Panorama is one centralized management server through which all our devices are protected. It's a security management tool.
Network Implementation Engineer at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
Great centralized management, easy to set up, and scales well
Pros and Cons
- "The solution, especially the latest versions, is very stable."
- "The customer support needs to be better."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
One of the most valuable aspects for us is the fact that all of the policy management and configuration management is able to happen right from the centralized management. This makes everything much easier.
The initial setup is pretty simple.
The solution, especially the latest versions, is very stable.
The product can scale well.
What needs improvement?
The customer support needs to be better. Sometimes we need to wait for hours before getting someone from the product team or someone from the Palo Alto customer support to get on a call if we are facing some issue. They could reduce the wait times.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Palo Alto for about a year and a half.
Buyer's Guide
Palo Alto Networks Panorama
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Palo Alto Networks Panorama. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is quite stable. The more high-end devices you take, the more stability. If you're using a little old model of firewalls, then there are issues with regard to stability. In such cases, Palo Alto would likely recommend you upgrade to the latest hardware. The latest hardware is really very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is quite scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is quite slow. They are not quick to respond.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. It is not that complex. There are articles and documentation, readily available on the Palo Alto website, the Palo Alto Portal, which can help you figure out how to configure the device.
Our deployment strategy for any new customer is to directly implement it in a testing phase. In a testing phase, we try to see if all the requirements that the customer wants to see if we will be facing any challenges. We want to initially try and replicate that in a lab scenario. That way, if there are any issues, we can get back to the team at Palo Alto and ask them questions. If it works, then the customer goes into production.
We don't have any dedicated person for maintaining anything. The antivirus, everything, can be directly, automatically updated on the firewall. That is not an issue. On top of that, if a particular device is getting into trouble then we get the NMS alerts for that device. In such scenarios, once we have a device failure at a particular site, we can have that device replaced. We can open a case with the vendor and once we give them a particular serial number or the VM instance, we can initiate an RML to replace that device with a new device. It takes a couple of days for that to happen.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have another team that handles licensing. In operations, we do not have any visibility with regard to cost.
What other advice do I have?
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. We've been very happy with its capabilities.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer
Senior Network Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Works well and helpful for centralized management of devices at different locations
Pros and Cons
- "Templates and the possibility to apply a configuration to many devices at the same time are the most valuable features. We are able to create templates, and we don't need to go to each firewall to make changes. We can make changes in Panorama, and it automatically applies those changes to all those firewalls on which we want to apply the changes. It provides centralized management."
- "It communicates with remote devices, and sometimes, there is a little bit of delay during its communication with remote devices. There should be real-time communication or updates from the manager to devices."
What is our primary use case?
It is a management tool, and we use it to manage many devices at many locations.
What is most valuable?
Templates and the possibility to apply a configuration to many devices at the same time are the most valuable features. We are able to create templates, and we don't need to go to each firewall to make changes. We can make changes in Panorama, and it automatically applies those changes to all those firewalls on which we want to apply the changes. It provides centralized management.
What needs improvement?
It communicates with remote devices, and sometimes, there is a little bit of delay during its communication with remote devices. There should be real-time communication or updates from the manager to devices.
In Panorama and Palo Alto firewalls, I would like to have a traffic simulator. They have packet capture for troubleshooting, but it would help if they can provide a traffic simulator so that we can simulate the traffic and see the route the traffic is taking and get feedback about whether it is blocked or it is able to pass.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for maybe a year and a half.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I don't have big deployments. It works and is stable for what I have, and I don't have concerns.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I don't have experience in big deployments. In terms of its users, our network engineers have access to it. We have less than 10 people.
How are customer service and technical support?
I don't have any experience with their tech support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Its main competitor is Cisco with the next-generation firewalls and FTD. They are managed by FMC, which is a little bit similar to Panorama and firewalls. There are some similarities, but there are also some different approaches. In general, they both are using the same standards. One major difference is that Palo Alto uses security zones, but Cisco doesn't have this feature, which makes Palo Alto better.
How was the initial setup?
It is not so straightforward, but it is also not complex. It is acceptable.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise others to completely evaluate the requirements and build properly with hierarchical templates. This will make it more scalable and manageable in the future.
I would rate Palo Alto Networks Panorama an eight out of 10.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Palo Alto Networks Panorama
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Palo Alto Networks Panorama. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Engineering infrastructure manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It has useful threat prevention and security features and good stability with right configuration
Pros and Cons
- "The threat prevention and layer seven security features were the most used and important for us. All operations are quite good in this solution."
- "We found a vulnerability where when we have a low flow, like 2.7K, it is not getting fired by the threat prevention. That's something important to improve on. They should have a proxy or some solution to solve the issue. We also found some issues around decrypting the flow. When we have more flow than expected to decrypt, the performance goes down."
What is our primary use case?
We used Panorama to control all the other modules from Palo Alto and to create the rules.
What is most valuable?
The threat prevention and layer seven security features were the most used and important for us. All operations are quite good in this solution.
What needs improvement?
We found a vulnerability where when we have a low flow, like 2.7K, it is not getting fired by the threat prevention. That's something important to improve on. They should have a proxy or some solution to solve the issue.
We also found some issues around decrypting the flow. When we have more flow than expected to decrypt, the performance goes down.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used this solution for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Its stability is fine. It supports the only point used here to decrypt the flows. When we have the right configuration, it has good stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We didn't scale up the solution because it requires a load balancer, which is not there. We have around 40,000 users.
How are customer service and technical support?
They should have a local technical team. I would rate them a seven out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
It wasn't easy, but it also wasn't very difficult. I would say it was medium. The deployment took around three months.
What other advice do I have?
In order to have the right security level, you need to understand how decryption works or is used in Palo Alto. We had to clarify some points with them related to how decryption works.
I would rate Palo Alto Networks Panorama an eight out of ten.
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.
Advisor - Network and IT security consultant at Agrosuper
Easy to administrate and easy to control
Pros and Cons
- "Panorama is very easy, easy to administrate, and easy to control."
- "It's difficult to implement."
What is most valuable?
Panorama is very easy, easy to administrate, and easy to control.
What needs improvement?
It's difficult to implement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Palo Alto Networks Panorama for approximately five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Palo Alto is very stable and is a great global solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There are more than 5,000 users in my company.
How are customer service and technical support?
I would rate their support a ten out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution.
I would rate it a ten out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Lead Program Manager at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Flexible, scalable and very user friendly
Pros and Cons
- "You don't need an overly experienced workforce to handle Palo Alto. It's very easy to use."
- "They need to do less bug-related releases and create versions that are stable for at least six months at a time. I don't find this issue in other solutions like Cisco, Check Point, FortiGate, or others. Those just provide a patch if there is a bug and we don't have to worry about downtime."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for automation purposes and for security.
What is most valuable?
The underlying technology is very good, considering that we are moving to a work-from-home environment.
Panorama is a straightforward tool. Palo Alto is comparative to other firewalls. Some firewall tools are more user friendly, and, from a technical perspective, it is very user friendly as well. It's not like Check Point. We use a setup for offshore development centers. For all those ODCs, we usually use a Palo Alto device. We have few perimeter firewalls which are Palo Alto but for the perimeter predominantly we use Check Point.
You don't need an overly experienced workforce to handle Palo Alto. It's very easy to use.
The solution if extremely flexible and scalable.
What needs improvement?
There are too many OS upgrades. We've had six new versions in the past six months. Even if they are updating it to fix bugs, it's hard to keep pace with the change when you have 800 or more Palo Alto devices that you now need to update and upgrade.
We try to follow version minus one or two for security reasons. To keep pace with the changes, it takes us nearly six months as we have to check with the business, arrange downtime, and count and cover all devices.
These upgrades aren't just little fixes either. Whenever there is a new release, it requires an OS upgrade. It would be nice if there was some automation on the upgrades of the devices.
They need to do less bug-related releases and create versions that are stable for at least six months at a time. I don't find this issue in other solutions like Cisco, Check Point, FortiGate, or others. Those just provide a patch if there is a bug and we don't have to worry about downtime.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using the solution for close to seven years at this point. It's definitely been about six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very, very stable. There aren't too many issues on it once you get it up and running. We consider it reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is very scalable. If a company needs to expand its services, it can do so rather easily.
We have different businesses running inside the organization. We have close to 800 devices, so it means about 800 different projects are using those devices. Each project has a firewall, so most of these, 80%, are on Palo Alto.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We use Check Point as well, however, we don't really like it as much. It's not as user friendly.
Prior to this solution, we were using the ASA products and then Check Point. Check Point is a little complicated. I can use Check Point on my perimeter firewall, but not on my overseas businesses. That's what makes Palo Alto is more user friendly. I can use the GUI to do everything due to the fact that I don't need a skilled person to work on the Palo Alto. On Check Point, I have to go to CLA and do all the changes.
It's easy to upgrade or to do anything with the Palo Alto. Technically it's quite sound. It's dynamic, scalable, and there's a lot of things that can be done easily. Plus, I don't need an extremely experienced person to work on Palo Alto. Anybody with two or three years of experience can easily work on a Palo Alto device.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not complex. It's pretty straightforward.
The deployment is easy and uncomplicated. It takes about an hour or so, if not less than an hour. It's pretty quick.
However, we have 800 or more devices. It takes about six months to deploy everything, especially if I have to do everything manually.
We have eight to ten people who manage deployment and maintenance.
What about the implementation team?
We haven't used an integrator or reseller. We handled the implementation ourselves in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In terms of licensing for Panorama and Palo Alto products, we have only the DMC cost and we are billed every year.
It's not overly expensive. It is comparatively okay if you look at other devices. Compared to the top three devices, pricing is okay due to the fact that you have multiple vendors who are selling firewalls and competing with each other for the same clients.
What other advice do I have?
We're just a customer. We don't have a business relationship with the company.
We have multiple variants of the solution's model. Currently, we are using 8.1.15-H. We also have some virtual firewalls that are recently in Tokyo. We are using close to around 800+ Palo Alto firewalls.
We're currently developing our virtual firewalls and have them in different locations.
It is not just Palo Alto. We have other devices as well, so we have close to around 1300 plus firewall devices.
I would recommend the solution to others.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. If you need a perimeter type of device, Check Point may be a better option. However, for my businesses, I would choose Palo Alto due to its scalability and user-friendliness. It also has great security features. That said, if it didn't release so many new updates, I would rate it higher, simply due to the fact that so many upgrades requires a lot of work on our part.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PS & Technical Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Useful management functionalities an god performance but needs better integration
Pros and Cons
- "Panorama provides management functionalities."
- "Integration between Panorama and the Edge Firewall has a lot of issues, like different configuration assets, configuration object templates, lack of flexibility, and not a good browser."
What is our primary use case?
We are dealing with Palo Alto Networks as a firewall.
What is most valuable?
Panorama provides management functionalities.
What needs improvement?
Integration between Panorama and the Edge Firewall has a lot of issues, like different configuration assets, configuration object templates, lack of flexibility, and not a good browser. It needs improvement in saving and synchronization.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been dealing with Panorama for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There is no issue about performance. However, keeping the communication between Panorama and the Edge Firewall is a big issue if there is a different configuration version between both Panorama and Firewall.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are not working over a complex network, but Panorama manages about six to eight firewalls. We may face a lot of issues when scaling up.
How are customer service and support?
The first layer of support is not very good. The second layer is better.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We switched from a different solution.
What other advice do I have?
Panorama has a lot of issues accessing and configuring the firewall or deploying the firewall from Panorama. I'd rate the solution five 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
Last updated: Sep 16, 2024
Flag as inappropriateAccount Presale at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Suitable for all sized businesses, simple implementation, but integration
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is suitable for all sized businesses."
- "The alerts in Palo Alto Networks Panorama could improve by integration with other systems, such as a forwarding trigger system. For example, if a customer has their own system it would be helpful to have the alarms integrated."
What is our primary use case?
Palo Alto Networks Panorama is a firewall manager for network security, such as deployment, configuration, and controls.
What is most valuable?
The solution is suitable for all sized businesses.
What needs improvement?
The alerts in Palo Alto Networks Panorama could improve by integration with other systems, such as a forwarding trigger system. For example, if a customer has their own system it would be helpful to have the alarms integrated.
In the future, when doing an update all solutions should be updated at once. For example, if many different solutions are being managed by Palo Alto Networks Panorama the updates can be done for all firewalls, such as EDR and XDR.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Palo Alto Networks Panorama for approximately seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the stability of Palo Alto Networks Panorama a seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It does not support all the solutions. However, it can scale easily.
The solution is suitable for all sized businesses.
I rate the scalability of Palo Alto Networks Panorama a five out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The support could improve from the vendor. There should be standards across all solutions.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Palo Alto Networks Panorama is simple.
What about the implementation team?
We do the deployment of the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of Palo Alto Networks Panorama is high. There is a pay-per-use model.
I rate the price of Palo Alto Networks Panorama a five out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Palo Alto Networks Panorama a seven 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
Manager - Project at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Centralized management unit that lets you manage multiple regions in one place
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup isn't very complex, it's user-friendly."
- "An area for improvement would be the connectivity, which sometimes means logs can be slow to display."
What is our primary use case?
My primary use of Panorama is as a management unit, including firewall and log management.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is that the management unit is centralized, so you can manage different regions from one place.
What needs improvement?
An area for improvement would be the connectivity, which sometimes means logs can be slow to display.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Panorama's stability is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is very good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup isn't very complex, it's user-friendly. The deployment time depends on your capacity planning - how many firewalls will be managed and how many logs or discs you require.
What other advice do I have?
When implementing, make sure someone involved has a good technical understanding of the product and how it will work. I would rate this solution as nine out of ten.
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.
Buyer's Guide
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Updated: November 2024
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