Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls Reviews

We use the solution as a firewall for our network. We can manage our traffic between internal traffic and external traffic handling. The solution protects the traffic and we manage the standard firewall issues.

The solution's embedded machine learning in the core of the firewall that provides in-line real-time attack prevention is important and provides good insight for us. The machine learning actions and learning activities provide some useful information. 

The solution's machine learning for securing our networks against rapidly evolving threats is good. We utilize an IoT tool that comprehends IoT devices, such as webcams, and can therefore interpret their behavior and send information on their activity. The tool also applies appropriate firewall rules to these devices, taking into account the clearance level of each device based on its traffic.

Before implementing Palo Alto, we had to rely on a management company to handle our firewall security. However, now that we have Palo Alto, we can manage our firewall security in-house.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls unified platform helped to eliminate security holes.

The zero-delay signature feature helps keep our security updated against new attacks.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls provides a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities which is important to our organization.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls' zero-delay signature feature is important, and it receives daily updates.

At times, server capacity can result in issues. While Palo Alto is a top firewall company, it's crucial to properly size the firewall to meet our needs. In the case of larger attacks, the capacity of our current firewall may not be adequate, requiring us to obtain more advanced and expensive versions to ensure network protection.

There is a tradeoff between security and network performance, as security is always top-notch, but performance can sometimes lag and has room for improvement.

The cost of the solution has room for improvement.

I have been using the solution for one year.

I give the stability an eight out of ten.

The solution is not very scalable. We need to define our requirements and purchase the correct product for our needs.

We are an enterprise company with over 3,000 people. All the network traffic goes through the solution but we have five people that work directly on the solution.

The technical support is great.

Positive

We previously used Check Point NGFW and switched to Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls because of the stability.

I give the initial setup a five out of ten. The deployment took one month.

Implementation was completed in-house by a consultant.

Compared to other firewall solutions, this is an expensive solution.

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

We use Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls as a gateway for our data center and server files because they are a reliable and robust device, and the best in the security field. We also use their threat intelligence and threat protection services, which are like brass fittings.

Palo Alto enables telemetry and enriches their systems to protect our network against threats, which is why machine learning helps us secure our network.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls have enhanced our security by around 20 percent.

The solution provides a unified platform that natively integrates all of our security capabilities.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls help eliminate security holes by stopping all the known and unknown vulnerabilities that we are seeing in our network.

The single-path architecture has improved performance and latency.

The application awareness feature that recognizes application IDs and vulnerability protection are Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls' most valuable features.

The price is high and has room for improvement.

We have Elite Plus partner support, which means we always have to speak to a partner to open a case. However, not all of the partners are knowledgeable or helpful.

I have been using Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls for two years.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are stable.

When it comes to virtual machine editions or the cloud, I think they are more scalable than hardware. 

We have three administrators, 1,000 end users, and up to 400 servers that use Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls.

We previously used Fortinet FortiGate firewalls but switched to Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls for their superior performance. We also chose Palo Alto Networks because Gartner's reviews of their firewalls have consistently been better than those of Fortinet.

The initial setup is straightforward. However, enabling the security features and starting traffic inspection can be complex. The physical installation is easy.

The deployment for one device takes one day.

We have seen a return on investment in the two years that we have been using the solution.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls' price is expensive.

I give Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls a nine out of ten.

I recommend Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls. 

We use this solution as our external firewall and VPN.

The fact that I can perform several security functions in one device at wire speed is a valuable feature. I don't have to slow down my business transactions, and I don't have to inconvenience my users with 16 different solutions. I can have it all in one box, and it protects my organization at wire speed.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls catch a lot of things that other firewalls may not catch and support more current security practices. We get updates several times a day from WildFire, and the firewalls do a great job of keeping us protected.

Within their domain, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls provide a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities. This is critical because I don't want to deal with multiple devices. I want to do it all with as few devices as possible and have it all work successfully.

It's very important that these firewalls embed machine learning into their core because the only way to keep up with the changing threat environment is to keep learning about it.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are the gold standard right now for securing data centers consistently across all workplaces, and I'm using them across all of my locations. They provide a consistent experience for the management team as well as the end user.

Surfacing actionable intelligence right away could be better. You have to dig far to get some of the information. If the solution could surface the two or three things out of the 10,000 a day that we really need to deal with, it would be helpful.

I've been working with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls for about 20 years.

It is a rock-solid solution in terms of stability. You very rarely have to worry about it. If there's a problem, it's usually because a rule got configured incorrectly.

Across the product line, the NG firewalls scale very well. Within the individual units, however, there are some limitations. It's not always clear to resellers as to what those limitations are. Therefore, as your organization grows you may start to bump into those limitations unexpectedly.

Palo Alto's technical support is pretty good and is among the best. We have called them several times, and they've been on it. Sometimes, it can take a bit longer for them to understand an issue, but overall, I would rate technical support at eight.

Positive

We have used several firewalls including Cisco, Fortinet, and Check Point. We chose Palo Alto because it's the only one that brings it all together in one platform and lets me manage it. It also removes the complexity of what I have to manage and deal with.

The initial setup is fairly straightforward. You put the firewall in with whatever might be there right now in learning mode, and then you can figure out where the holes are.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls have prevented a number of things from happening. We would not have been able to prevent those things from happening had we had other firewalls.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are the Cadillac standard, and you do pay Cadillac pricing. However, the protection is worth the steep price. 

If you're looking for the fastest firewall, Palo Alto needs to be on your list. They seem to be the only ones that perform at wire speed right now. If you want the cheapest firewall, you will be able to find cheaper options, but you won't find better options than Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls.

Overall, I would rate Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls a nine on a scale from one to ten.

The biggest value of RSAC is being able to see everything I don't know anything about. It helps me keep up with where the industry is going.

Also, attending RSAC impacts our organization’s cybersecurity purchases made throughout the year. I chat with my existing vendors when I attend and have conversations with those my team recommends. We then make purchasing decisions based on what I see at RSAC.

We use Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls for cybersecurity and network security for our infrastructure for our districts, worldwide. 

The SIM's ability to analyze traffic and take appropriate action is the most valuable feature of this solution.

It is an extremely powerful solution as it provides visibility into all the network traffic, and offers a range of actions such as blocking websites or graphics, as well as load balancing. It's a great tool.

The solution's user-friendly interface and clear network visibility are highly valuable to us. It makes management easier, especially for those without extensive technical knowledge.

The benefit we derive from this solution is not only its ease of use but also how it enables collaboration among our team for special activities in our network.

Additionally, the reports that we can generate from the software are very valuable.

Using Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls has helped us reduce downtime.

Compared to our previous solution, I believe it was Fortinet. It saves a lot of time, you know, especially running your reports and analyzing the traffic. I believe we save thirty to forty percent.

It provides a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities.

It has seamless integration with all our devices, including Mac and Windows, and also with our secret server. Moreover, it is even integrated with the Microsoft streaming application that we use.

The embedded machine learning functions seamlessly and can be easily accessed through the dashboard's dedicated tools. Its ease of use is impressive.

I believe it would be beneficial if the solution could integrate with Google Chrome, especially for students who use Chromebooks. However, as far as I know, the solution currently does not support Google Chrome.

I have been using Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls for five years.

The solution is incredibly stable. 

We have installed patches and updates, and they have all gone smoothly without any issues.

We haven't fully used the capabilities of the firewall, but we purchased a larger scale to prepare for potential future growth.

The firewall is deployed across all six schools and the district office, protecting the entire infrastructure, including switches, access points, and other devices.

This is approximately 3,500 to 4,000 devices.

The technical support team is readily available and very helpful. They provide great assistance whenever we encounter any issues.

There are delays at times, but overall, they are great. I would rate them a nine out of ten.

Positive

Previously, we used Fortinet.

I was involved in the deployment.

We received assistance from the technical support team who helped us implement the project.

We have seen a return on our investment.

As previously mentioned, the firewall is easy to use and has helped us save a significant amount of time, approximately thirty to forty percent.

The cost is quite high.

We evaluated Fortinet as well as Cisco.

The firewall we use is recommended by our county office of education, which also uses the same application. 

This makes it easier for us to collaborate with the county and share reports between different departments.

I'm thoroughly impressed during my inaugural visit here. The array of products and the advanced technology showcased are truly exceptional. It's a great experience.

I plan to revisit it in the future.

Certainly, my attendance would have a significant impact on my cybersecurity-related buying choices as I would gain better insights into various vendors and their products available in the market. It would provide me with increased visibility and enable me to make informed purchasing decisions.

By attending the event and gaining insights into the different vendors and products available in the market, we can make informed decisions about which route to take in the future.

I would rate Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls a nine out of ten.

We used the solution as an edge or internet firewall where we were running IPS/IDS and doing filtering on it, apart from the other security features. We are still using it for our users' VPN activity and to manage site-to-site VPN tunnels with other clouds, like AWS and Azure, so that there is connectivity back and forth between those cloud providers and our on-prem data center.

The features I like are the debugging and troubleshooting through package capture. It's easy to capture from the CLI and it's also easy to get logs from the CLI.

It's very important that Palo Alto NG Firewalls embed machine learning into the core of the firewall to provide inline, real-time attack prevention. That increases our security posture. It gives us real-time anti-cyber activity and enables us to look at it. The firewall is able to capture it and flag it and it is easy to mitigate as soon as we see something like that happening, to secure the environment more, in real time.

These firewalls have the zero-delay signatures feature, which is really important because you don't want to be lagging behind with any kind of security updates. It doesn't affect our security a lot, but without it, we could be compromised a little bit. If updates are delayed by a couple of hours, there's an opportunity for the bad actors to execute something in that time frame. It gives us a little bit more security, but it's not like it's a high-severity situation.

Overall, they're doing great with the features. They're improving them day by day and year by year, which is really good. They're making new products that are compact inside, which is also really good. Instead of a full rack, they have tiny devices that have the same or even better performance compared to the bigger ones. They are doing well in improving the units, features, and security.

I've been using Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls for eight years.

They're very reliable and stable. Compared to some of the competitors, they're more reliable.

The scalability is also good. They provide good options for scaling. The only thing that I would think about is that, in the newer firewalls, they have increased the performance but decreased the number of concurrent VPN connections or users. The new, compact devices have better performance, but they have reduced the number of users that can connect. Maybe that's a marketing strategy to sell higher-end models.

In my organization, everybody is using the Palo Alto firewalls because they're connected to the VPN, but the management and operations aspects are limited to the folks in IT.

These firewalls used to bring a lot of value to us, but in my practical experience, in the last three years at least, they have been lagging behind their competitors. The main issue is the support that we can get.

For example, in the past, if something happened, we could just give them a call and open a ticket, and we would have technical support right away to help us. Whether it was a severity-one, critical incident, where we had no connectivity, or just a minor or medium-severity issue, we used to get support right away. But in the last three years, it has been really hard to get hold of an engineer. I have reached out a couple of times to give them a heads-up, "This is a ticket I opened three days ago. I'm trying to get a hold of anybody."

It's okay that they force us to open a ticket on the portal, but after opening a ticket, it's really hard to get support when you need it. You have to wait for them to get back to you and sometimes it's random. And the biggest problem I have is that you have to wait hours on the line when you're calling them to get a hold of the next available engineer.

They should make it easier to get in touch with their TAC. This is what they have called transforming the customer experience, but I believe it's getting worse. That's the only thing they have to improve. When you do get someone, the support from their end stands out, it's a nine out of 10. But getting a hold of an engineer is a two out of 10.

Neutral

The initial setup is very straightforward. You need to connect through the portal manager and to the IP that you want to access remotely. And pushing the configuration from other devices is very easy. They provide tools so that you can get the configuration from competitors' devices and convert that into the Palo Alto version. It's very easy to configure initially and to manage as well.

On the maintenance side, it's really good. We don't have to put a lot of effort into that.

The security and performance of the PA-400 series of Palo Alto NGFWs, versus its price, is really good. It's very inexpensive and has good performance compared to the previous higher-end 3000 models.

Palo Alto provides Panorama where you can manage a bunch of firewalls from a single pane of glass or just one device. It allows you to manage all of the firewalls in one, integrated location. You don't have to make a chain of 50 different firewalls. It will push what you need to be changed to all the other firewalls. We used to use it, but we got rid of it because we replaced all our Palo Altos with competitors' firewalls and we don't use Palo Alto anymore, other than for VPN. We have six firewalls in our organization right now, although we used to have 35 to 40. Because we no longer have a lot of firewalls, we got rid of Panorama. We don't want to pay for it to just manage six firewalls where we are not making any changes frequently. If we had 35 or 40 still, I would definitely recommend having Panorama.

Panorama is for managing the rules. It saves time on configuration, but it doesn't affect your security posture. Whether you're managing each firewall or using Panorama, it's exactly the same thing. But it helps you to execute changes in a very short period of time. It's a way of pushing the config to all your devices.

We use this solution for perimeter security and security profile purposes.  This covers anti-virus and anti-spyware, as well as cyber security vulnerabilities through URL and file blocking.

We like the fact that this product can provide multiple layers of protection depending on our clients requirements, and can be configured to whatever level of protection and the specific protocols that they want.

We also like the fact that this solution has a wide range of features covering all types of system security, not focusing on just one area. Everything is geared into a single module, which means we no longer need several different devices.

As well as the single module functionality, this solution allows us to easily see the active sessions and how many users we have connected. Complete information, on one screen.

We would like to see the external dynamic list for this solution improved. The current version does not automatically block malicious IP addresses, which would be very useful.

We have been using this solution for the last seven years.

We have experienced 100% stability with this solution.

The scalability of this solution depends on the management CPU that is being utilized. To manage high level traffic, it requires high-specification hardware to be used, or performance can be affected.

This vendor not only provides a lot of very clear documentation, but also has a community center to allow for self-diagnosis and fixes.

However, if this does not resolve the issue, the technical support team are very responsive and quick to fix any problems we take to them.

Positive

The initial setup of this solution is straightforward, particularly when migrating from a different product and using their centralized management tool. This provides a configuration file that completes the majority of the setup automatically. All traffic is then automatically diverted through this firewall

The firewall is then registered in the providers portal, which allows for updates to be applied when they are released without the need for manual intervention.

We implemented this using one member of our in-house team, and the deployment took three days to complete.

However, there was some pre-implementation work to be done registering firewall serial numbers, connecting console cables etc, but this is all straightforward.

This solution is quite expensive because along with the license there is premium partner support that has to be purchased as a default addition. 

There is also a specific Threat Prevention License that has to be requested and purchased separately. However, licenses can be purchased for specific periods as opposed to just an annual offering.

We actually tested multiple solutions, and choose this one because it gave us the most benefits in one product.

We would advise organizations who are migrating from a different provider to inquire about the centralized management console, and to understand the full costs involved up front.

Also, despite the fact that this solution provides a lot of features, there will still be areas that aren't covered as this only works on perimeter level security.

I would rate this solution a 10 out of 10.

We're using Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls as a backup hardware solution. When the main firewalls have an issue, we're using the backup solution and hardware firewalls to avoid any network issues or prolonged downtime.

Palo Alto Networks Firewalls helped us reduce downtime. When we have another backup solution, the firewalls come down, we have backup hardware, and we have a Docker site that can work if we have an issue in our HQ data center.

Palo Alto provides more security. 

I have no issues if the subscription is renewed on time. 

Some configurations can take time.

The dashboard needs improvement as I find it more complicated compared to Sophos. It is not as user-friendly, especially when trying to easily check problems or generate reports which are easier with Sophos.

I've used the solution for two years.

The solution is stable. It has a feature that allows load balancing across multiple lines. If one line drops, another line can maintain service until the issue is resolved and we return to the original line.

The solution is scalable for large companies, however, it is expensive for medium and small companies.

I would rate technical support from Palo Alto at an eight out of ten.

Positive

We are still using a Sophos appliance as well. However, we are planning to consolidate to using just one solution soon.

I was involved in the setup. I participated with the company that ran the implementation. They didn't provide me with most of the information necessary to help implement in other areas.

The consultant company we're dealing with is the one handling the setup for this solution, not us. The consultant is a partner with Palo Alto.

As an investment, if you're going to use it for enterprise, it's good.

The price of Palo Alto Firewalls is too expensive compared to Sophos licenses and appliance hardware.

For medium companies, I would advise using Sophos. For larger enterprises, Palo Alto is more suitable.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

We use Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls in our offices and data centers.

Embedded machine learning within our firewall core has enhanced our business performance by enabling us to process higher volumes of data more efficiently. Single-pass parallel processing and machine learning provide real-time insights, allowing us to maintain a strong security posture.

There is no trade-off for the single-pass architecture. The firewall meets the standards and expectations.

The most valuable features are Wildfire, URL filtering, and IPS.

Palo Alto's support could be improved. Compared to Cisco's community portal, its support resources appear lacking.

I have been using Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls for over three years.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are stable.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are scalable.

We previously used Cisco but found it not on par with Palo Alto, especially with throughput. Performance is essential, and Cisco was lacking in this area.

From a technical standpoint, our engineers have significantly reduced labor hours by utilizing Palo Alto, resulting in a substantial return on investment.

I would rate Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls nine out of ten.

We have a large number of users within our organization.

We have a maintenance team for Palo Alto.

For organizations with budget constraints, Fortinet is a viable alternative; however, if budgetary limitations are not a concern, the Palo Alto PA-440 Firewall is recommended.