Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Google Cloud Platform Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy vs Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks comparison

Sponsored
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

iboss
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (10th), Internet Security (4th), Web Content Filtering (3rd), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (8th), ZTNA as a Service (11th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (10th)
Google Cloud Platform Cloud...
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
ZTNA (8th)
Prisma Access by Palo Alto ...
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (3rd), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (1st), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (5th), ZTNA as a Service (2nd), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (1st)
 

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford - PeerSpot reviewer
It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless
One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured
Kodanda Ramji C.S - PeerSpot reviewer
Involves an initial setup phase that is straightforward in nature
My company evaluates whether the product is capable of fulfilling the requirements of our customers, and we may even do it with the other OEM tools in the market. Based on the use cases given to my company by its customers, we evaluate whether Azure, AWS, or GCP can be helpful. Among the three cloud options, the ones that are able to fulfill our company's customers' requirements will be evaluated, and their report will be submitted to the manager. Based on the costing part, customers can decide which OEM tool would be the best for them. My company does technical and financial evaluation of the products. As there were no operational changes and only initial implementation was required, which was a part of the PoC phase, there wasn't much of an impact on the user experience. All the three service providers, like GCP, Azure and AWS are used to meet the same requirements. I would say that the same benefits are made available to users by all the service providers. The differentiation part can be considered only on the basis of the costs. I rate the tool an eight out of ten.
Partha Dash - PeerSpot reviewer
Makes us part of a bigger security ecosystem with updates taken care of for us, but pricing and support need work
There are definitely a number of things that could be improved. One of them is geographic coverage. China is still an issue because the solution does not operate there properly due to government regulations. I believe Palo Alto is trying pretty hard to get into partnerships with Alibaba and other cloud providers, but they do not have the same compelling offering in China that they have in the rest of the world. Businesses that are operating within China have to be very sure to evaluate the solution before making a buying decision. It is not an issue with Palo Alto, rather it is predominantly the result of government rules, but it's something that Palo Alto needs to work on. There is also room for improvement when it comes to latency in a couple of regions, including India and South America. They might have to increase their presence in those locations and come up with more modern cloud architectures. The third area is that, while Palo Alto has understood the essence of building capabilities around cloud technology and have come up with a CASB offering, that is a very new product. There are other companies that have better offerings for understanding cloud applications and have more graceful controls. That's something that Palo Alto needs to work on.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The security aspect of the solution, particularly the malware behind it, is excellent. That's something that really helped us out. It's not just a simple proxy that just blocks the insights of potential threats that come on behind it. They do malware detection and that helps us a lot."
"From a use-case scenario, what I like the most is the plug-in. I like the fact that we can do the filtering of these devices offsite independent of the network they are connected to, and we do not have to have traffic coming back inside our network."
"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device."
"The console is cloud-based, which is something I really appreciate."
"Because of iboss, I did not have to assign web filtering tasks to my techs on a daily basis."
"Our primary use case for this product is DLP,"
"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."
"Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss."
"Google Cloud Platform Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy is an easy-to-use solution."
"It is easy to integrate, especially if I consider the fact that it gives me a single dashboard where I have all the applications or apps displayed."
"UI representation is the aspect I like the most about GCP, even more than Azure or AWS."
"There is a certain accessibility feature that I can set using a cloud identity, which is really valuable to us."
"Since the solution works with Terraform, it makes Infrastructure as Code (IaC) easier."
"Functions well and has good features."
"It's reliable."
"The product is simple to use."
"The tool's consolidation is pretty quick."
"The solution improved the consistency of our security controls and the BCP. There has been a 20 percent reduction in TCO. Prisma Access also enabled us to deliver better applications by centralizing security management."
"The most valuable features are ZTNA 2.0, CASB, Threat Prevention, and Autonomous Digital Experience Management (ADAM)."
"Its hands-off security and the fact that we don't have to maintain it are the most valuable features."
"We're now able to go after contracts that require a Zero Trust solution and Prisma's other technology solutions."
"Prisma integrates well with Cortex XDR and Cortex Data Lake. My company has been also using Prisma Access in-house for nearly a year, and it integrates seamlessly."
"Prisma's most valuable feature would be its ability to identify bad or risky configurations."
"It protects all app traffic so that users can gain access to all apps. Unlike other solutions that only work from ports 80 and 443, which are predominantly for web traffic, Prisma Access covers all protocols and works on all traffic patterns... The most sophisticated attacks can arise from sources that are not behind 80/443."
 

Cons

"If they could implement an extra security layer preventing access to iboss from the open internet, it would be great."
"SSL decryption: We had issues with learners using apps instead of using web browsers. This type of encryption is tough for any appliance in a BYOD environment."
"Sometimes the agent stops working in iboss, and we have to reinstall the agent."
"Their on-premise hardware's network interface is capped at one gigabit, which is sort of a problem. If you stand a filter up where all traffic flows through that, according to them, in order to go above a gigabit, you have to have multiple devices, which in today's IT seems a little bit silly. They could easily put in an SFP port into their device that could accommodate 10 gigs or at least offer a box."
"Its pricing could be better."
"Fold that in with the risk intelligence they're getting from all of the different subscriptions they are a part of. Now, these security companies subscribe to things like emerging threats, databases, etc. You can fold all this intelligence to decide what's happening on an endpoint. I would love to see them start moving into that space. That would compete directly with Microsoft. Maybe that's why they haven't. Having that ability native within the solution would be great. The other area in which I would love to see improvement is more detailed descriptions of why they block websites."
"The dashboards for local use could be better."
"The reporting feature needs improvement."
"The product must be more user-friendly."
"The tool's grouping option layout and cost are areas of concern where improvements are required."
"The product is expensive. Its price needs improvement."
"The stability regarding voice commands in the solution has certain shortcomings that need improvement."
"Despite using GCP for all the resources, potential clusters on GCP caused difficulties."
"The product’s migration process could be easier to understand."
"The UI of the solution is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
"Google is not well supported in France."
"Sometimes, you have these notifications sent out about changes in App-IDs, modifications in App-IDs, or even the introduction of entirely new App-IDs to replace. Sometimes, the recommendations are followed, but even then, when the package is installed on the firewall, it gets messed up. I remember a particular one was with Tableau, and suddenly, people weren't able to use Tableau, which is an analytics tool for business."
"Palo Alto Prisma 10 came out over a year ago. Palo Alto added this identity management feature. The legacy way Palo Alto selected which user is sitting on an IP address it passes through has been clunky."
"We've run into some challenges, having hit a lot of bugs over the past year in the deployment of GlobalProtect. We've had our fair share of issues that I haven't been happy with. We're working with the support organization to remediate them and waiting for updated releases. The response on getting the bugs fixed has not been what I would consider adequate for a product like this."
"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."
"The Cloud Management application has room for improvement. There are a lot of things on the roadmap for that application; things are going to happen soon."
"Their next release should provide solutions for the mobile environment."
"Lacks a hybrid model which has API plus in-line security."
"It's not very easy to use. Sometimes it's buggy and there are problems when doing updates. The user interface is okay, but some configuration items are difficult. I would like it to be less buggy and easier to configure, to better streamline the user experience."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."
"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."
"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."
"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."
"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."
"The licensing costs us $100,000 so pricing could be better."
"We need to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs. It is an expensive and premium solution."
"The monthly payments made towards the licensing cost of the solution are not expensive."
"Compared to Oracle Cloud, especially with networking options (like VPN creation for free), Oracle Cloud offered better pricing."
"Its price is good. For each server, we are saving $300 a month. We have at least thousands of servers. It is a huge cost reduction for us."
"There is a need to make yearly payments toward the solution's licensing."
"Google Cloud Platform Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy is quite an expensive solution."
"My organization makes yearly payments towards the licensing charges attached to the tool."
"The licensing model for this product is complicated and changes all the time, making it very hard for the user to comprehend the configuration."
"The pricing is very friendly. It's not confusing to figure out your workload and how much you'd be paying for the solution."
"This is not an expensive product and everything is included with one license."
"It is a little expensive. Because it is one of the best in the market, it is a little bit more expensive than other vendors."
"The solution requires a license and the technical support has extra costs. The licensing model could improve."
"The licensing cost is about 18,000 euros."
"The licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis and for what we get, the price is good."
"They price their products using credit modules."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which ZTNA as a Service solutions are best for your needs.
848,396 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
18%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about iboss?
Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss.
What needs improvement with iboss?
Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctl...
What is your primary use case for iboss?
We used it for student and faculty filtering on campus.
What do you like most about Google Cloud Platform Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy?
I can access the information whenever I want. It's integration is easy. The tool's GUI is easy to use with an IT back...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Platform Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy?
There are different pricing plans depending on data volumes and services, but it's comparable to other providers. The...
What needs improvement with Google Cloud Platform Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy?
Google Cloud Platform Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy should improve stability.
What is the better solution - Prisma Access or Zscaler Private Access?
We looked into Prisma Access before choosing Zscaler Private Access (ZPA). Palo Alto’s Prisma Access is a secure ac...
What do you like most about Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks?
The most valuable features of the solution are in the areas of the secure remote access it provides while also being ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks?
The pricing is on the higher side, rating it around eight to nine out of ten. While it is justified for its value, th...
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
GCP Cloud IAP, Google Cloud Platform Cloud IAP, Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy
Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Prisma Access, GlobalProtect, Palo Alto GlobalProtect Mobile Security Manager, Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks, Prisma Access
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.
Information Not Available
Concord Hospital, State of Colorado, Essilor International, RheinLand Versicherungsgruppe, University of Westminster, Universidade Nove de Julho, SPAR Austria, CAME Group, ZipRealty, Greenhill & Co., IKT Agder, Aviva Stadium, Animal Logic, Management & Training Corporation, Brigham Young University Hawaii, School District of Chilliwack
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Cloud Platform Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy vs. Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
848,396 professionals have used our research since 2012.