Item: Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Rating: 10
Author: Shephered Moyo

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewall is deployed at one of our customers' datacenter. It is serving as a parameter firewall and a site-to-site VPN gateway. It is running Global Protect for management access out of band access. The firewall protects against threats via websites and emails. Any attempts to breach the firewall is logged and an email is sent to all administrators including management and a ticket is logged.

Pros and Cons

Sink holing access to command and control threats
Deep packet inspection
Secure remote access VPN via Global protect

High Availability can be improved to allow active-active deployment
All command line documentation to provide and support automation
It will be nice to have link aggregation just like in the hardware firewall models.

Return on Investment

The ability for the firewall to dynamically update its threat database means that the business has less risk since the firewall is capable of blocking known and unknown threats and that increase the business's Return on Investment.
Backups and restores take a few minutes to accomplish which reduces engineering costs to the business.
Network reporting and visibility provided by the firewall allows us to rely on this firewall only rather than having to deploy additional software to monitor and report on the network, that alone allows the business to save on other software costs and realize a big margin on ROI provided the Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewall.

Alternatives Considered

Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services, WatchGuard Network Security and Fortinet FortiGate

The above firewalls are great but the Palo Alto is the king. The Palo Alto does everything from layer 3 to layer 7. It gives visibility to the network, unlike other firewalls. When configured properly it will monitor and report on each and every packet that enters and leaves the network. If there is a compromised computer on a network Palo Alto can identify it and alert the administrators and block the computer from accessing the network until the administrator has taken a look at the computer, and cleaned it up of malware or viruses first.

Key Insights

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

Yes

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

Yes

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

Yes

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

Yes

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

Yes

Other Software Used

Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services, WatchGuard Network Security, Fortinet FortiGate

Likelihood to Recommend

With the coming of cloud computing, this firewall can be deployed in most public and private clouds. Be it AWS, Azure, Google cloud, VMWARE, or Hyper-V it works well in all these scenarios. Daily snapshots can easily be taken from which a rollback can be done if there is a need to restore the firewall to a previously known working state. The flexibility of this firewall makes it more favorable for use in today's environments.

Palo Alto Firewall is The Firewall of the Future.

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series