Palo Alto Networks VM-Series Reviews

I've mainly worked with the VM-Series, and a few features have been really effective for threat prevention in our networks, like McAfee training, Accountant ID, and apps ID. These features integrate well with our existing environments and tools, such as Panorama. 

 The VM-Series scalability is fast and easy to implement, improving our security posture as our Azure network grows. The only minor issue we've faced is with the apps ID configuration, which requires specific matching for application filtering. Tools like Loopback help us identify open or denied flows between two firewalls and manage the servers effectively. The Palo Alto system easily identifies rules and objects within roles, making maintenance straightforward.

No other major concerns, just the specific issue with Apps ID configuration. Otherwise, overall stability, VPN, IPSec, VRF, and flow management with the VM-Series have been very stable and reliable.

I have been using Palo Alto Networks VM-Series for 2 years.

I've had a positive experience with Palo Alto's support. They usually respond within a few hours, which is satisfactory

Positive

In my experience, Palo Alto and Fortinet offer similar quality and high-level security compared to other vendors like Cisco and Forcepoint. They stand out in terms of reliability and security features. Other vendors may not match their level of performance and security.

It is easy to maintain because we have various tools to manage and monitor the system. 

The pricing for Palo Alto is quite high compared to FortiGate, which is more affordable. I don't have the exact figures as my manager handles that, but from my research, Palo Alto's licensing costs are significantly higher.

I would rate Palo Alto Networks VM-Series as an eight overall. My recommendation for others considering this tool would be to ensure they have the budget for it, as it can be expensive compared to alternatives like FortiGate. Also, they should be prepared to understand and document their application metrics thoroughly to implement the firewall correctly. 

We use this product to secure our entire network, for ZTNA structure, and for VPN purposes, allowing access to our servers behind the firewall.

Using this product has increased our security and has given us much better results in terms of security scans.

Palo Alto embeds machine learning into the core of the firewall to provide online real-time attack prevention, and I would rate that capability an 8 out of 10. It's definitely effective in terms of securing our network against threats that are able to evolve and morph rapidly.

This solution provides a unified platform that natively integrates all of the security capabilities, although we are not using parts of it. For example, we don't use the configuration tools like Panorama.

The most valuable feature is the CLI.

We have the firewall configured for zero-day signatures, which is very important to us. We must be HIPAA and PCI compliant, which means that we need those signatures immediately.

There is no noticeable trade-off between security and network performance. In fact, so far, we've not seen any negative network performance with it. We're very impressed in that regard.

The web interface is still slow, even after recent improvements. 

I have been working with the Palo Alto Networks VM-Series for three years.

This product is very stable. We have had zero problems with stability.

The scalability is fantastic. We're using the lowest-end product right now, and I don't foresee when we'll have to upgrade. We've got a long way where we can continue to scale up.

We currently have multiple people that use it for VPN purposes, to access our servers behind the firewall. It is not used nearly as extensively as it should be. However, next year, we're going to start flowing all of our internet traffic through it.

We're all working remotely, and we're going to be connecting through the firewall. This means that our traffic is going to greatly increase, meaning that our usage will also increase. We'll also be using many more of the features.

The technical support from Palo Alto is good, overall. However, their response times could be a little quicker.

We have not really had any big complaints with the technical support and I would rate them a seven out of ten.

Neutral

Prior to using Palo Alto, we were using an on-premises solution by Juniper. When we switched from onsite to the cloud, we changed products.

We made the switch because Juniper became unbearable regarding complexity and performance. It was getting very bad; we couldn't manage it well, and the performance was quite poor. 

The initial setup is quite complex. There is a steep learning curve and we failed at it a couple of times.

Our final deployment took between three and four hours.

Our in-house team was responsible for the deployment.

We have absolutely seen a return on our investment. We are definitely more secure. With the features that are in Palo Alto, we do not have to worry about people busting into our network. Even just out of the box, with the base features, it's really solid. The default configurations are very secure.

Our return on investment comes from the fact that we're not having to spend hours monitoring stuff the way we did before. We've saved man hours and we've saved stress. I can't put a monetary value to that, but that would be the return.

This is not the cheapest firewall but it's not the most expensive of the options on the market.

There's a new licensing structure coming in that we're really trying to understand, so I would suggest studying up on it. I recommend getting a partner involved for purchasing the product.

Beyond Palo Alto, we evaluated two or three other products. Two of them that I can recall are Fortinet and the Microsoft Azure Firewall.

We did some extensive reviews and some extensive testing and what we found is that for the price, Palo Alto gave us the best options. It had the best set of security features. It wasn't the cheapest product but it was the best solution that fit our requirements.

We have not yet implemented the DNS security features. However, we will likely be doing so next year.

If one of my colleagues at another company were to say that they were just looking for the cheapest and fastest firewall, I would suggest that they be careful. Palo Alto has a great balance. It's not super expensive compared to other options on the market, and it's quite quick when it comes to throughput and performance.

In summary, this is a good product but I do suggest that people shop around a little bit.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

The solution is used to protect some servers and access their traffic in a virtualization environment.

The most valuable features of the solution are its stability, ease of implementation, ease of operation, and security.

It is not very easy to scale up the solution.

I have been using Palo Alto Networks VM-Series for one year.

I rate the solution a nine out of ten for stability.

I rate the solution a seven out of ten for scalability.

The solution’s technical support is very good.

Positive

The solution’s initial setup is very easy.

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series can be deployed in a day or two.

The solution is a little bit expensive compared to other vendors.

I would recommend the solution to other users because it is a good firewall.

Overall, I rate Palo Alto Networks VM-Series a nine out of ten.

Our corporate clients use the product to secure cloud environments.

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series's most valuable feature is the visibility of the environment.

The product's AIOps process needs improvement.

We have been using Palo Alto Networks VM-Series for two years.

I rate the product's stability a ten out of ten.

We have 5000 Palo Alto Networks VM-Series users as our clients. I rate its scalability a ten out of ten.

I rate the initial setup process a nine. It takes a few hours to complete.

I rate Palo Alto Networks VM-Series pricing an eight out of ten.

I rate Palo Alto Networks VM-Series a nine out of ten.

It is deployed on the Azure cloud to inspect the outbound traffic, but in the near future we will be working to inspect inbound and Azure Express Route traffic as well.

With Palo Alto VM-Series, we are capable through a single point of management and visualization both in infrastructure and on premises and in the cloud. This allows us to improve the speed to create new rules, speed up the resolution of problems, having a holistic vision of our firewall infrastructure.

Its security features, i.e. antimalware, threat prevention, URL Filtering, VPN, antivirus are the most valuable. The ID-User integrated with AD and 2FA feature is also very useful to provide access to servers and some users in the company. 

It can be improved in areas such as DevOps and quality assurance. The installation rules deployment process we also improved when we deployed these firewalls. In terms of new features, for simplicity reasons, it is faster, because as I mentioned above we can reused the same rules and the same objects from the local PAN that has a Panorama such as the single point of supervision.

We are looking for ways to integrate with other cloud in the future. For this, we will require a more secure integration and encrypted connections with other companies. 

I have been using this brand for more than ten years in on premises (appliances). Now, we are expanding this features to our Azure tenant with PAN VM-Series + Panorama.

It is stable and robust solution. Through Panorama manager, we can scale up automatically if the demand increase. At the moment, we do not have any problems with its stability.

We currently don't have many end-users of this solution. It is being used mostly for servers. We have around 100 servers. In the future, we plan to have more users. Our company has around 10,000 people.

PAN provides good support in general through its partners in Chile

No, the same brand is deployed, but in this case the change was a high availability architecture under Azure VM Scale Set mode.

We had some complexity because we had no experience in implementing it in the cloud, but with the support of the partner and the endorsement of the brand it was solved quickly. It took us a couple of weeks to implement it, and then we started testing. (traffic stress, fault escenarios, scale up, vulnerability assessment, etc.)

We took the professional services of a PAN partner or reseller in Chile. We had a good experience with them. They provide good support and have a qualified team working in security, together with the internal team of our company.

Its cost is $75.000. This is the total cost, and it includes the license, implementation fee, and support for two years.

We also evaluated Check Point, Fortinet, and Azure Firewall. We needed a single point to manage the on-premises firewall and cloud firewall. Our focus was simplicity without losing the security.

Fortinet is growing in the industry. Many companies in Chile are adopting this brand. Our company has not yet adopted this solution.  Our maintenance teams don't know this technology, which would have been a problem.

Check Point is a good brand. Their product is robust, but we found an issue in using their firewall manager with the hybrid architecture like ours, where we have both on-premises and on-cloud deployments.

Both are also a leader in Gartner Quadrant and Forrester together with Palo Alto.

Azure Firewall needs to improve.

Good support from the brand and local partner in Chile.

We manage public or private cloud traffic, inspecting for security through various profiles. This includes managing traffic for southeast, east-west, inbound, and A access, applying security profiles to the traffic. I also work with the Check Point Next Generation Firewall and Palo Alto Firewalls.

The most effective features for threat prevention include the threat prevention signature level, the application filter capability, and the visibility provided by the firewalls. 

We use these tools to prevent all known and unknown threats using Palo Alto Networks' Wildfire and other data filtering tools to gather information, analyze traffic, manage malicious traffic, and offer visibility, control, and attack prevention.

When managing the firewall, it involves a Strata Cloud web browser that requires improvement to enhance deployment ease and call center efficiency. 

Additionally, focusing more on enhancing the Stata Cloud Manager would be beneficial.

I have used this solution for three years.

The solution is very stable and has been in the market for the last 16 weeks.

We are very much satisfied with the tool's scalability. 

It rates up to nine out of ten for scalability satisfaction.

The support is quite responsive, but the support quality could be improved. They should focus on enhancing the support provided.

Positive

The setup is easy; I would rate it ten out of ten for ease of setup.

Customers can see data within a week, indicating a quick return on investment.

The pricing is at a reach level. I'm not the person who deals with exact pricing details.

I recommend going with the VM series, as it integrates advanced technological standards on a single platform and supports Kubernetes and Docker, which other vendors often don't offer. 

I rate the overall solution ten out of ten.

I have completed ten projects. The solution is used for network security, application control, and enforcement of policies on end-user devices.

The solution enables organizations to enforce policies. We can control every endpoint that is connected to the network.

The vendor must improve the way it advertises and markets the product.

I have been using the solution for four years.

I did not find any bugs in the tool. However, we'll face some issues if we do not configure it properly.

Almost 25 customers in Riyadh migrated from Juniper to Palo Alto this year. Before buying the product, we must know the number of users who will be using it. We must buy the model that best suits our needs.

Some people do not know how to open a case with the support team. When a customer contacts the support team, the team must help the customer to open a case. After a case is opened, the support team must respond within 15 to 20 minutes. However, the team takes three to four hours to respond. There is no proper support channel to follow up on cases.

Deploying a firewall is not easy until we have a basic knowledge of routing and security. If we have the knowledge, we can find the proper document on the website and do it easily. We should know the basic configuration. The deployment process is user-friendly. We can configure it easily.

The product is cheaper than the on-premise version.

When compared with FortiGate, Palo Alto has more security products. However, Palo Alto did not publish the security profile for the end-users or partners. They must explain to their end users why they are better than FortiGate.

People considering implementing the product must consider investing in the on-premise solution instead. If someone has a good experience with VMs, I suggest they choose VM, as it is cheaper than on-premises. Overall, I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

We use the product on our Azure network firewalls. 

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is a complex product to work with. 

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is stable. 

I rate the solution's scalability a nine out of ten. We have 100 users for the product. 

We encountered quality issues over support. 

Neutral

The tool's deployment is simple. 

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is an expensive product but the best one in the market. 

I rate the product a ten out of ten.