Check Point NGFW Reviews

We use Check Point NGFW as a perimeter NAT Gateway with the security features, it helps us to prevent hackers. We implement Check Point-based infrastructures for our customers. In most cases, this is the same perimeter gateway and internal segmentation firewalls. Many of our customers also using the VPN feature to organize remote access to the company's assets for employees, especially in the COVID period, and to connect their branch offices to the base infrastructure. Environments are differing from one out customer to another, but these are primary use cases. 

We catch much more malware and spam with incoming traffic, and now we are more protected with our environment. For our customers, this is always a surprise, when we are running a pilot project - how mush malware and attacks we catch during the two weeks period. Check Point has a great report called "Security Check Up", that show these results on informative charts. In our region, our customers use primarily local solutions, that has no good security features inside. Check Point has a certification there, which allows them to work in our region and make the world safer. 

AV, IPS, AntiSpam, Sandbox. That's gentlemen set for any basic security, and it was implemented very well. In our reports, the most exciting results belong to AV and IPS. It can be explained by using ThreatCloud - a global knowledge base, which accumulates signatures for all existing and new coming malware, and all the Check Point solutions are always up to date with potential threats. When we using sandbox with Sandblast agent, often there are not real-world exciting results, but when we show a solution in work with existing samples, it also shows good results. 

I hope for product simplification. It would be better to use one security console, instead of many of them (for licensing and monitoring). The solution is hard for newcomers and takes much time to deep in. Also, I want a historical graph for throughput and system resources usage. Maybe it will be great to make easy step-by-step installation and configuration cookbooks as Fortinet did, and integrate the documentation within the solution. In most cases, the solution works great and I recommend it for our customers.

3 years.

Everyone falls sometimes. I recommend using high availability or at least two power blocks. 

Nice, easy to connect and implement high availability.

Support is great, we solved cases with solution integrations easily.

We are using many solutions at the same time. Just to be closer to our customers. 

Initial is very easy. Further - harder.

In-house

12 months.

NGTP is easy and strong. If you need the best security - use SanbBlast in addition.

We always check security options before implementing them to customers.

Good solution - I recommend it. 

We use the product as a firewall solution for application control, defined rules and policies, and insights features.

The platform helps our organization to save working hours.

Check Point NGFW is easy to configure.

The product's technical support services need improvement.

We have been using Check Point NGFW for two years.

It is a stable product.

It is a scalable platform.

The technical support team could include skilled engineers to understand the issues and respond.

Neutral

We have used Fortigate before. In comparison, Check Point NGFW provides a more detailed configuration.

The initial setup is easy and takes 20 minutes to complete.

The product provides value for pricing in terms of performance and technical features compared to other firewalls.

I recommend Check Point NGFW and rate it a nine out of ten.

While the solution is good, we wish to have something that is a bit better, as the threats have evolved over time. We have been using Check Point for more than than eight years and are interested in a better solution. We entered a review site which ranks top security firewalls and saw that Palo Alto is ranked number one, followed by Fortinet, with Check Point in the lead. We noticed that Palo Alto was much more expensive than Fortinet, but wished to know which key features differentiated the two. 

Though we did not take issue with the price of Check Point NGFW, we felt that it was providing us with inadequate support here in Uganda. This is why we decided to switch solutions. I should note that I do not have a technical background and am responsible for procurement. 

The value we were getting for our money was an issue. I work for a bank for which security is very important, but we were not being assured of the appropriate support. The licensing fees we were paying did not equate with adequate local support. We had already had a bad experience with Check Point, so we did not bother with a quote from it and, instead, got one from several local companies that can support either Palo Alto or Fortinet. 

We do not feel that the local support given in Uganda is equitable with the pricing. 

While the pricing is okay, the local Ugandan support one gets is not commensurate with it. 

I rate Check Point NGFW as a six out of ten. 

We primarily use this solution for routing and the protection of our internal corporate network.

The most valuable feature is the management using the Single Pane of Glass.

The user interface for management could be improved.

In the future, I would like to see support for SD-WAN capabilities.

I have been working with the Check Point Next-Generation firewall for four years.

I would like to see better stability in newly-released versions.

The scalability is very good.

Dealing with the support team in Israel can be a struggle because of the difference in working hours, holidays, and priorities.

I would with firewall solutions from several vendors including Palo Alto, Fortinet, and Meraki.

My advice for anybody who is implementing this solution is to ensure that they have good support from local experts. The biggest lesson that I have learned from using this product has to do with the capabilities of the smallest models. Care should be taken to select the appropriate one for your environment.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

The Check Point NGFW is the best product that I have ever used. It has pluses and minuses, as do others, but the usability, simplicity, and the configuration abilities are very user-friendly. After a while, other vendors just don’t come close to it.

The second thing is that is just works and it does it with ease. The upgrades and bug fixes are frequent and well documented. Also, the patches just work ;-)

There are some negatives but as I already said, they aren’t many and from my point of view, we can see past them.

It has made our lives and working in the company a lot easier. We have a better overview of the logs and what happens with the traffic in our company. Which means that the search for the certain logs is easy, quick and smooth. The overview of the logs is also very good as it is very detailed. The installation is allot quicker as it was before what also helps us with the implementation of the firewall rules. The rule consolidation is also very important as we have more than 60 fw rule change requests per day.

The rules are very easy to deploy and can be optimized pretty quickly. The R80 has a great feature on how the rules are processed, which costs less in terms of CPU and threads than it did before.

The features that are integrated into the firewall are very useful for our everyday use. Examples of these are the log manager, the firewall monitor commands, and the Linux commands. These are all very useful and helpful.

The VPN tunnels are easy to set up once you understand how they have to be configured.

One of the main features that need improvement is the rule filter export. All of the other vendors can export the filtered IPS as a PDF or CSV file, but with the smart dashboard, it’s just not possible. One can only export the whole rule base and then search for the IPS, which is super time-consuming as you can’t send the whole rule base to a customer. You would get weird questions about certain rules, why they are deployed or configured as they are, and maybe even get unwanted tips on how to change them.

We have been using Check Point NGFW for eight years.

In terms of stability, this solution is very good.

The scalability is high.

The technical support is very good.

We did not use another solution prior to this one.

The initial setup is very easy.

I implemented and deployed Check Point NGFW alone.

Maybe the pricing is a bit high but you get the durability and the duration.

We evaluated Palo Alto and Cisco ASA.

We are using the new version of Check Point NGFW. 

We use the solution for web page protection to provide the security service which is lacking in Bolivia, a poverty ridden country. 

I like the facility of the product configuration. The ease with which the solution can be put into production makes it easy for my employers and for me to provide client support. 

The interface could be better. There is much equipment that is involved in the monitoring of many clients in a single interface. 

With other platforms, such as WatchGuard, it is very simple to manage four, five or six of these. We are talking about a lot of clients. The platforms for doing monitoring should be addressed. 

The solution boasts good stability. 

The solution boasts good scalability. 

I have not had need to make use of technical support. 

The initial setup is easy. 

When it comes to the deployment and maintenance, there are two people involved, one for the deployment and the other for monitoring, consisting of an engineer and a technician. 

I feel that the clients are very satisfied with the product.

I don't have any particular advice when it comes to the deployment process. This will depend on the client's needs. 

I rate Check Point NGFW as an eight out of ten. 

Our customers primarily buy the solution to protect the network from malware at the perimeter of the Network. The next-gen firewalls help the customer to have an application-level control of the traffic.

The features that I have found most valuable are its flexibility and user interface. This is already a well-established product in the market for quite a long time, more than 20 years. They've got a huge customer base.

In terms of what could be improved, I'd like granularity where you can have all the levels of policies that are defined. 

In additional feature that could be added to this solution in the future is micro-segmentation, like Palo Alto has on the firewall itself.

I began using Check Point Next Generation Firewall very recently, about four or five months ago.

We have an internal team for maintenance.

In terms of scalability, what we have seen is that it has a big deployment right now. So it all depends on what kind of environment the customer has. If he's already a Check Point user, it is easy for them, but if it is migrating from one platform to another, it is a little complex. One more thing is that the skillset availability required for Check Point is, in terms of implementation, a little less compared to others. The resources and the technical stuff are there for implementation. You find fewer people on Check Point compared to Sophos or Fortinet or any other platform.

The installation process, if it is a greenfield opportunity, is easy. If it is a migration from one platform to another, you need to have expertise on both the technologies. Let's say for example you're migrating from Fortinet to Check Point, or from Sophos to Check Point or Check Point to any other, you need to have expertise on the platform, even though you should have good experience in terms of migrating and technologies.

In my experience, Check Point provides both in-depth experience and cost-effectiveness compared to Palo Alto. So, Check Point is good for customers already using Check Point and Palo Alto is for anybody who wants to have the latest and most advanced features and has a good budget.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Check Point NGFW an 8.

We primarily use this product for cloud computing security. It is an integration platform for IPS and I also use it for performance monitoring.

I also coach classes on the use of this firewall, which is installed on my personal laptop.

This product is more secure than other firewalls, such as FortiGate.

The information stored in the logs is very descriptive and includes a lot of details.

The dynamic port features are better when compared to other firewalls.

This firewall is difficult to manage and use when you first begin using it. However, once you are used to it, the interface is comfortable and easy to use.

The Smart Control feature is hard to install.

In the future, I would like to see more features in the unified security management platform.

This is a reliable firewall.

Scalability is not an issue with Check Point.

Technical support from Check Point is good.

I have experience with other firewalls including FortiGate. Check Point is more secure, although it is more difficult to deploy and configure.

Until you have some experience, the installation and configuration are difficult.

The licensing fees are paid on a monthly basis and I am happy with the pricing.

Check Point is responsible for inventing several firewall security features.

In summary, this is a good product and I recommend it because it the most secure firewall on the market.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.