Item: CheckPoint
Rating: 1
Author: Darren Freedman

Overall Satisfaction with CheckPoint

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use CheckPoint as an endpoint anti-malware suite. We like its reliability for protecting workstations and servers from all the bad stuff, the only complaint I have with CheckPoint is that the cloud portal user interface is very confusing and not user friendly, even to a veteran system administrator. The cloud portal does display an immense amount of useful information but the navigation and organization of that info is disjointed and doesn't follow normal modern UX design.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Scans local endpoints for malware fairly quickly
Can be installed by InTune
Technical Support Managers will close support cases for invalid reasons
Sales representatives think its OK for support to ghost paying customers

Cons

In my experience, notifications are completely broken and non-functional
In my opinion, confusing UX for the cloud portal
Don't try and import 100's of endpoints when onboarding because it will create a mess
When installing the CP client you have to remove Microsoft Defender and if that fails, CheckPoint technical support goes, "Not my problem, sucks to be you!"

Most Important Features

Reliability

Return on Investment

ROI is satisfactory because it is doing the basics of preventing malware infections

Usability

Roll the dice and see what happens is what CheckPoint technical support wants its customers to do.

Alternatives Considered

Sophos Intercept X, Sophos UTM and Symantec Endpoint Security

There is no clear leader for anti-malware, all have strengths and weaknesses, nothing is good or great at everything.

Key Insights

Do you think CheckPoint delivers good value for the price?

Are you happy with CheckPoint's feature set?

Did CheckPoint live up to sales and marketing promises?

Did implementation of CheckPoint go as expected?

Would you buy CheckPoint again?

Likelihood to Recommend

If the org has more than a couple of hundred endpoints, I would recommend help from pro services otherwise the UX is going to cause confusion. Its almost as if a new customer would need hand holding because the UX is so .... unconventional. CheckPoint technical support does not have the manpower to meet the needs of paying customers.

I expect it to prevent malware infections - what it really does is waste my time with a lot of false positives.

Innovative Uses

Well last weekend I had to spend 5 hours doing client upgrades because CheckPoint was using the Kaspersky SDK inside their anti-malware blade which of course is banned for use outside of big bad Ruzzia

Future Planned Uses

I will do everything in my limited power to get my organization off of CheckPoint simply because we waste so much time just managing it.

Likelihood to Renew

Every dollar to CheckPoint is a wasted dollar.

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CheckPoint Endpoint Security