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reviewer1108272 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Consultant
Top 20
Provides the visibility and control we need, regardless of how complex or distributed our cloud environment becomes
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup is seamless."
  • "There needs to be a mechanism that allows me to manually configure compliance more easily."

What is our primary use case?

We use Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks for our cloud security posture management.

How has it helped my organization?

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks has multiple aspects that help protect the full cloud-native stack. We are not concerned with just one cloud at the enterprise level; we are focused on the multiple cloud environments we have. The solution provides us with a comprehensive dashboard and a comprehensive view of our cloud security posture. Furthermore, the solution not only covers the security posture but also informs us of our compliance with leading industry standards.

The solution does have security automation capabilities, but we do not use much of it in this case. We use automation for the alerts; if there are any misconfigurations, the alerts are automated. However, we do not mitigate any specific items using automation, as that is something we have not configured. We prefer to first look at the problem manually, and then take action against it.

There is no single comprehensive cloud security solution. We will need to use multiple tools, such as those offered by Palo Alto Networks and Check Point. Every security firm has a range of products, so if we consider all of them, we can have anti-virus, anti-malware, vulnerability assessment solutions, EDP software, and cloud security posture management. We need to evaluate each tool, and Prisma and Check Point both offer good solutions, including next-generation firewalls.

The solution provides the visibility and control we need, regardless of how complex or distributed our cloud environment becomes.

The solution can enable us to incorporate security into our CI/CD pipeline and add checkpoints to existing DevOps processes. From an automation standpoint, we enabled certain monitoring features. However, the remediation steps are still manual. This can be integrated into our DevOps pipeline, though some of the features are not being used as we prefer to keep it manual.

The solution provides us with a single tool to protect all of our cloud resources and applications, without having to manage and reconcile disparate security and compliance reports.

The solution reduced runtime alerts. We don't need to receive all the runtime alerts every time, as they will overwhelm us with messages. People often neglect this. Depending on the situation, generally, only very important alerts should be sent. I prefer that the solution be configured for when there is a major business impact. For minor alerts and notifications, we can still check the dashboard. Generally, we monitor the dashboards at certain times. We don't need to be alerted for everything, as this will defeat the purpose of this mechanism.

The solution significantly improved the time taken to investigate alerts by 40 percent with the alert monitoring and all its mechanisms, we receive our critical alerts quickly via email. We can even configure the remediation, although we have not done so yet. 

What is most valuable?

I appreciate the multi-cloud support that this solution provides; I can use it with AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. I find the ability to configure alerts and monitor misconfigurations in the cloud to be particularly useful, and we take advantage of this feature as well.

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is an impressive solution. The solution continuously assesses our security posture, making it the ideal preventive measure. If any misconfigurations occur, I am immediately notified of any unnecessary ports that are open in my cloud. This alerting system allows me to take the necessary steps to secure it before any attack can occur, making it the best preventive measure for our cloud.

What needs improvement?

I now extensively use cloud security posture management. There needs to be a mechanism that allows me to manually configure compliance more easily. Currently, it requires programming knowledge, so if someone without hardware programming knowledge could customize certain features to their requirements, it would be very helpful.

Buyer's Guide
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,036 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for five months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable because it is a SaaS offering.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Nowadays, all cloud solutions are scalable; scalability should be a given feature and does not need to be asked for.

A maximum of ten people have administrative-level access, which will be used by 50 to 60 Security Operations Center personnel. This personnel must log in with various role-based access rights. In total, we have around 70 people using the solution.

How are customer service and support?

In my previous project, we had a dedicated team associated with the account, so we did not have to pay for support. This was beneficial because, most of the time, we would go to our account team instead of the technical support, and our issues would be resolved quickly.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is seamless. We only need to integrate our API key and connect it.

The deployment took one hour.

What was our ROI?

I can see one return on investment due to continuous monitoring. Before, we had a few staff members who monitored our environment, but now the alerting and other processes happen automatically, so there is a good ROI in terms of resources. Additionally, the security posture of the environment is increased and fewer incidents occur, which improves our response time and resource efficiency. There are also indirect ROIs.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is competitive; for the most part, the security firms have similar prices. Therefore, I believe it is competitive and a good investment. The solution is good quality, so I would not hesitate to invest in Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks.

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

I absolutely recommend Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks at an enterprise level because the solution is an enterprise-grade product.

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.
PeerSpot user
Krishnakumar M - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise Architect | Cloud & Security at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Real User
Drastically reduces vulnerabilities and provides a single pane of glass
Pros and Cons
  • "It is user-friendly. It has a good look and feel and reporting structure. It provides a single pane of glass. These are the things that I like."
  • "There should be some kind of automation, AI incorporation, and bot system. All these would add value."

What is our primary use case?

I am in a services company. My company is also a partner of Palo Alto, so all the Palo Alto products have been tested, researched, and deployed at least three to four times by every engineer in my team.

It is being used for posture management. We have many users coming from many locations. All of them are having the same experience and all are secured. We used to use CASB which is a solution for authentication. This solution is in line with CASB. It helps to ensure that data protection is fine and all the data is coming properly. We can see whether there are any leakages or vulnerabilities. We can check all these aspects of security with this solution. All this is configurable. It is a web-based solution.

Our company is a vendor. If customers want, they can purchase solutions via us. We then take care of the physical box as well as the configuration. We manage the physical as well as the logical. In the case of Palo Alto, it is all logical. We can even code for a customer if the customer wants to upgrade their existing cloud setup, migrate to a cloud setup, or bring in a new setup. It is our bread and butter. We are one of the leading sellers of Palo Alto solutions.

How has it helped my organization?

Prisma Cloud helps reduce vulnerabilities. The number of vulnerabilities is less. If you have 1,200 vulnerabilities, after implementing Prisma Cloud, the number is drastically reduced to 500. That is one of the key advantages of using Prisma Cloud. You can see its benefits within a month.

Prisma Cloud helps to identify all the vulnerabilities in modern scenarios. For traditional scenarios, we have enough products, but a solution like Prisma Cloud helps to identify vulnerabilities in containerized environments and modern traffic scenarios. It helps with run-time security and east-west traffic.

Prisma Cloud helps secure the entire cloud-native development lifecycle, across build, deploy, and run. I would rate it an eight out of ten for this.

As an enterprise architect, I seek three capabilities from a solution. It should be preventative. It should be corrective, and it should be detective. Prisma Cloud is good in these aspects. I would rate it an eight out of ten for these capabilities.

Palo Alto DSPM's discovery and data classification processes are comprehensive. I would rate it an eight out of ten for comprehensiveness. For data security, we have a DLP solution. We have a separate solution. We never use Palo Alto for that.

Palo Alto DSPM provides us with insights into the content it has discovered. It also provides automated discovery of new data assets as they onboard and a prioritized list of all the data security posture issues in our environment.

The security provided by Prisma Cloud is important for our customers, especially for our banking and finance customers. We are a service company. We never use any of these products. I am a security architect. I am the one responsible for assessing and finding the right product and then deploying the product with the help of my engineering team.

Prisma Cloud definitely reduces complexity. We can see the issues or vulnerabilities that have been there for a while. We get good clarity on why they have been there and how to resolve them. Palo Alto is very good at this, and they make complex work quick and easy.

Prisma Cloud drastically reduces the number of vulnerabilities in the organization. There can be 60% to 70% reduction. It also depends on the industry again. For the web-based industry, where the company is providing solutions through the internet, such as share market or banking companies, it is very helpful. Production companies rarely use online solutions. 

With the reduction in vulnerabilities, the security cost automatically reduces. There is an indirect impact on an organization's cost.

What is most valuable?

It is user-friendly. It has a good look and feel and reporting structure. It provides a single pane of glass. These are the things that I like.

What needs improvement?

There should be some kind of automation, AI incorporation, and bot system. All these would add value. For example, AI should be able to detect all related viruses based on one virus. That will be a great invention. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for about five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable. I would rate it an eight out of ten for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. I would rate it an eight out of ten for scalability.

How are customer service and support?

Their support is very good. I would rate them a nine out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have worked with Trend Micro Deep Security, Singularity, and Lacework. There is a new vendor called Orca Security. They are phenomenal. They can even beat Palo Alto.

Prisma Cloud is better in terms of cost, GUI, and look and feel. There is a single pane of glass and very good reporting.

How was the initial setup?

Its deployment is straightforward for me. It is deployed across multiple geographies and departments. We mainly work with enterprises.

We have some stringent processes for getting the system to a perfect stage and ensuring that it is running properly. It takes at least a month. We do all sorts of testing, and then based on our test outcome, we configure everything in the right way. After that, we consider the data shown in the report as official.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Prisma Cloud is one of the top solutions in the market. When customers ask for alternatives, I recommend Trend Micro Deep Security, Singularity, Lacework, and Orca to them. I provide them with a detailed comparison, and then customers make the decision. I help customers with architecture design, decision-making, vulnerability assessment, and penetration testing. I also help them compare vulnerabilities before and after implementing a solution.

What other advice do I have?

There were some cases where we struggled with some customer requests such as related to zero trust. We were struggling to configure that. They thought that this product also supported zero trust. We then had to tell them to buy the Prisma Cloud CNAAP solution. In many cases, we also moved them from DSPM to CNAAP.

As a security professional, I would not suggest automated remediation. That is because we need to see that automatic remediation does not impact anything else. We have a team. We register all the vulnerabilities and threats, and then at the backend, we do the testing to ensure that remediation or automated remediation will not create any other problems. As soon as we get that assurance, only then we do the fix. This is a requirement from the customer side, especially from the banking and finance organizations. Because everything is crucial, we do not configure automatic resolution for any of the issues.

Overall, I would rate Prisma Cloud an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Buyer's Guide
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,036 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Pinki Jaiswal - PeerSpot reviewer
IT engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 10
Has seamless integration into CI/CD pipelines, and effective risk management, providing a unified and user-friendly solution for securing diverse cloud environments
Pros and Cons
  • "It provides insights into potential vulnerabilities in our code, helping us identify and rectify issues before they can be exploited."
  • "While the code security feature has undergone recent enhancements, there is room for improvement in terms of its cost module."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to manage multiple AWS accounts within our platform. Our primary focus is on ensuring compliance across all accounts, aligning with specific standards such as GDPR. We conduct regular certifications of AWS accounts to assess the compliance of services and promptly address any non-compliance issues. In cases where services are found to be non-compliant, we notify the responsible teams and work collaboratively to remediate the identified alerts. In addition to code security, we also use Prisma Cloud to protect our workloads, including serverless functions and containers. This comprehensive approach ensures a robust security posture for our cloud infrastructure and applications.

It serves as a comprehensive solution for both proactive vulnerability management and reactive runtime threat detection.

We manage this tool through a designated management account, handling all configurations within a limited account. At times, we find it necessary to customize scripts, such as when we encounter challenges with integrating Splunk. In this instance, the events are not being formatted as desired. To address this, we aim to create a script and Lambda functions to ensure the events are in the preferred format. It enhances our ability to respond effectively, allowing us to prioritize and focus on resolving any real or potential issues impacting system performance.

How has it helped my organization?

It offers security scanning capabilities for multi and hybrid-cloud environments. Currently, we support two clients, each with multiple sub-clients. Within these clients, we manage two DNS instances—one in the US region and the other in the UK region.

The comprehensiveness of the security features in Prisma Cloud is highly commendable. Occasionally, like any product, we encounter issues, and during such instances, we receive prompt and quality support from AWS. The collaborative nature of addressing and resolving issues enhances the overall convenience and effectiveness of using Prisma Cloud for our cloud production environment.

To proactively address cloud security, this tool has been instrumental. We've designed it as an offering for our sales department, enhancing our ability to cater to customer needs. Currently, our focus is primarily on container security, encompassing AWS, GCP, and Azure. This tool effectively identifies and manages vulnerabilities and compliance issues related to containers.

It offers the visibility and control we require, adapting seamlessly to the complexity and distribution of our cloud environment. With the Access Controller system, we can define multiple roles, granting specific access to workload environments, vulnerabilities, and compliance information. Leveraging these features, we efficiently manage access across our teams. This includes utilizing group connections to organize and simplify access, reducing the complexity associated with console and account access in our cloud environment.

It provided a strong confidence in the overall security and compliance posture of our workload.

It has empowered us to seamlessly integrate security into our CI/CD pipeline and align it with existing DevOps processes. Within our Jenkins pipeline, we leverage Checkmarx integration to conduct scans on our code repositories and jobs running through the pipeline. The introduction of numerous features with Prisma Cloud has significantly enhanced our security measures. While we haven't fully explored these features in the US region, as they are still in progress, we look forward to utilizing them once they go live in our pipeline.

It provides clear insights into runtime risks throughout the entire pipeline, presenting issues as they are uncovered during the build phase. This dual functionality includes both fixing and addressing runtime concerns. Within our categorized runtime alerts, we receive numerous notifications, acknowledging that some may be false positives. However, this abundance of alerts serves as a proactive measure to identify and investigate any suspicious activities occurring at runtime. We analyze each alert to determine its relevance and, if necessary, proceed with incident response actions. It ensures that legitimate issues are addressed promptly, while also minimizing the risk of overlooking potential threats.

To minimize runtime alerts, we have the flexibility to create custom rules, allowing us to bypass specific alerts that we are confident are expected and should not appear in our console. This customization is crucial for maintaining a streamlined team environment and ensuring our business operations are not unnecessarily disrupted.

It has significantly reduced the time spent on alert investigations, thanks to its built-in investigate feature. It allows us to efficiently query only the relevant alerts, enabling us to filter based on our release criteria. This streamlined approach has resulted in a notable reduction of about twenty to thirty percent in investigation times.

What is most valuable?

I find the code security feature in Prisma Cloud particularly valuable. It provides insights into potential vulnerabilities in our code, helping us identify and rectify issues before they can be exploited. Additionally, the emphasis on container security is notable, making it a key focal point within Prisma Cloud.

The security automation capabilities of the solution are quite effective. With numerous automated features, such as investigation acquisition, we can utilize queries to analyze our environment and review past activities. The overall automated functionality is impressive—we no longer need to create templates from scratch, as they are already available. It streamlines our processes, making it a notable and beneficial aspect of the product, particularly when a substantial portion of tasks are automated.

The solution's comprehensiveness in securing cloud-native development throughout the entire lifecycle—from build and deploy to run—is noteworthy. Specifically, we leverage the core security features, integrating them with Checkbox, a tool mandated by Prisma Cloud. The integration facilitates Software Composition Analysis scans and checks for license violations.

The standout feature of this tool is its ability to consolidate all the features we typically access from various sources, including AWS. While AWS and other services may require the use of multiple tools, Prisma Cloud excels by offering a comprehensive solution within a single dashboard. This unified approach addresses all our requirements, making it the most advantageous aspect of this tool.

What needs improvement?

While the code security feature has undergone recent enhancements, there is room for improvement in terms of its cost module. Presently, the pricing structure poses a challenge in convincing our customers to adopt this tool, especially since code security is a critical area of interest for many.

At times, we find certain features missing. In these instances, we engage with our support team, requesting them to submit feature requests on our behalf. Our clients have expressed a need for scanning application vulnerabilities on Windows servers, a feature currently available only for Linux.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been working with it for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It provides excellent stability capabilities. I would rate it nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is a strong aspect; we have never experienced issues with it. It consistently remains highly available. Our clients are large enterprises.

How are customer service and support?

Support is not just good; it's excellent. I find their assistance highly commendable, and I would rate it nine out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously relied on RapidFile and another tool for vulnerability detection, including analyzing subscription behavior. However, since adopting Prisma Cloud, with its advanced intelligence and machine learning capabilities, we've experienced a significant improvement. It not only efficiently detects vulnerabilities but also provides deep insights into our environment. This proactive understanding of our environment, including its nature, vulnerabilities, and potential threats, has proven to be a valuable aspect of using Prisma Cloud.

We previously used Qualys, a tool known for its diverse features. While Qualys encompassed various functionalities, including container security, I noticed a discrepancy in the vulnerabilities detected by Prisma compared to Qualys. Although Prisma exhibited robust features, there were instances where certain vulnerabilities highlighted by Qualys were not identified by Prisma.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was a straightforward process. The team was efficient, accommodating our requests and providing a trial without any cost. The entire process, from requesting the trial to obtaining our tenant, was completed smoothly within a month.

What about the implementation team?

We have a team of around six people in charge of the deployment process. Maintenance is essential. Occasionally, we observe issues with the UI, usually scheduled during weekends. Notifications are provided about the main areas affected, and the tool is temporarily unavailable during this period. Following the maintenance, the tool resumes normal operation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I find the pricing to be expensive. I would rate it eight out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

I highly recommend this solution, and I suggest anyone interested in it to explore a trial first. Once they see the benefits, they can proceed with full implementation. It enables you to consolidate everything under one control, making it a definite recommendation from my side. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Gideon Crous - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Manager at Cyberlinx
Real User
Top 20
Provides comprehensive security, enhances compliance, and integrates seamlessly
Pros and Cons
  • "The two most valuable features are container security and the capability to discover workloads."
  • "The regional cost of Prisma Cloud in South Africa is high and could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

We utilize the entire Prisma Cloud suite for container security, API security, and CASB. Our primary focus is on the financial services industry, including banking and insurance.

We implemented Prisma Cloud mostly for compliance to protect against vulnerabilities and weaknesses.

How has it helped my organization?

Prisma Cloud's compliance is extremely important to our customers.

Prisma Cloud offers comprehensive security across multi-cloud environments. This is crucial due to the increasing trend of cloud adoption and digital migration. However, some clients still maintain a hybrid footprint across various platforms like Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud. To address this, Prisma Cloud's technology extends to secure hybrid environments effectively. Its coverage goes beyond traditional one-size-fits-all solutions and encompasses both public and private cloud infrastructures.

It offers approximately 80 percent coverage for securing the entire cloud-native stack. While they boast a robust "shift left" component through their API, other products in this space are equally competitive. However, if seeking a single solution that addresses the majority of our needs, Prisma Cloud presents a strong option, especially considering the diverse technologies within our cloud footprint. Additionally, if we choose to standardize Palo Alto across our entire infrastructure, Prisma Cloud integrates seamlessly with other modules within their ecosystem. While not claiming to be the best-of-breed solution in every aspect, Prisma Cloud consistently ranks highly in Gartner reports for most of its functionalities, providing a solid foundation for technology consolidation.

It is a leading full automation product. Their SOAR technologies offer a vast array of integrations, all well-designed and ready to use out of the box. This suggests their overall automation capabilities are indeed top-notch.

Prisma Cloud excels in its field. I believe their solution covers detection and prevention in a world-leading manner. They largely deliver on their promises, demonstrating reliable performance. Additionally, they offer excellent support resources, including comprehensive online documentation, training programs, and a robust learning management system. Their onboarding and development programs are also commendable, providing users with the resources and support they need to succeed.

Our customers' organizations are enhanced because Prisma Cloud improves their compliance posture, particularly for those with SOC teams. It provides valuable insights and seamless integration, offering peace of mind that all security bases are covered.

Although the benefits of Prisma Cloud can be observed within three to six months after deployment, this timeframe may be extended for mature clients who prioritize rapid deployment. It is during the post-deployment phase, which typically lasts three to six months, that the full range of benefits becomes apparent.

Prisma Cloud does a good enough job of consolidating technology for our customers.

It integrates seamlessly with other Palo Alto products and provides one tool to protect all cloud resources.

Prisma Cloud helps provide clarity across our entire pipeline.

Prisma Cloud helps reduce runtime alerts by 50 percent and reduces investigation time for our customers by 40 to 50 percent. There is much less lifting for the operations team.  

What is most valuable?

The two most valuable features are container security and the capability to discover workloads. Many organizations struggle to track workloads that spin up and down frequently. This solution enables real-time evaluation and scanning of workloads as they come online and shut down.

What needs improvement?

The regional cost of Prisma Cloud in South Africa is high and could be improved. Since it is marketed based on a dollar base, it is primarily an enterprise product and may not be affordable for smaller organizations.

As a software development company looking to secure our cloud-hosted APIs before publishing them, we believe that Palo Alto might overstate its capabilities. We have identified competitive products in the market that offer better protection throughout the software development lifecycle. From a developer's perspective, especially for organizations like banks developing their applications, ensuring API security before deploying them to the cloud is crucial. While Palo Alto claims to excel in this area, we believe that other specialized products may offer a more comprehensive solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Prisma Cloud has excellent stability. From a product perspective, they strive to stay ahead of the curve regarding vulnerabilities and other issues. I receive regular email updates, approximately four times a week, informing me of any discovered vulnerabilities. Additionally, they provide articles on new releases or micro releases for patching these vulnerabilities.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability of Prisma Cloud nine out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support team has a well-developed portal with consistently updated online documentation. The forum articles are also well-maintained and provide a massive footprint of information. Additionally, the testing forum exhibits a high level of activity, further demonstrating the abundance of available resources.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

While the product itself is not complex, its implementation can be challenging due to factors such as the customer's existing environment, security posture, and understanding of their network and ecosystem. This lack of awareness can lead to unforeseen complexities during the scoping and planning stages. However, a more mature client who is well-versed in their environment will typically experience a smoother deployment.

The deployment time varies depending on the organization's size, but it typically takes one to three months from planning to launch. While further optimization is still required after launch, the initial setup is relatively quick.

We have a well-defined philosophy that is not complex. The first phase is the planning and design stage, where we uncover all the requirements and details of the project landscape. From there, we develop a comprehensive scope of work that includes the project architecture, deployment strategy, roles and responsibilities, and a risk assessment. The client then enters the site preparation phase, where they address any necessary repairs to their infrastructure. We then conduct a site readiness assessment to ensure that everything is prepared for deployment. The fourth step is the deployment phase, which we implement in phases depending on the specific project. We typically deploy, conduct a testing cycle, and obtain sign-off. In some cases, depending on the environment, a pilot phase may be necessary. After a successful pilot, the project goes to full deployment, followed by final testing and documentation. We also offer online training to the client during the deployment phase. Additionally, we provide ongoing knowledge transfer throughout the project and beyond. Finally, we close out the project with comprehensive documentation.

Our typical deployment team includes a subject matter expert or architect, a senior engineer, and a project manager. The subject matter expert or architect may be a cloud engineer or a network engineer, depending on the specific project requirements.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are encountering some resistance in the African market regarding the cost of Prisma Cloud. The lack of a regional pricing model contributes to this concern, and we believe the current cost is slightly too high for the market.

It depends on our reseller or preferred solution provider. The deployment and support costs are also factors to consider. Additionally, they offer professional services for the SKUs we purchase, which includes assistance with planning, design, technology onboarding, and scoping. So, the cost goes beyond just the license fee. Typically, the additional cost for professional services to help with implementation ranges from 15 to 20 percent of the license cost.

What other advice do I have?

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks earns a solid eight out of ten from me. The licensing models are well-designed and the technology scales effectively. While the pricing makes it an enterprise-level solution, its capabilities are technically suitable for organizations of all sizes. However, the high cost may not be financially justifiable for small businesses. Despite this, the product's technical capabilities allow it to seamlessly scale down to cater to small footprints while remaining robust enough for large enterprises.

We find that some of our customers may stick some technologies together to build their confidence as a compromise.

Our customer environments vary from 500 users and a couple of hundred workloads to 32,000 users and 2,000 workloads across multiple clouds. We typically run Prisma Cloud at an enterprise scale because of the affordability.

There are two types of support: operational and product. Product support is dependent on the supplies provided by our license. However, we also offer solution support, which sometimes involves interpreting reports and explaining what customers see. The amount of maintenance required depends on the customer's maturity, but it generally only takes a couple of hours per week. Two cybersecurity engineers are required for maintenance.

In our region, we have seen some management changes, and we find that the pricing remains extremely high and aggressive. Specifically in South Africa, Check Point has lost significant market share to Palo Alto. However, this rapid growth phase is now decelerating. The market in South Africa is limited in size, encompassing only a finite number of banks, insurance companies, and large enterprises. Many of these players have already switched to Palo Alto, leaving fewer attractive targets for Check Point. This decreased market potential will likely force Palo Alto to re-evaluate its pricing models. From a business perspective, there is often a pressure to continually outperform the previous year. This, combined with the high operating costs associated with their teams, has arguably led to a level of greed within the company, driving the pursuit of ever-increasing profits. However, the limited market size in South Africa poses a challenge to this approach. While Palo Alto enjoyed easy market penetration and rapid growth over the past four to five years, the landscape is now changing. Their previous strategies are becoming less effective, forcing them to adapt and evolve their approach to gain a foothold.

I recommend confidently reviewing Prisma Cloud, understanding your environment, and ensuring it is properly configured. Additionally, budget allocation should be confirmed.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
Aditya Thakur - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Security Engineer at eSec Forte® Technologies
Real User
Top 20
Helps reduce run-time alerts, and investigation time, and provides deep visibility
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Prisma Cloud are its cloud security posture management and cloud workload protection capabilities."
  • "We are encountering issues with the new permissions required for AWS integration with Prisma."

What is our primary use case?

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is a comprehensive cloud security platform that encompasses vulnerability management, container management, Kubernetes management, and serverless management. It utilizes modules, such as Cloud Workload Protection, to provide comprehensive cloud security. Before deploying any applications, Prisma Cloud performs cloud scans to identify and address vulnerabilities, minimizing potential threats. The solution provides visibility into our cloud environment, enabling us to effectively manage and monitor our infrastructure. This capability is particularly valuable in the financial industry, where hybrid multi-cloud environments are prevalent.

We use all the modules Prisma Cloud offers.

How has it helped my organization?

Prisma Cloud offers security scanning for multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments. This is crucial because managing multiple cloud accounts, such as AWS, GCP, and Azure, typically necessitates accessing each account individually to view the inventories of assets and services. Prisma Cloud eliminates this inconvenience by consolidating all of this information into a single unified interface, providing a comprehensive overview.

The comprehensiveness enhances threat protection by providing integrated and out-of-the-box policies, along with all the necessary components, to effectively secure cloud environments and achieve comprehensive visibility through Prisma's capabilities.

The security automation capabilities of Prisma Cloud are effective. We can automatically remediate some of the alerts using predefined policies. We utilize Defender to detect vulnerabilities in our containers, AKS, and GKE environments.

Prisma Cloud has benefited our organization in so many ways that we can't count them all on our fingers. The Cloud Security Posture Management module of Prisma provides a wide range of capabilities, including visibility, governance, compliance, auto-remediation, integration with hybrid cloud environments, vulnerability reporting, and blocking capabilities. It also offers compliance reports, integration with third-party tools for vulnerability and alert notifications, and Cloud Workload Protection capabilities for blocking, alerting, and specifying affected containers or servers. Additionally, it provides visibility into code security by monitoring the Infrastructure as a Code environment for unauthorized users.

It enables a proactive approach to cloud security, allowing us to prevent vulnerabilities, threats, and complications arising in cloud or hybrid cloud environments. We can easily investigate and obtain comprehensive reports.

We spent the first five months after implementing Prisma Cloud familiarizing ourselves with the solution and completing the training sessions provided by Palo Alto. During this time, we began to see the benefits that Prisma Cloud offered our organization.

Prisma Cloud works with the CIB. Therefore, when we build and deploy something, we can incorporate a Prisma scan, which assists us in scanning the images and gaining insights into the state of our environment. It provides us with comprehensive visibility and raises alerts or triggers notifications to inform us of any missing elements or potential issues. This is how Prisma can contribute to the build and deploy phases.

It provides deep visibility and control regardless of how complex our cloud environment becomes.

Prisma Cloud enables us to integrate security into our CI/CD pipeline and it provides us with a single tool to protect all of our cloud resources.

Prisma Cloud provides run-time risk clarity throughout the entire pipeline, revealing issues as they arise. This enables us to effectively block vulnerabilities and rectify identified problems.

We have reduced run-time alerts. The run-time protection has helped many of our clients protect their environments.

Prisma Cloud has significantly reduced our investigation time. The clear visibility it provides into our environment and the process flow has streamlined our investigations. Additionally, using Prisma to investigate issues rather than directly accessing our cloud accounts saves valuable time.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Prisma Cloud are its cloud security posture management and cloud workload protection capabilities. Integrating Prisma Cloud with our cloud service providers provides a comprehensive view of our multiple cloud environments through a single dashboard. This enhanced visibility improves vulnerability management and compliance. With CWP, we can gain complete visibility into all workloads within our environment.

What needs improvement?

We are encountering issues with the new permissions required for AWS integration with Prisma. Specifically, we need a mechanism to automatically identify and integrate the missing configuration permissions that are introduced on a biweekly or monthly basis. We have requested the Palo Alto team to develop this automation, and we are eagerly awaiting its implementation. We appreciate the efforts of the engineering team for their contributions.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Prisma Cloud is a stable platform. The only downtime we experience is scheduled, and Palo Alto notifies us in advance of the scheduled outage and its duration.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability of Prisma Cloud a nine out of ten. I have received positive feedback from our clients indicating that Prisma Cloud is an excellent fit for their environment.

How are customer service and support?

We have repeatedly contacted technical support to address issues encountered by both ourselves and our clients. The support is helpful.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used AWS GuardDuty for vulnerability management and compliance visibility, but it was not user-friendly due to the requirement to log into separate accounts to access reports.

How was the initial setup?

When I first started using Prisma, I found it to be very easy to learn. Several of our engineers were already familiar with Prisma Cloud and were able to help me understand how it worked, including the UI, navigation, and integration with other tools. They also showed me how to make API calls and integrate Prisma with third-party tools. Additionally, the Prisma team was incredibly helpful whenever I contacted them for assistance. They were always willing to answer my questions and help me troubleshoot any issues I was having.

What about the implementation team?

I completed the implementation myself after completing the training sessions with the Palo Alto team and attending a lab session for the Prisma Cloud deployment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't have direct access to financial information, so I'm not fully aware of the overall costs. However, I do work with clients and solution teams to provide relevant solutions. I also collaborate with the research team to explain Prisma's capabilities and its comprehensive range of features. When I see the credits and other similar programs may make Prisma's licensing costs appear lower than those of competing tools, it's important to consider the overall cost when evaluating cloud security solutions. For example, when implementing cloud security measures for CSPs or CWPs, other tools may be required, potentially leading to higher overall costs than Prisma Cloud's comprehensive solution.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks nine out of ten.

Prisma Cloud necessitates maintenance for both weekly and monthly updates.

My advice to new users and researchers is to delve into Prisma Cloud's capabilities and potential. Understanding the full scope of what it can do is crucial for new users. It's not just about visibility or the GUI; it's about the underlying work that engineers do, such as runtime protection, virus detection, and code security. New users should have a clear understanding of these capabilities. They should participate in sessions, practices, and labs to gain hands-on experience.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
TejasJain - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Cloud Security Architect at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5
Helps reduce resources, and has great cloud security posture management, but the identity-based micro-segmentation has room for improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "Cloud security posture management is the preferred feature among other vendors."
  • "There is room for improvement on the logging and monitoring front because it's still not as holistic as I would want it to be."

What is our primary use case?

We are a Palo Alto Alliance partner and our clients are Fortune 500 companies. We utilize a multi-cloud network architecture, with the primary constraint being the inability to manage everything through a single interface. By implementing uniform guardrails, we address the issue of inconsistent security policies when using native cloud security controls. This is one of the key considerations. Additionally, we employ micro-segmentation using cloud network security modules of Prisma Cloud to minimize the attack surface for various workloads.

The primary use case that was lacking was a single pane of glass. Additionally, prior to implementing Prisma Cloud, we used to manually perform these tasks using AWS CloudFormation Templates or Azure Resource Manager Templates. However, Prisma Cloud helped us address this issue by providing a unified administration interface. One of the problems we faced was the inability to view vulnerabilities across different cloud workloads and compare risks across different platforms. These were the challenges we encountered before deploying Prisma Cloud. While we didn't completely solve all of them after implementing Prisma Cloud, we did make significant progress in that regard.

How has it helped my organization?

Prisma Cloud offers security scanning for various cloud environments. In some client environments, there is only a single cloud, so the fact that Prisma Cloud can scan multiple clouds doesn't make a significant difference. These clients have a limited presence in the cloud, with few workloads or resources deployed. Consequently, it doesn't provide substantial value in such cases. However, for large companies, manufacturing companies, or companies with significant IT intellectual property in the cloud, with multiple tenants and a widespread cloud presence across different regions and replication, deploying a solution like Prisma Cloud becomes necessary.

Prisma Cloud enables us to adopt a proactive approach to cloud security. It goes beyond providing visibility and monitoring capabilities by offering a wide range of auto-remediation features. It provides numerous security controls and the ability to enforce commonly configured guardrails, primarily in monitoring mode. It is a comprehensive product that caters not only to detection but also prevention.

Prisma Cloud has helped reduce the number of people required to support or manage these cloud platforms, especially in terms of security. So now, instead of needing three different individuals to manage three different clouds, it may be possible to use just one resource to handle all three clouds, particularly focusing on security. This approach facilitates resource reduction, which is especially beneficial for clients operating within tight budgets. Additionally, there's the advantage of having a single pane of glass, where we can access various informative graphs, charts, and reports. These resources assist in explaining technical matters to non-technical leadership, making it easier to articulate concepts and insights to executives and other non-technical individuals. Personally, this has been helpful for me and our organization. The benefits for clients vary depending on the size of the environment. Personally, when we started using Prisma Cloud as an offering, it took two and a half to three months, which was the rough estimate. However, back then, not all the modules that are available today existed. So those numbers might have changed if all the modules were available at that time.

Prisma Cloud offers the visibility and control we require, regardless of the complexity or distribution of our cloud environments. Since it is built on top of these existing clouds and utilizes many of the services provided by large-scale cloud platforms, there is typically no issue with visibility. Regardless of the complexity of the environment, we always achieve visibility. The way we store and analyze the data, as well as how we visualize information, depends on the operator of the tool. Prisma Cloud is a reliable tool that never fails.

Prisma Cloud enables us to integrate security into our CI/CD pipeline. We primarily use it for the container. We have integrated image scanning and registry scanning into our CI/CD pipelines, specifically Azure DevOps. The DevSecOps team is responsible for managing this process.

Prisma offers us a unified tool that safeguards all our cloud resources and applications, eliminating the need to handle and reconcile separate security and compliance reports, with the exception of billing costs and management. From a security perspective, we haven't encountered any other reports for the majority of our clients. While a few clients may have additional requirements, Prisma Cloud efficiently handles all of those as well.

Prisma has reduced runtime alerts.

Prisma has reduced the time required for alert investigation. We now have a comprehensive understanding of the entire lifecycle of where things went wrong or which part of the runtime or execution for a specific process went wrong, particularly in terms of security.

Prisma Cloud has saved us money by reducing resources. 

What is most valuable?

Cloud security posture management is the preferred feature among other vendors.

What needs improvement?

There is room for improvement on the logging and monitoring front because it's still not as holistic as I would want it to be. Especially in the sense that we have different modules within Prisma Cloud, but then the visibility that we get from the output of each of these modules cannot be stitched together. Perhaps we could deploy something like a SIEM or SOAR platform to get this telemetry. As of now, we are lacking that part. So now I'm sure that was not the primary intent for that. It would really make a difference if Palo Alto Networks improves this.

The identity-based micro-segmentation in our cloud-native services requires a significant improvement. It fails to address many of the problems that its predecessor used to solve. Previously, there was identity-based micro-segmentation, but it was phased out, reaching its end-of-life and end-of-support. Now, we have cloud network security, which lacks a crucial feature that IBM used to offer. This is something we strongly desire, as we have had multiple discussions with Palo Alto regarding this matter. I am uncertain if there is a roadmap for implementing this feature, but the cloud network security module requires a substantial upgrade.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have never encountered any challenges regarding any modules. Occasionally, they do undergo planned maintenance outages, but those are well-communicated in advance. Therefore, I don't consider them to be challenging. Prisma Cloud is reliable, and I would rate its stability at nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability of Prisma Cloud as an eight out of ten. The only concern lies not with Prisma itself, but rather with the existing client environment. Many clients have flawed infrastructures, making it challenging to achieve the level of optimization required to fully realize the benefits of Prisma Cloud. However, this issue cannot be attributed to Prisma.

How are customer service and support?

We extensively contacted technical support because we used to experience numerous issues. However, our main purpose is to inquire about additional capabilities and make minor tweaks. The tech support provided by Palo Alto is excellent, without a doubt. This could be one of the reasons why Prisma Cloud is relatively expensive. 

We are an advanced partner, rather than an end user, which grants us easier access to technical support compared to clients. However, based on feedback from our clients, their technical support is exceptional.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. In the beginning, we used professional services for a couple of clients but now we do it all in-house. 

What about the implementation team?

The implementation is completed in-house.

What was our ROI?

From a security standpoint, we have significantly enhanced our client's security posture by implementing Prisma Cloud. However, we still need to assess the return on investment. While we have achieved notable resource reduction, it remains uncertain whether it has yielded a better long-term ROI.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Prisma Cloud is remarkably expensive. Not everyone can afford it, without a doubt. Although we don't directly sell the product, we occasionally engage in reselling certain components, and it requires significant effort to make sales. There's no denying that it's expensive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I evaluated Snyk, which is a competitively priced product. However, I personally am not very familiar with how it works or the benefits gained by the different clients I've worked with, as I haven't had much experience with it. I conducted a couple of use cases and found it to be quite similar to Prisma Cloud in terms of features, although the interface has a different look and feel. I have been informed that Snyk is considerably cheaper compared to Prisma Cloud.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks a seven out of ten, primarily due to the need for improvement in identity-based micro-segmentation and cloud network security. I appreciate the potential it offers for deployment, but the new module has yet to reach a point where we can effectively reduce risks.

All the cloud environments existed before Prisma Cloud came in. I don't believe we can build many things using Prisma Cloud, except for implementing guardrails. For instance, we can secure these workloads, but it will take time for them to be fully developed. The scanners, such as the infrastructure as code scanners that Prisma Cloud can certainly check, are capable of performing static and code analysis, among other tasks. However, I don't think Prisma Cloud is designed specifically for that purpose.

Prisma offers risk clarity from a core security perspective, but it does not cover the entire pipeline. To cover the entire pipeline, we would need to utilize a SaaS or DaaS tool. Prisma Cloud cannot serve as a substitute for those tools.

I used to primarily work with cloud-native services. So, I would leverage cognitive services across all three clouds. That was my main focus initially. However, now I have started using other tools such as Snyk and various reports. Additionally, I have also recently started using CSPM. I'm not entirely familiar with all of them yet, but I have been working on them since the beginning.

No maintenance is required from our end.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Harsh_Vardhan - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud security architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Provides visibility and control that our customers need
Pros and Cons
  • "The UI is very good. We get all the things within a single UI."
  • "It does not provide runtime security or protection for Windows Server. It is currently lacking in terms of Windows environment."

What is our primary use case?

I am a cloud security architect. I assess the cloud infrastructure for customers and help implement security control. I use Prisma Cloud for assessment. After we have the visibility, we deploy security controls, such as perimeter firewall control, proxy control, and endpoint security control.

We have purchased the enterprise license that provides all the capabilities such as CSPM, CWP, and DSPM.

How has it helped my organization?

Prisma Cloud provides security spanning multi- and hybrid-cloud environments with Azure, GCP, and AWS clouds. It provides comprehensive security for all these CSPs.

By default, Prisma Cloud supports integration with ServiceNow and Remedy. There are a few more default integrations. Cortex is their own native solution, but in terms of overall automation, Prisma Cloud supports a lot of integrations. It is very helpful for organizations to be able to automate these daily tasks. Different organizations use different security tools. A few of them are directly integrated with Prisma Cloud and a few of them are not. However, most organizations use solutions like Remedy and ServiceNow, so these direct integrations are very helpful. They can save about 70% of the time.

Prisma Cloud provides comprehensive visibility into cloud-based resources. Most organizations are shifting their workloads from on-prem to the cloud. Nowadays, everyone is using the cloud infrastructure, and it is a very big challenge for every organization because, without a CNAPP solution, they do not have much visibility into their cloud resources. CNAPP solutions like Prisma Cloud provide visibility into any misconfigurations, threats, or anomalies. They are very good for code-to-cloud visibility.

Prisma Cloud provides code-to-cloud visibility for the application development cycle of an organization. Some organizations use SAST and some organizations use DAST. Prisma Cloud is a combination of both. You can integrate your GitHub or your IDE environment with Prisma Cloud. You can have a view of the vulnerabilities inside your IAC or application code. You also can integrate it with CI/CD. It is very comprehensive. Not many can leverage the complete benefit of Prisma Cloud. In my last organization, we only used it for runtime protection. We did not use it for CI/CD or code and build. In my current organization, we are using it end to end. It is a good tool. We have the complete capability. The first stage is code and build. The second stage is deployment, and the third stage is run time. It provides complete development life cycle protection.

The time to value is usually immediate. At times, the deployment can take some time, but as soon as the deployment is complete, you get the findings.

The visibility and control Prisma Cloud provides completely align with the customers' needs. At times, we have to create some custom policies. It is completely compatible with the needs of the customers.

It provides end-to-end visibility from development to deployment to production. It prevents the development teams from pushing vulnerable code to production. A lot of things can be prioritized and resolved before deployment. By fixing things beforehand, you save a lot of effort or workload later.

Prisma Cloud's findings help us to create policies. In our organization, the vulnerability reports go to the network team or cloud infrastructure team. They analyze the alerts and create organization-level policies. For example, if there is an instance that is using a public IP, based on that incident, they would create a policy at the org level so that in the future, no one assigns any public IP to an instance. It helps them to create better policies.

What is most valuable?

Different modules are valuable for different customers. We are leveraging CSPM. It is one of the best solutions for comprehensive visibility into cloud resource configurations and compliance. It has a lot of out-of-the-box policies, and the visibility that we are getting is impressive.

The DSPM module is valuable. This is the latest one that Palo Alto procured from Dig Security. No competitor provides this functionality in a single pane of glass. The support for Linux and container security is also very good. That is the beauty of Prisma Cloud. However, in terms of Windows security, Prisma Cloud is lacking because currently, there is no runtime protection available.

The UI is very good. We get all the things within a single UI. It is easy to use. A new user can easily understand it. It is very user-friendly.

What needs improvement?

It does not provide runtime security or protection for Windows Server. It is currently lacking in terms of Windows environment. They are integrating their Cortex solution with Prisma Cloud. Once they have a unified agent, I am sure that these challenges will go away.

DSPM is a bit limited in terms of data security and storage capabilities. It only supports a few databases or storage accounts. There is still a long list of services that they need to support.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Prisma Cloud for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate it an eight out of ten for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is working smoothly. There is no issue. Scalability also depends on the environment. It depends on how much credit you have purchased. If you go beyond that, they notify you. They will not allow you to onboard more accounts. It totally depends upon the credits that you have purchased, so scalability within the credit limit is good. It is 100%.

We have about 40 to 50 people using this solution.

How are customer service and support?

Their support is average. It is not too good and not too bad. For about 50% of the cases, they have to reach out to their engineering team. The engineering team takes a couple of days or weeks to revert. They are usually unable to provide support without the involvement of the engineering team.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have worked with CrowdStrike's CNAPP solution and Aqua Security. Prisma Cloud is the best in my opinion. It is a market leader. 

Prisma Cloud has more than 100 compliances built in. It supports almost all the services inside the CSPs, whereas other CNAPP solutions only support a few of the services or most commonly used services such as compute, databases, or networks. Prisma Cloud supports maximum services from the CSP side and more than 100 compliances. It has the capability of RQL, so you can create custom queries and get the required data.

How was the initial setup?

It is very easy if you have an understanding of the solution. If you are new to this field, you can face challenges during implementation. Without proper knowledge of the roles, IAMs, and infrastructure, you will face some challenges during the deployment.

I can deploy it within an hour, but before that, we have to fulfill some prerequisites. We have to create a role for Prisma Cloud. We have to create a service credential. Every organization has its own procedure. They might take a day or a week to create the required service credential and assign necessary permissions to that. Once we have all the prerequisites, within an hour, we can deploy it. After the deployment, it starts providing visibility. It takes approximately 24 hours.

Our environment is hybrid. We are using AWS, Azure, and GCP. We also have an on-prem environment for which we have deployed Defender for CWP capability. Prisma Cloud provides us with cloud-native security and visibility.

They are regularly implementing new features in Prisma Cloud. They are doing regular updates in the backend, and they keep us informed. Mostly, they are performing these kinds of activities at night so that there is minimal impact.

Maintenance-wise, there is not much. Everything runs smoothly. They take the feature requests and notify us when they implement those requests. They are regularly changing and updating it.

What was our ROI?

I do not have any metrics for cost savings, but it certainly helps with security and compliance. The visibility it provides helps to fix any vulnerabilities. A data or security breach can cost an organization a lot in terms of money and reputation.

What other advice do I have?

Prisma Cloud provides visibility into vulnerabilities, but it is an organization's responsibility to fix those vulnerabilities. Prisma Cloud only provides visibility. It is only an assessment tool. The team has to fix those vulnerabilities. The time taken to fix the vulnerabilities varies because different teams work on it. 

I have not explored all CNAPP solutions. Overall, I would rate Prisma Cloud an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Allen Olivas - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Security Engineer at Fast
Real User
Top 20
Extremely comprehensive, you could drill down forever to see what the vulnerability is linked to
Pros and Cons
  • "Prisma was extremely comprehensive. It's easy to drill down to gather more information and keep going. It seemed like you could drill down forever to see what the vulnerability was linked to."
  • "Runecast gave us more visibility into VMware's private cloud. We have more environments there, but Prisma's lack of visibility into the private cloud was a downside—there weren't many."

What is our primary use case?

We wanted to use Prisma Cloud as a CSPM. The company needed a single pane of glass to monitor our AWS and Azure environments and see where we were in terms of configuration drift, vulnerabilities, etc. 

We're pretty AWS-heavy, so we wanted to see where we stood among all our AWS accounts. We wanted to keep an eye on all that, have a one-stop job, and maybe even offload some of our work. The company wanted to integrate with our Splunk instance to pair our SIEM logs with the CSPM. Most of it was for compliance tracking and vulnerability.

We tested everything out. We were building our own standards, but we also needed to adhere to IRS Publication 1075. They had that natively in their tool, but we could custom-build it.

How has it helped my organization?

I thought Prisma was great. It was robust and had many capabilities. We saw most of what we were looking for. The benefit was pretty easy and pretty quick. Prisma is a top-notch product. If they could make it agentless in the Windows stuff we needed and monitor the private cloud, we would have gone with Prisma. Prisma works perfectly with the cloud tools we have. 

What is most valuable?

I like Prisma's multi-cloud capabilities. It supports the big four cloud providers: AWS, Azure, GCP, and Alibaba. That was critical. We have mixed environments, so it's important to monitor all of that. We don't have much going on in Azure, but we will. We are predominantly AWS.

Prisma was extremely comprehensive. It's easy to drill down to gather more information and keep going. It seemed like you could drill down forever to see what the vulnerability was linked to. 

They had a MITRE ATT&CK attack map that told me here's the vulnerability, issue, or threat. In several instances, it would provide remediation options. If you had it linked up and fully integrated with AWS, it could handle the remediation for you. Otherwise, it would lay out the whole steps and provide the AWS CLI commands to resolve those issues, which was cool. We loved it. 

What needs improvement?

Runecast gave us more visibility into VMware's private cloud. We have more environments there, but Prisma's lack of visibility into the private cloud was a downside—there weren't many. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We tested Prisma Cloud out for about a month and a half to compare it to Runecast to see which works better for us.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Prisma's price is pretty high, but it's a good product, and you get what you paid for, especially if you're working in a containerized environment.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at Runecast and Prisma. We did not go with Prisma because Runecast could deploy agentless to our VMware private cloud, and we were impressed with this capability. Prisma looked polished, but Runecast could monitor the private cloud, which was a big thing for us. 

Vulnerability control is one of the things we're working on right now. It'd be great if we could find a product that can help with it. One issue we're having is that the latest data model we use to build out our products is domainless. We can't use Nessus, which is all on a domain, for vulnerability management on our private cloud.

We've tested out agents through the Defender for Endpoint and other things, but they don't handle the load that we have. This was going to help detect vulnerabilities in that environment. Unfortunately, Prisma wasn't able to work in the private Cloud. They were more focused on containerization and Kubernetes, so we ended up going with Runecast.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Palo Alto Prisma nine out of 10. I recommend it. It's polished and a great product. Unfortunately, it didn't fit our use case, but I think their use case is pretty normal for most.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: November 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.