Palo Alto Security Gateways are Simply Secure
August 07, 2019

Palo Alto Security Gateways are Simply Secure

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

PA-5000 Series

Overall Satisfaction with Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series

Our network uses the Palo Alto PA-Series firewall as an internet edge facing security gateway, focusing on traditional firewalling, SSL decryption, URL-filtering, and threat mitigation. There are two departments that use the firewall, which are the Security team and the Network Engineering team. Our main goal is to ensure that access to internal networks is secured and access to external networks is limited to appropriate sites.

Pros

  • Simple Policy Management
  • Easy-to-read Documentation
  • On-Board Troubleshooting Tools

Cons

  • URL-Filtering rules are complex
  • Some Cryptic Error Messages
  • Undocumented software bugs
  • Improved Security
  • Better Web-Access Control
  • Improved Throughput
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.
I've called customer support for Palo Alto on several occasions, and every time I've been met with courteous, quick help that answered all of my questions or solved the issue at hand. The support team at Palo Alto is knowledgeable and responsive. When not dealing with the support personnel directly, I've found that the vendor documentation and regular software upgrades are very handy as well.
In my opinion, Palo Alto provides the most easily managed firewall on the market, with the most options for device management. Compared to other vendors it's very obvious that Palo Alto focuses on their firewall technologies and supporting them. The monitoring and visibility features are the simplest to implement and clearest to observe.
The Palo Alto PA-Series firewall is well suited to a standards based network environment. Any network that utilizes standards-based protocols in lieu of proprietary (e.g. Cisco EIGRP) would do well to utilize a Palo Alto firewall, especially if that network were concerned about central management of security. A scenario that would be less appropriate for a Palo Alto firewall is one that isn't well versed in different security technologies.

Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series Feature Ratings

Firewall
8.6
Identification Technologies
8
Visualization Tools
8
Content Inspection
7
Policy-based Controls
10
Active Directory and LDAP
8
Firewall Management Console
9
Reporting and Logging
9
VPN
7
High Availability
10
Stateful Inspection
10
Proxy Server
Not Rated

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