Check Point 4000 Appliances vs. Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series

Well suited for small to medium business with less than 1000 users. Good edge device, NAT is easy to work with. The anti-malware, anti-spyware are worthwhile paid add-ons. Anti-spoofing is built in, and required to be put in. The split of management between Gaia and secure platform applications is painful, but nothing that can't be gotten around.

Incentivized

Palo Alto firewall only affords by Large level infrastructure having a budget for Security Prospect. I will recommend it for the Card information industry & Confidential data solutions. Because it provides a bucket of security features that are not easily vulnerable.

Incentivized

• If you have critical data then you can use this firewall for secure your organization
• You can also use for cloud security
• If you want the deep packet inspection then this is one of the best firewall for you.

• The PA handles VPN connectivity without missing a beat. We have multiple VPN tunnels in use for redundancy to cloud-based services.
• The PA has great functionality in supporting failover internet connections, again with the ability to have multiple paths out to our cloud-based services.
• The PA is updated on the regular with various security updates, we are not concerned with the firewall's ability to see what packets are really flowing across the network. Being able to see beyond just IP and port requests lets you know things are locked down better than traditional firewalls.
• It is a great overall kit, with URL filtering and other services that fill in the gaps between other solutions without breaking the bank.

Incentivized

• Steep learning curve for admins
• No packet tracer application like the ASA to test flows prior to putting in new rules, etc.
• Policy packages are all or nothing. I cannot uninstall or turn off a piece of the overall policy, it's all or nothing.

Incentivized

• Our specific model is a bit slow and outdated and takes up to 10 minutes to commit a configuration change.
• Nested security rules would be helpful instead of a linear approach. But rule creation in general is very simple.
• Documentation gives a very straight forward answer to some items but is very vague in others.
• Support could be a little better. An issue we had a tech was insistent it was the "other guy" and it ended up being the very latest PAN OS upgrade.

Incentivized

The PA5220s have far exceeded what we have expected out of them. It was a bit of a learning curve coming from another vendor, but everything falls into place now with ease. The capabilities of the solution still surprise us, allowing us to remove other costly hardware and providing a single point of management needed

Incentivized

In my opinion, the Palo Alto Firewall is the simplest firewall in terms of management interfaces; though it has more advanced options that apply to more advanced use cases. Configuring basic features on the firewall is nearly self-explanatory; configuring more advanced features can be met with very thorough vendor documentation.

Incentivized

We've run into a couple undocumented bugs, but that seems to happen with every brand and technology. Any time we've had to engage Palo Alto support they've always been professional, knowledgeable and prompt. In almost all cases we've been able to resolve our issues without having to escalate our tickets.

Incentivized

We were using the Cisco ASA 5525 but this firewall was not fully secure. Lots of advanced features were missing so we installed the Check Point 4000 Appliances and we are really happy with the features, advanced IPS and web filtering help us to protect our organization and also more control our user traffic.

No one can say any other companies in this time is better than Palo Alto Networks Next-Generatoin Firewalls. Palo Alto offers very advanced features which protect you[r] organization. Advanced malware protection, anti spam, lots of other threats.

Incentivized

• We have not seen a zero-day exploit since implementing the anti-spyware, anti-malware, and URL filtering functionality
• We have not seen a successful intrusion into our systems since the implementation of our checkpoint 4000
• We have had this firewall for 5+ years, and it still has much life left in it.

Incentivized

• Overall, even though the device is very expensive (both hardware and licensing), the product does produce a decent ROI, given that one (or HA pair) of devices can do so many things, such as anti-virus, anti-malware, URL filtering, SSL decryption, SSL VPN, routing, etc.
• There will definitely be sticker shock when you're renewal comes up annually (or after 3 years), so be sure to look very carefully at the recurring costs of this product, with respect to licensing and hardware/software maintenance.

Incentivized