Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs. Smoothwall UTM

Palo Alto Networks WildFire is highly effective in enterprise environments where detecting zero-day threats and unknown malware is critical. Small businesses may find the cost of advanced subscriptions prohibitive, especially if they only need basic protection. Much of our infrastructure is OT and Palo Alto Networks WildFire is cloud dependent so cannot be used where we have air-gapped systems.

Incentivized

After a year of using the Smoothwall UTM Firewall solution, we can say that it is a secure solution, it offers a graphical interface for configuration and access with easy understanding and usability, the security features and blocking of url and applications work very well and also protects against malware and ransomware. For small and even intermediate scenarios I recommend it, but not for very large scenarios. Licenses can be renewed and are priced very well compared to competitors.

Incentivized

• This is could base and easily manageable for our collocation. While working within the could can review in live time potential treats that it has reported from other devices.
• Worked very well with existing Palo Alto devices.
• Another huge plus is the simplicity of managing and ease of scalability.
• Its cost is competitive with similar/like products available.

Incentivized

• easy to manage by its web platform that allows quick access to system functions
• allows the administration of the company's network by creating IP navigation permissions to prevent access to unprotected pages
• this system can be installed on computers with very few resources and even with old equipment just by adapting an additional network card. This is helpful for companies that are starting and do not have much capital to invest but need to protect their systems

Incentivized

• Cost
• I would personally like to see more JSON support in the API rather than XML, but that's being very nitpicky

Incentivized

• Rare problems have been noticed when there are many connections at the same time.

Incentivized

It works very well and takes care of protecting us from threats new and well-known. It's been a game changer in terms of threat detection & prevention.

Incentivized

It is a great product that has definitely improved our security posture, however it does require quite a bit of training and time spent customizing for the environment. We had several difficulties in deployment but Palo Alto support was able to help us work through the problems that we were not able to figure out on our own.

Incentivized

PAN support is very good. You can get the reasonable and timely support on any conditions. When the product is already integrated with the PAN firewalls, you can choose the severity levels based on the effect. The customer service/TAC is very helpful, they even have additional recommendations of advises for product usability. Local partners are also assisting the cases and give their expertise.

Incentivized

WildFire from Palo Alto Networks provides security with very little overhead. With AutoFocus, they’ve got threat intelligence built right in. That way, it can prepare us to react swiftly when a significant danger is identified and dealt with as soon as possible. They introduced firewalls that are aware of applications and can make use of Wildfire. It sped our ability to respond to emerging threats up because of this game-changing development.

Incentivized

Smoothwall is a system that is cheaper than just a free license due to being a Linux distribution. Simplewall is a bit more for robust equipment or large networks.

Incentivized

• We've had one or two malware files that were blocked by Wildfire. We use it occasionally to check unusual or unexpected files. Hard to monetize ROI, because we don't know what the impact would have been if the file made it through.
• We pay significantly for the Wildfire licenses, but given the potential impact to our business, we feel it is worthwhile. Figure costs are somewhere around $1,500 per year per firewall for a mid-range model. Can be higher or lower for different sized firewalls. Onsite appliance was somewhere between $50-100K, which was too much for us, so we use the cloud model.

Incentivized

• Internal network security and intruder protection for a cost-effective solution.
• The solution contributed and greatly reduced malware attacks and ddos ​​attacks.
• Reports allowed more accurate analysis.

Incentivized