Item: WatchGuard AuthPoint
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with WatchGuard AuthPoint

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

At my organization, we utilize WatchGuard Authpoint primarily as an MFA tool for accessing our VPN. This plays an important role for us as our VPN is the cornerstone of all development access and access to important encrypted files within our system. It addresses one of our main problems with most MFA tools, which is that it is hard to track when issues arise (for example MS and Goggle auth have no way to track). This tracking allows us to address any potential issues or attempted cyber security threats on our team in a swift manner, due to WatchGuard AuthPoint providing real time monitoring for us.

Pros and Cons

Pros

easily manages MFA for connecting to our VPN
"work app" for all MFA so users don't use Microsoft
streamlined setup process
Real time monitoring of all push notifications or logins used

Cons

push notifications often require the app to be open, make it so they send through the phone instead of the app (if possible)

Return on Investment

Reduced risk due to monitoring of all MFA attempts
Easier Compliance reviews, due to all login attempts being logged and readily available for download when clients ask
Saved us money when compared to microsoft

Outcomes

Considering WatchGuard AuthPoint is just an MFA service with an admin portal attached, it doesn't really help with any security vectors other than providing an alternative MFA method. It DOES however, streamline this vector down to a science, by providing an all in one admin portal to monitor all logins.

TCO

In the past we didn't use a very secure MFA solution, we allowed employees to use google/MS auth, which is much less secure than authpoint in many ways. Authpoint provides us an "all in one" solution to MFA and admin portal to manage said MFA. We investigated using microsoft stack for MFA and tracking but we decided not to go with that as it was going to be extremely expensive. So from a TCO perspective, authpoint is very good for smaller teams

Credential Management Protections

We use these offerings to mitigate risk and enhance our compliance and security suite. Both the password manager and the dark web monitoring help reduce the possibility of our employees credentials being compromised. Since password manager is best practice in our industry, it is good to have one centrally managed instead of relying on individual employees to manage them themselves.

The dark web report even alerted one of our team members that their email had been compromised and they had not noticed.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Entra ID Governance

WatchGuard is superior in one way that is very important for our small team, and that is price, it is much cheaper than intune. It also offers most of the same suite of features as well as some extra (dark web monitoring is the only one I can think of) however the fact that it is both cheaper and more feature rich makes it superior.

Key Insights

Do you think WatchGuard AuthPoint delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with WatchGuard AuthPoint's feature set?

Yes

Did WatchGuard AuthPoint live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of WatchGuard AuthPoint go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy WatchGuard AuthPoint again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Watchguard Endpoint Security, Microsoft Intune

Likelihood to Recommend

WatchGuard AuthPoint is well suited for smaller organizations like ours due to the fact that it is easy to re-position licenses, easy to use, and provides monitoring for our small team. For larger teams or teams that already use a full Microsoft business stack of products it may not be as useful due to the fact that the MS product does everything WatchGuard AuthPoint does already (notably while being more expensive)

Evaluating WatchGuard AuthPoint and Competitors

Products Replaced

Yes - We initially used MS auth and google auth, we allowed team members whichever they prefer, however in order to be compliant for SOC2/hitrust we needed a centrally managed MFA, which is why WatchGuard AuthPoint was used. We also chose it because it was the cheapest fit for our new needs.

Key Differentiators

Cloud Solutions
Integration with Other Systems
Ease of Use

Again, we mostly chose due to the fact that it was affordable, however after purchasing we wrealized how useful and feature rich it really was. It is extremely user friendly, comparable to google/ms auth applications but with beefier security and monitoring tools for admins. It also helps that it is a cloud app as it will always be available

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I wouldn't change a thing, I feel like we went with the correct choice right out of the gate and WatchGuard AuthPoint has been good to us for years now

Comments

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Watchguard Authpoint big bang for a small buck

Modules Used