We primarily use the solution as a next-generation firewall.
Data Center - Assistant Group Manager (Information Security) at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Excellent support, and easy initial setup and great features
Pros and Cons
- "The company is inventive and always adds a lot of great features."
- "When it comes to renewing the solution, they tend to try to jack up the pricing."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
This company is a leader in the space.
The company is inventive and always adds a lot of great features.
The support on the solution is excellent.
The initial setup is pretty easy.
What needs improvement?
The company needs to align better with the customer. At the price point they offer, they need to be as good or better than the competition. They're losing market because they aren't there yet in that regard.
When it comes to renewing the solution, they tend to try to jack up the pricing.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using the solution for almost five years now.
Buyer's Guide
Palo Alto Networks K2-Series
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Palo Alto Networks K2-Series. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
From a hardware point of view, we don't face any issues whatsoever. It's not glitchy or buggy. It doesn't crash. it's reliable.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support has been excellent. We've very satisfied with the level of service they provide. It's one of the main selling features of the product.
Compared to the competition, support is excellent across the board.
How was the initial setup?
We don't find the solution to be overly complex in terms of the initial setup. They make their implementation process pretty clear.
The deployment can happen in one week. It doesn't take too long. Sometimes, if you are new to the product, it might take a month or so.
What about the implementation team?
We tend to use consultants when we implement the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing costs are too high. They need to become more competitive in that regard. We constantly need to bargain to get better pricing.
They tend to take advantage once the product has been sold to us. From a renewal point of view, the price is very high. They are demanding. That itself is creating a bad mark on them.
From a cost perspective, I'd rate the solution two out of ten.
I am trying to avoid Palo Alto, even though they have a very good solution, specifically due to the cost.
What other advice do I have?
We're just a customer.
From a technical support perspective, I'd easily rate them nine out of ten. If they didn't try to price gouge on renewals, I'd likely rate them higher.
Due to their pricing strategy, especially around renewals, I would not recommend them. We have 20+ firewalls, and we feel the heat when it comes time to renew the solution.
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.
VP Sales/Pre Sales at Comstar - Information Systems Associates Ltd.
Provides good scalability, but the system security features need improvement
Pros and Cons
- "It is a stable solution."
- "Its networking features could be better."
What is most valuable?
The solution has the best features for parallel processing and scalability.
What needs improvement?
The solution's pricing could be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution. I rate its stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution. I rate its scalability a ten. It is suitable for medium-scale businesses.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support team is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
I rate the solution's initial setup process an eight out of ten. The time taken for deployment depends on the size of the field and other specific requirements of customers in terms of enhancing their skill paradigm. It takes approximately four hours to a day to complete.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten. It is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend the solution to others and rate it a seven out of ten. Its networking, as well as endpoint and system security features, need enhancement.
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: Integrator
Buyer's Guide
Palo Alto Networks K2-Series
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Palo Alto Networks K2-Series. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Instrutor at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Great tool to provide my students with better content
Pros and Cons
- "Palo Alto's App-ID is what differentiates it from other competitors."
- "Palo Alto has many other products. It would be nice for these products to be centralized under one tool"
What is our primary use case?
I use this to provide better content to my students as an instructor.
What is most valuable?
Palo Alto's App-ID is what differentiates it from other competitors.
What needs improvement?
Palo Alto has many other products. It would be nice for these products to be centralized under one tool rather than having to jump from tool to tool.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this product for four years.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This product is designed for large companies. The price would not be suitable for a small or medium-size company.
What other advice do I have?
Your budget should be your main concern when considering K2-Series as a solution to ensure you will be able to take advantage of each feature or if you would be better off choosing a different solution.
Overall, I give this tool an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Security Technical Lead at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Easy to manage with a web-based interface, and the WildFire option is helpful
Pros and Cons
- "This firewall is very good for our customers because they don't have to write their own rules for adding an application."
- "The reporting functionality in GlobalProtect needs to be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We are a system integrator and this Palo Alto K2-Series is one of the firewall products that we implement for our customers.
What is most valuable?
This firewall is very good for our customers because they don't have to write their own rules for adding an application.
The WildFire feature is very good.
Using Panorama and the web interface makes it easy to manage.
What needs improvement?
The reporting functionality in GlobalProtect needs to be improved. Other products, such as Check Point, have better reporting features that give more reports.
The price of the K2-Series should be lowered.
The dashboard could be improved by adding more GUI components.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have about three years of experience with the Palo Alto K2-Series in my company, although I have only been working with this solution for about one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Palo Alto is very stable. In my previous job, I had not faced any stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
All of the higher-level Palo Alto products are scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
We are the first level of support for our customers. If the problem is very complicated and we cannot solve it then we open a case through the distributor, which is the second level. After that, if they cannot solve it, the case is escalated directly to the Palo Alto technical team. Generally, if we cannot solve it then the distributor cannot either.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We also have experience with Check Point firewalls, as well as with solutions from Fortinet. I think that Palo Alto is better than Check Point in terms of threat prevention, and both of these are better than Fortinet. Palo Alto, however, is very expensive compared to Fortinet.
Check Point has better reporting and a better dashboard but is more difficult to install. Price-wise, they are similar.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very easy compared to Check Point. It is not hard for me to install and configure features such as High Availability.
What about the implementation team?
We implement and deploy this solution for our customers. We also provide maintenance and support.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Palo Alto firewalls are very expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: reseller
Security Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Clear visibility with good integrations; additional dedicated reporting would be useful
Pros and Cons
- "Simple integrations with the domain controllers and other inventories"
- "Palo Alto doesn't have extended visibility to the end point in their firewalls."
What is our primary use case?
Until recently, most of my time was spent implementing this product and our company still does that. As a security solutions architect, I'm now more focused on the architecture and that side of things. We're partners with Palo Alto.
What is most valuable?
It's a very good product, simple to use. The visibility is very, very important, and that's good with Palo Alto. The solution has simple integrations with the domain controllers and other inventories, which the endpoint traps by cloud which is very important. It's an easy firewall, very easy to configure, to monitor, and to use. It's easier than Forte, for example.
What needs improvement?
The solution could be improved with more dedicated reporting about the user's context. For example, if I need to have a summarized report that includes uses as well as consolidating the user's activities, threads and applications on the endpoint machine, Palo Alto does not have the visibility for the endpoint in their firewalls. If I want to have a report from the firewall that summarizes user application from the user side, rather than the server side, Palo Alto software does not have that information.
Other vendors, such as Cisco, have that in their profile. You can generate a report from Cisco firewall and it will tell you that you're using the internet, and using Firefox or Google Chrome. Palo Alto doesn't have that extended visibility to the end point.
It would be the same for additional features - I need to have the visibility of the endpoint application, endpoint context. It's an innate feature in Cisco firewalls. I don't like the style of Forte, for example. It has email spam over the firewall. I don't like this feature, and I don't like to have features that are not really good for out of the box. What Forte does have that is good is an explicit proxy capability and Palo Alto could include that.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for more than 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Palo Alto is stable. They used to have some issues but now they're good. All software has a vulnerability, but stability here is fine.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It never used to be scalable but they've recently added a cluster mechanism so you can scale as much as you need. I've spoken to them and they're going to make an announcement about it later in the month if they haven't already.
How are customer service and technical support?
Palo Alto support is good, I contact them all the time. They have two kinds of support: Premium, which allows you to contact the vendor directly, they open the case, and you communicate with Palo Alto and they'll help you on the spot. There is also Partner support. I would not recommend that to anyone.
How was the initial setup?
Palo Alto is the easiest solution in this field to implement.
What about the implementation team?
Implementation depends on the use case. For example, if you implement on the edge, or you implement on-prem, or you implement on the internet, it's different from implementing to the data center. It's generally a quick process. It might take around two weeks, depending on the number of applications in the data center. If you're using solutions like Forte or Cisco, they will take longer.
The number of people required to implement also varies depending on how you plan to implement - whether over the internet or if you deploy through the application theme. It requires communication between all parties.
What other advice do I have?
It's a good product. I would suggest people think about the design, the architecture, what they have and the applications. If they have a different kind of firewall, if they have an internet firewall, they can use the Palo Alto tool. Or they can use something else depending on what they have on their network.
I recommend Palo Alto because it's a platform as well as a firewall and it has a lot of features. I would suggest testing the features and trying to get all the benefits of all the functions in the box.
I would rate this solution a seven out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
System Engineer at E-smart systems
Boasts many great features that cover all markets from small businesses to large enterprises
Pros and Cons
- "Everything I could possibly want has already been implanted in the new version."
- "It would be nice if it could easily be integrated with Elasticsearch or Nagios."
What is our primary use case?
We use the firewalls to defend our perimeter and data center.
What is most valuable?
For me personally, the support, in general, is the feature I have found most valuable.
Palo Alto boasts a lot of great features that cover all markets from small businesses to large enterprises.
It's very easy to see everything on the dashboards.
It would be nice if it could easily be integrated with Elasticsearch or Nagios for monitoring and reporting.
What needs improvement?
They should lower their prices for small businesses. They should offer subscriptions or box-sets because a lot of companies want to buy it, but they just can't afford it.
It's not that expensive necessarily; the market is just doing poorly at the moment.
Everything I could possibly want has already been implanted into the new version, including the Internet of Things, machine learning, and SD-WAN; every feature I wanted has already been integrated.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for roughly eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is very stable. I've never had a problem with Palo Alto. The only problem we experienced with it was when the fan broke down — even then, it still kept on working without the fan. No harm was done and Palo Alto replaced it very quickly.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is very scalable.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very straightforward. It only took us a few hours. On the other hand, deployment times vary. Sometimes it takes just a few hours, and other times, due to testing, it can take months. It's not complicated, but when you have to replace something, you have to consider the amount of testing before you put it into production.
What about the implementation team?
We are the integrators.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I would recommend Palo Alto. With Cisco, when you engage Firepower, the performance decreases. Next generation functions with Palo Alto are much, much better.
What other advice do I have?
On a scale from one to ten, I would give Palo Alto Networks K2-Series a rating of ten.
You should always choose the best version of a solution. As your company grows, you will want to work with more power and better features.
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: partner
Hardware Engineer with 51-200 employees
A reliable component of our security solution that is easy to set up
Pros and Cons
- "This is a very reliable firewall and we have never had problems with it."
- "The technical support, and how they provide it to the client, needs to be improved."
What is our primary use case?
I am a network security engineer and this is one of the products that make up our security solution. We implement this product for our clients.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is security.
What needs improvement?
The technical support, and how they provide it to the client, needs to be improved. They take too long to provide answers.
I would like to have a statistical report that shows the number of times that each rule is used.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the Palo Alto K2 series for about three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a very reliable firewall and we have never had problems with it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This firewall is scalable. Our clients vary in size. They are small and medium-sized businesses, as well as enterprises.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I deal with a number of different firewalls including solutions by Cisco, Check Point, and Palo Alto.
How was the initial setup?
This is an easy firewall to set up, although the length of time required to deploy depends on a number of variables. For example, a complex environment will be more complex and take longer to configure. This type of setup could take a week but a simpler one could take a day or two.
What about the implementation team?
We have an in-house team for deployment. I can do it by myself, or I can ask my colleagues because several of them can do it as well.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, this is a very good firewall and I would recommend it. With respect to security, it is a perfect solution.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
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: Partner
Network Security Engineer at network techlab
Highly stable, scales well, and helpful support
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is reliable and scales well."
- "The password function of the solution could be improved. Additionally, some of the processes take too long to complete."
What is most valuable?
The solution is reliable and scales well.
What needs improvement?
The password function of the solution could be improved. Additionally, some of the processes take too long to complete.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Palo Alto Networks K2-Series for approximately three months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The scalability of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is good.
I rate the stability of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Our customers are small to large-sized using this solution.
How are customer service and support?
I rate the support of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series a ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What about the implementation team?
We have 20 engineers deploying the solutions.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend this solution to others.
I rate Palo Alto Networks K2-Series a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Updated: November 2024
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