We compared Prisma Access and AWS Direct Connect across several parameters based on our users' reviews. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:
Features: Prisma Access stands out for its ease of use, advanced security features, and global performance. AWS Direct Connect is recognized for its top-notch security, speedy connectivity, smooth migration process, and intuitive interface.
Room for Improvement: Prisma Access could benefit from enhancements in error handling, latency, and integration with other cloud architectures. AWS Direct Connect could use more precise terminology in its documentation and improve the patching and upgrading process.
Ease of Deployment: The setup process for Prisma Access varied in complexity and duration based on the size and requirements of the organization. While some users found it straightforward, others mentioned the need for expertise and assistance. Setting up AWS Direct Connect is considered challenging, particularly when integrating with an existing data center, and it can take several months to fully set up. Initial training is required and usually lasts about a week.
Service and Support: Prisma Access's customer service has received mixed reviews. Some customers expressed a desire for better technical support, while others have had positive experiences with prompt responses and knowledgeable engineers. AWS Direct Connect's customer service has been criticized for its speed and could be improved.
Pricing: Prisma Access is a more expensive solution, but users say the price is justified by its quality and features. AWS Direct Connect is also expensive, as licenses are acquired on a monthly or yearly basis.
ROI: Prisma Access excels in identifying security concerns, seamlessly integrating with various products, and delivering instant value. The return on investment for AWS Direct Connect is influenced by factors such as use case and data transfer.
Comparison Results: Prisma Access provides enhanced security options, convenient user access, and worldwide performance, but some users said it was challenging to use or configure, and it is relatively expensive. AWS Direct Connect is highly secure, has fast connectivity, and is commended for its ease of migration and user-friendly interface. However, the solution could benefit from a simplified setup and improved documentation.
"The solution has good performance."
"It's an ideal gateway solution for small and medium businesses, i.e., around 300 devices can be easily handled."
"It is a stable solution."
"It is a highly scalable solution."
"AWS Direct Connect is highly secure and much faster compared to normal network infrastructure."
"AWS Direct Connect provides a secure and encrypted connection over the internet."
"It's great that we can make sure a machine meets the minimum requirements before users are allowed to log in."
"It supports auto-scaling for mobile users. It auto-scales depending on the mobile user traffic. For example, if 1,000 people are working from home today, and tomorrow, the number increases to 2,000, it is not going to be an issue."
"You have the ability to create your own expressions for your data. Palo Alto understands that DLP is not the same for all consumers. You might have a particular need to fulfill, and they give you the opportunity to create a custom expression to match the specific format that you have. For a confidential file property that you have in your files, you can add a metadata field. It gives you that opportunity to create that."
"The most valuable feature is the zero-trust part of this solution."
"To quarantine and clean a malware file provides a lot of security."
"The most valuable features of the solution are in the areas of the secure remote access it provides while also being user-friendly."
"The initial setup is very straightforward."
"Being able to use the user ID or Active Directory Group is one of the great features for control and providing more flexibility without worrying about IP addresses."
"There must be a more easy-to-use GUI."
"It can be difficult to configure compared to cloud-based GUIs."
"It would be good if we could connect AWS Direct Connect from different networks."
"It is complicated to do additional BGP configuration for the product."
"Its terminologies are challenging to interpret."
"If you compare Prisma SaaS against other products, such as Cloud Log, it's a little bit tricky to understand, but it offers different functionality that other products don't have. From a user usability point of view, you need some training for this product, as an admin, you need a couple of demos."
"Better integration with the MDM solution would be useful."
"We are using the SaaS offering. We use our applications for microservices. We use Twistlock to scan containers, and it displays these results in Prisma, which is a good feature because we can see vulnerabilities with respect to these containers. We can see everything in a very detailed manner. However, when you have different environments for a single application, such as DEV, QA, PROD, and TEST, all these environments run multiple containers, which can lead to a very high number of containers. In such a scenario, it shows you the alerts for all those containers that have vulnerabilities. If you show the results of all the containers that share the same image, it is not going to add any value. Therefore, they should narrow down the alerts based on a container. It should show information for a single container. Otherwise, the person who is looking at the results gets the impression that he has to fix all these issues. This is something that they can improve."
"When we deploy firewall rules via Panorama, we find it's a little bit slow. We have a global environment and might have 100 gateways or VPNs in the cloud. When we deploy something, it tries to deploy it one-by-one, and that can be slow."
"There is some particular traffic that the security team wants to filter out and apply their own policies and they cannot."
"The tools' scalability is subject to some limitations when done on-premise due to the need for additional licenses. However, in other scenarios, increasing scalability involves expanding infrastructure to accommodate more third-party VPN access. It is scalable as long as you pay the money. Also, it needs to improve security."
"Dependencies of applications sometimes is a bit confusing."
"The BGP filtering options on Prisma Access should be improved."
More Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks Pricing and Cost Advice →
AWS Direct Connect is ranked 12th in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN with 4 reviews while Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks is ranked 5th in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN with 59 reviews. AWS Direct Connect is rated 8.8, while Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of AWS Direct Connect writes "Has low latency and provides good stability ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks writes "Integration with Palo Alto platforms such as Cortex Data Lake and Autofocus gives us visibility into our attack surface". AWS Direct Connect is most compared with AWS PrivateLink, Lumen MPLS IP VPN, Fortinet FortiClient, IBM Secure Gateway Service and Tailscale, whereas Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks is most compared with Netskope , Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, Cisco Umbrella, Zscaler Internet Access and Appgate SDP. See our AWS Direct Connect vs. Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks report.
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