues with stability while upgrading devices with hotfixes. For example, many times, a device will stop giving responses after an upgrade (observed in 80.10 release).

The rule database needs to be improved because when we apply rules for the destination, based on service and application and URL filtering Layer, the parallel lookup fails.

I have more than three years of experience with Check Point NGFW.

Stability can be improved further.

Scalability is excellent.

Technical support is very good and provides the right solutions every time. They are highly skilled.

We have seen many customers migrating their firewall from Sophos to Check Point, or from Cisco to Check Point. The main reason has been that they were not getting NGFW functionality and the security feature sets that Check Point provides.

The initial setup is straightforward.

I implemented it with the help of a vendor.

We are definitely getting most of the things that we expect from this product.

Check Point is a vendor that listens to customers and determines what they want. Based on the requirements and the solutions offered by other vendors, Check Point will negotiate to try and give the customer the best price.

Check Point offers options and operates differently from other vendors with respect to licensing. Each blade requires that you have a license.

We also evaluated Palo alto.

I think people like me love Check Point because in my experience over the years, I have not heard of a comprise where Check Point was protecting the network. As long as the devices are configured properly, this is a very small chance of being compromised.

In general, the NGFW features in Check Point fulfill our requirements, which is expected from a Cybersecurity firm that has been involved in the field for a long time.