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Abnet Tsegaye - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Engineer at DeliverICT
User
Top 5
Centralized management, intuitive user interface, and comprehensive security features
Pros and Cons
  • "Check Point Security Management Server offers a wide range of security features, including firewall, intrusion prevention, VPN, application control, and threat prevention capabilities."
  • "It also offers compatibility with third-party security solutions, however, it is not a lot. This needs to be improved."

What is our primary use case?

Check Point Security Management Server is a comprehensive solution designed to streamline and centralize the management of security policies across an organization's network infrastructure. 

One of the standout features of the Check Point Security Management Server is its ability to manage security policies across multiple Check Point security gateways centrally. This centralized approach simplifies policy deployment, monitoring, and updates, making it easier for administrators to maintain a consistent security posture.

How has it helped my organization?

The Check Point Security Management Server has the ability to centrally manage security policies across multiple Check Point security gateways. This centralized approach simplifies policy deployment, monitoring, and updates, making it easier for administrators to maintain a consistent security posture. 

It offers high-performance capabilities to handle large volumes of traffic while maintaining low latency, ensuring minimal impact on network performance. This product greatly improved our company customers and allowed us to implement the solution easily.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable aspects of the solution are:

1. Centralized Management: It can centrally manage security policies across multiple Check Point security gateways. This centralized approach simplifies policy deployment, monitoring, and updates, making it easier for administrators to maintain a consistent security posture. 

2. Intuitive User Interface: The management console provides an intuitive user interface that allows administrators to configure and monitor security policies with ease. The interface is well-designed, with clear navigation and comprehensive options for managing security rules, network objects, and logs. 

3. Comprehensive Security Features: Check Point Security Management Server offers a wide range of security features, including firewall, intrusion prevention, VPN, application control, and threat prevention capabilities. These features work together to provide multi-layered protection against various cyber threats.

What needs improvement?

Check Point Security Management Server integrates seamlessly with other Check Point security products, providing a cohesive security ecosystem for organizations. It also offers compatibility with third-party security solutions, however, it is not a lot. This needs to be improved.

Check Point offers comprehensive product support and documentation, including online resources, knowledge bases, and technical support services. This ensures that administrators have access to the assistance they need to deploy and maintain the Security Management Server effectively, but when customers raise issues, the support is not satisfactory and timely.

Buyer's Guide
Check Point Security Management
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Check Point Security Management. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for more than one and a half years.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: My company resell's and implement this product means it's a partner of checkpoint.
PeerSpot user
Bharath Kumar Gajula - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Architect at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
An expensive solution with easy life cycle management
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is easy to use and comes with few vulnerabilities. You don't have to worry about release upgrades. Life cycle management is very easy."
  • "Check Point Security Management lacks some of the competitor features."

What is our primary use case?

We use Check Point Security Management for firewall management.

What is most valuable?

The solution is easy to use and comes with few vulnerabilities. You don't have to worry about release upgrades. Life cycle management is very easy. 

What needs improvement?

Check Point Security Management lacks some of the competitor features. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for six years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Check Point Security Management is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have around 4,500 users for the product.  

How are customer service and support?

Check Point Security Management doesn't have good support since it is difficult to get the right person. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

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

The solution is expensive. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Check Point Security Management
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Check Point Security Management. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1626507 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Infrastructure Services Specialist at St.George Bank Limited
User
Great for security monitoring with easy central management and good scalability
Pros and Cons
  • "It has a central management log server that helps us to easily identify faults and issues in the environment, especially during outages and incidents during the implementation of policy rules."
  • "It would be great if the SmartView Monitor could become integrated into the SmartView Console Platform."

What is our primary use case?

As part of the Bank's Network Security Infrastructure team, it is our responsibility to manage different security products and devices that lay the foundation of the Bank's Security Infrastructure Network. Part of that responsibility also includes the implementation and policy update requests arising from different business and support teams to make sure that application services comply with the security standards to protect all services of the bank and maintain the reliability of the services across an environment.

With a centralized Check Point Security Management solution, it makes it easier for our day-to-day operations to manage all Security Gateway Firewalls across the bank. 

How has it helped my organization?

The Check Point Security Management has improved the management of all our Security Check Point Gateway Firewalls across the bank. 

With Security Management we are able to simplify our response and support for all our security network devices, which, compared to other products that need to be managed individually, the Check Point solution is far better and less daunting. 

The Security Management also includes the management of logs far that are more efficient, as it provides all the needed information required to investigate and understand how the gateways are accepting or blocking traffic. 

What is most valuable?

The Main Domain Log Management Server is what I find to be the most valuable feature for the Security Management of our environment. With the Main Domain Log Management Server, support teams are able to check and verify the information required to determine if any traffic is getting blocked or denied due to specific policy rule implementation. It can even identify any traffic getting spoofed or any other related events on the gateways. It has a central management log server that helps us to easily identify faults and issues in the environment, especially during outages and incidents during the implementation of policy rules.

What needs improvement?

It would be great if the SmartView Monitor could become integrated into the SmartView Console Platform. As it stands, it will still open the old R77 SmartView monitor session, which is a bit flaky and slow. If the SmartView monitor could be integrated into the R80.40 and R81 versions, that would be great. It would help us in unpacking the trends and graphs and see how traffic is observed when hitting the different Check Point Firewall Gateways that the Security Management controls. It will help support teams to identify capacity limitations and have oversight into what's happening in the environment at any given point in time.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable and manageable as there's a centralized management server that takes care of the rest of the Check Point Gateways across our infrastructure.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very scalable since you can increase the number of gateways in your infrastructure and still manage them in just one centralized SmartView Console.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support team is very knowledgeable and supportive of all our issues and incidents in the bank. Their expertise and reliability are what bring the products of Check Point under complete lifecycle support, which aims to maintain our infrastructure reliability and stability.

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

At the moment, we have a co-existing infrastructure with other security network devices, and we can definitely see the benefit of having the Check Point Security Management application in our infrastructure.

How was the initial setup?

The setup and operational management of Security Management is very easy. This helps us to train people quickly in terms of managing our bank infrastructure in order to maintain reliability and stability in the network.

What about the implementation team?

We have a professional service provider that implements the solution and he is very knowledgeable in terms of his expertise of the product. I would rate our professional service provider to be a 9 out of 10.

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

I would advise others that it's definitely a great investment to have. It's great to have Security Management across your infrastructure. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have other options with other vendors such as Juniper, with their Security Director, and JSpace, but nothing can compare with how Check Point Security Management performs.

What other advice do I have?

If you have a manageable security infrastructure, the cost, pricing, or licensing will be far outweighed by the reliability and stability. It's great in terms of what a properly managed environment can bring.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Head, Partner Management - Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
MSP
Good support, minimizes threats, and offers complete endpoint security
Pros and Cons
  • "It's a great complete endpoint security solution that prevents the most imminent threats to the endpoint such as ransomware, phishing, or malware."
  • "While the console and administration work well, they have to work on performance since it consumes a lot of CPU and memory."

What is our primary use case?

One of the recent use cases for this solution has been related to a power company, which was facing issues but was able to get its infrastructure secured and get back its business continuity and growth. In addition, its management was able to get back its confidence with solutions or services provided by Check Point.

The client was able to quantify its security elements. As a result, a strong defensive framework was developed. Deployment of Check Point's solution resulted in the evasion of any existing and potential threats.

How has it helped my organization?

Check Point is not just a firewall. They deliver everything including IPS, application control, threat emulation and extraction, identity awareness, and more. In line with the quantum security gateways, other elements and services as provided by Check Point have also proven to be very helpful and reliable in keeping the company environment secured. The organization has also gone a great mile to tag itself as a proactive threat elimination expert in the industry viz a viz its competitors.

What is most valuable?

Harmony Endpoint is one of the great solutions by Check Point; it ensures compliance with policies and minimizes the risk of threats entering through endpoints. 

It's a great complete endpoint security solution that prevents the most imminent threats to the endpoint such as ransomware, phishing, or malware. 

It has proved to be very successful in identifying ransomware behaviors such as file encryption or attempts to compromise operating system backups and safely restore ransomware-encrypted files automatically. 

What needs improvement?

While the console and administration work well, they have to work on performance since it consumes a lot of CPU and memory. There is also latency in the administrative panel when entering. There has been a problem with updating licenses as well. There is ground-level feedback based on interaction with the relevant stakeholders that states implementing it would make a major difference in the overall experience.

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?

The solution has not caused major deviations and the historical experience has been quite good. The stability and reliability of the solution is pretty much appreciated

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The overall impression of the scalability is good and impressive.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support has been pretty good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

I have been involved with a lot of other partners in parallel, depending on the requirements of the customers.

How was the initial setup?

I am not directly involved in the setup and deployment of the product.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was handled by an in-house team.

What was our ROI?

I've witnessed an ROI of 25% to 30%.

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

Users should actively evaluate the existing options available in the market and finalize the one that matches their requirements, budget, and priorities. Check Point can definitely be considered based on my personal experience.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

The choice to evaluate would not be my personal decision but the requirement raised by the customers.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
PeerSpot user
Hugo Alexis Espinoza Naranjo - PeerSpot reviewer
Perimeter Security Administrator at a security firm with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
It gives us complete visibility into our security operations, allowing administrators to identify and address problem areas, reduce unnecessary costs, and improve efficiency
Pros and Cons
  • "Security Management gives us complete visibility into our security operations, allowing administrators to identify and address problem areas, reduce unnecessary costs, and improve efficiency. It offers detailed reports on network usage and security, which helps my company to monitor and control its security expenses."
  • "Check Point's hybrid cloud integration needs significant improvements. These resources need to evolve as data transfers to the cloud increase, so hybrid cloud models are easier to implement. Better hybrid cloud integration would improve how we manage our security logs and provide our administrators with a low-cost solution that enables them to meet all our essential requirements."

What is our primary use case?

We needed a solution that had the things required to keep the company secure, like confidentiality, centralization, and a range of technological services. 

There weren't many other leading solutions that allowed us to achieve our goal of centralizing most security resources in one place to achieve rapid, unified management and control of our assets, achieve our annual goals, and provide the best service. 

How has it helped my organization?

Security Management gives us complete visibility into our security operations, allowing administrators to identify and address problem areas, reduce unnecessary costs, and improve efficiency. 

It offers detailed reports on network usage and security, which helps my company to monitor and control its security expenses. 

What is most valuable?

Many excellent solutions can be plugged into Security Management to help us prevent threats and manage network security, such as the firewall. The firewall is one of the most powerful because it enables us to guard against attacks and threats on our perimeter in real-time and centrally manage everything to maintain a robust security posture. 

What needs improvement?

Check Point's hybrid cloud integration needs significant improvements. These resources need to evolve as data transfers to the cloud increase, so hybrid cloud models are easier to implement. Better hybrid cloud integration would improve how we manage our security logs and provide our administrators with a low-cost solution that enables them to meet all our essential requirements. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Securit Management for a year.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Check Point Security Management is highly scalable. It can adapt to the changing needs of your business, allowing your business to maintain a set spend without going over it annually.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Check Point Security Management eight out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid 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.
PeerSpot user
Erick Chinchilla Mena - PeerSpot reviewer
Profesional Gestión Informática 2 - Especialista en Sistemas de Información at CompuGuana
Real User
Good antivirus services and a fast installation with centralized management
Pros and Cons
  • "One of the most outstanding characteristics of its centralized administration is its great computing power."
  • "I would like it to be the administrator of equipment or Next Generation firewalls (which have to be managed on this platform) and to be able to manage other services (like Harmony) that also belong to Check Point."

What is our primary use case?

We wanted a centralized administration console to allow us to manage more than one team inside or outside our organization. As a result of this need, we were looking for solutions that could complement us and provide effective and functional management of more than one team inside or outside the organization. 

It was then that we came across and used Check Point, a solution that allows us to integrate and manage all these teams from one place. Check Point offered us not only a centralized administration, but it also offered us and gave us added value in different services and features that can be integrated into the centralized administration platform.

How has it helped my organization?

Check Point came to give additional value to us as administrators and our organization. It allowed us to integrate more than one characteristic service under the same administration platform, such as antivirus services, real-time emulation services, and real-time detection, characteristics that really give additional value in a centralized management console being a console and also a strategic ally in our organization. These characteristics tell us that it is not only a service to centralize the administration - it is also a service designed to implement and add value to the security of any company.

What is most valuable?

One of the most outstanding characteristics of its centralized administration is its great computing power. The ease of being able to integrate more than one computer and manage and orchestrate them simultaneously and individually creates security layers for each one of them or different approaches based on the needs of the branches. We have an installation that is fast with an execution that is simple. It is easy to manage what each organization needs. 

What needs improvement?

I would like it to be the administrator of equipment or Next Generation firewalls (which have to be managed on this platform) and to be able to manage other services (like Harmony) that also belong to Check Point. We'd like to be able to manage them from the same platform. Although they are within the same portal right now, they are not managed in the same way nor are they from the same teams. It could be a very innovative future integration and will help to centralize this section while having the characteristics under the same management.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for about a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable lately. We've seen that the updates have made the solution apply changes faster and find it is more complete.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The platform has somewhat complex scalability. That said, it is still efficient - mainly when we have management or administration in what is known as HA or cluster.

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
reviewer1626507 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Infrastructure Services Specialist at St.George Bank Limited
User
Easy to set up with great support and good central management
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is ideal for use and deployment in a large infrastructure environment."
  • "If the SmartView monitor can be integrated in the R80.40 and R81 versions, that would be ideal in understanding the trends and graphs of how traffic is observed hitting the different Check Point Firewall Gateways that the Security Management controls."

What is our primary use case?

As part of the Bank's Network Security Infrastructure team, it is our responsibility to manage different security products and devices that lay the foundation of the Bank's Security infrastructure network. Part of that responsibility also includes the implementation and policy update request arising from different business and support teams to make sure that application services comply with the security standards to protect all services of the bank and maintain reliability of the services across environment.

With a centralized Check Point Security Management solution, it makes it easier for our day-to-day operations to manage all Security Gateway Firewalls across the bank.

How has it helped my organization?

The Check Point Security Management has improved the management of all our Security Check Point Gateway Firewalls across the bank. 

With Security Management we are able to simplify our response and support for all our security network devices, which, compared to other products that need to be managed individually, the Check Point solution is far better and less daunting. 

The Security Management also includes the management of logs that is far more efficient, as it provides all the needed information required to investigate and understand how the gateways are accepting or blocking traffic from the gateways.

What is most valuable?

The Main Domain Log Management Server is what I find to be the most valuable feature for the Security Management of our environment. 

With the Main Domain Log Management Server, support teams are able to check and verify the information required in order to determine if any traffic is getting blocked or denied due to specific policy rule implementation, or even identify any traffic getting spoof or any other related events on the gateways. 

It has a central management log server that helps us to easily identify faults and issues in the environment, especially during outages and incidents during the implementation of policy rules.

What needs improvement?

It would be great if the SmartView Monitor could become integrated into the SmartView Console Platform. As it stands, performing a smart view monitor will still open the old R77 SmartView monitor session, which is a bit flaky and slow. If the SmartView monitor can be integrated in the R80.40 and R81 versions, that would be ideal in understanding the trends and graphs of how traffic is observed hitting the different Check Point Firewall Gateways that the Security Management controls. It will also help support teams to identify capacity limitations and have a foresight of what's happening in the environment at any given point in time.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for 4 Years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is ideal for use and deployment in a large infrastructure environment.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very efficient. You can add more gateways in the environment and manage on the same management server as it has a centralized design.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have diamond support and they are very helpful and detailed during explanations for any issues we are facing. The diamond support that we get definitely provides full life cycle support. It brings reliability to the product when you have great support from Check Point.

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

At the moment, we have a co-existing infrastructure with other security network devices, and we can definitely see the benefit of having the Check Point Security Management application in our infrastructure.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was straightforward as the SmartConsole associated with the Security Management is GUI-friendly and anyone can easily access and manage it.

What about the implementation team?

One of the Professional Service members we work with is very attentive to detail and ready to support our team during difficult times - including the implementation and consultation of the Check Point Products. The professional service on offer is really great as you do not often get someone from a vendor that knows the inside and out of the product dedicated to your own infrastructure.

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

I would advise others that it's definitely a great investment to have Security Management across your infrastructure.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have other options with other vendors such as Juniper, with their Security Director, and JSpace, but nothing can compare with how the Check Point Security Management performs.

What other advice do I have?

If you have a manageable security infrastructure, the cost, pricing, or licensing will be far outweighed by the reliability and stability of how a properly managed environment is.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

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.
PeerSpot user
Edwin Solano Salmeron - PeerSpot reviewer
Soporte técnico superior at Acobo
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Good centralization, user-friendly, and offers good flexibility
Pros and Cons
  • "It provides for capabilities and has allowed us to be more scalable."
  • "In the future, I would like the platform to be able to integrate or manage appliances or third-party equipment."

What is our primary use case?

When having multiple branches, there is the need to be able to manage several branches centrally to meet internal and external regulatory standards that become part of important criteria to manage security. 

Due to the number of branches that we must protect and safeguard, we were looking for a solution that would allow us to centralize simple and fast management that is as scalable as possible.

How has it helped my organization?

The Check Point R80 service has allowed us to unify and centralize the security policy. This makes us faster and more flexible when making a change in any of our branches. It's one of the friendliest services that can be managed and remains important in nature to our bottom line. It allows all administrators to understand and manage the communication between different sites, for example. Additionally, we have integrated these features with others that could also be used as security measures or MFA services.

What is most valuable?

One of the most important features, and one that I see as having organizational value, is the ability to enable services or communications that can be integrated with third parties. We can add additional layers of security to logins or configuration startups that we did not have before. 

It provides for capabilities and has allowed us to be more scalable. We now have greater management flexibility and the possibility to configure and connect to different branches. It has given us better centralization with greater features and security benefits.

What needs improvement?

In the future, I would like the platform to be able to integrate or manage appliances or third-party equipment. That would give us a management solution that is able to adapt to the technological changes that we have today. 

Maybe we could see if the brand or the services become commercial allies of other brands. I know that it is something that is requested a lot, however, better integration could be beneficial for the market and for users when purchasing a service in the market.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for three years.

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.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Check Point Security Management Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: January 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Check Point Security Management Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.