The best of both worlds for cyber security and network performance.
December 27, 2024

The best of both worlds for cyber security and network performance.

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

We utilize Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series for our physical locations as well as the virtual appliances to extend capabilities to our cloud infrastructure. The high availability pairing and centralized management through Panorama provide ease of management with solid performance. We have used several other firewall vendors in the past (Checkpoint, and Fortinet) but ultimately replaced them all with Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series in favour of stronger security and performance.

Pros

  • Panorama product provides ease of management and visibility of multiple firewalls within one console.
  • App-id rules allow for enhanced rule creation.
  • Global Protect VPN extends firewall capabilities to devices not on internal networks. Great for remote workforce.

Cons

  • The interface is a little complicated at first. This is common for all firewall products I've used but Palo Alto could definitely update the UI.
  • Firewall rule audits are cumbersome. I have been using third-party tools to assist with the management. It would be great if Palo Alto could build out this functionality within Panorama.
  • Best-Practice Assessment (BPA) is not well advertised. These are very useful but require reaching out to your rep. Palo Alto should look at automating this and building it into QBR touchpoints with their customers.
  • Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series devices generally are on the higher price point; however, I have found the benefits to vastly outweigh the purchase price.
  • Great customer support from pre-sales through to post-sales.
  • Palo Alto is a market leader so they have a lot of integrations with other tooling.
It can be a little tricky at first if you have never used the product or a firewall before. If you have experience with firewalls in general, it does not take long to learn the Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series interface. They offer great training resources and knowledge base articles to help get up to speed.
Fortinet's IAM connector did not work well resulting in difficulty creating identity based access rules. Check Point updates and management was very painful. In one instance, Check Point depricated a rule set entirely which caused the appliances to fail.

I have not had any issues with the management of Palo Alto products and their connectors work as expected. The identity based rules work well with Windows based environments. Also, Palo Alto inspects traffic and assigns application ID's to applications it discovers through inspecting. These app-ID's can then be used to create additional rules which provides greater security.

Do you think Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series's feature set?

Yes

Did Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series again?

Yes

Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series are extremely versatile. Whether it be a one office location or multiple sites, the Panorama interface allows centralized management. I've found Palo Alto does a great job with their updates and supporting customers. As a cybersecurity professional, I like that Palo Alto's products offer a wide range of controls to support defense in depth. It is easy for security and network infrastructure teams to use the same consoles to deliver performance with security built in.

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

Firewall
9.5
Identification Technologies
10
Visualization Tools
8
Content Inspection
10
Policy-based Controls
10
Active Directory and LDAP
9
Firewall Management Console
9
Reporting and Logging
10
VPN
9
High Availability
10
Stateful Inspection
10
Proxy Server
Not Rated

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