WatchGuard Network Security: The RED Lion ROARS!!!
April 27, 2019

WatchGuard Network Security: The RED Lion ROARS!!!

Bill Fife | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with WatchGuard Network Security

It is used by the entire organization every day for every internal network connection, Internet access, and every telephone call. It addresses many problems: secure Internet access, private network access solely using lower cost Internet connections with SD-WAN functionality, secure and stable WiFi, enabling VoIP and SIP communications saving almost $100k/year.

Pros

  • HIGH PERFORMANCE: published throughput numbers are correct.
  • STABILITY: firewall appliances are stable and VPN tunnels just (fortunately) always run.
  • COST: pricing has always been quite good for overall features and subscriptions.
  • FEATURES: Intelligent AV was a new, free feature deployed with a later firmware release. APT Blocker (paid feature) was deployed with an earlier firmware release and developments such as this certainly indicate ongoing product development which is definitely needed in security products.

Cons

  • Centralized Controller: the ability to define a single endpoint, device, alias, etc and then 'push' to all connected Firewall stand-alone appliances or Firewall Clusters would be AMAZING.
  • Positive ROI: we are anticipating saving almost $100k/year since changing some network-based options made possible by VPN tunnel stability, VPN fail-over, and SD-WAN.
  • Positive ROI: using lower cost Internet circuits with SD-WAN saves significant money, management time and provides great flexibility vs MPLS.
  • We don't really calculate ROI for WatchGuard security products because they've consistently proven themselves. However; we do always realize how they enable operational efficiencies thereby saving money.
No partners were consulted. We initially worked directly with WatchGuard then quickly understood how products are managed so all work is done in-house.
For us, it's easy to understand, deploy, monitor and manage.
YES, this approach makes things quite simple and is always appreciated in a small IT support environment. Their approach saves us countless time, administration headaches and records/reporting problems. We know how many devices and clusters exist within the company so there's just one timeline concerning devices and all subscription services therein. One word: EASY.
It's well suited for MANY business and personal use scenarios but especially those needing secure Internet access, secure WiFi, stable Firewall and VPN tunnels. I can envision almost limitless use cases since our daily lives are so (unfortunately) extremely dependent upon Internet access. Concerning scenarios where it's less appropriate, maybe the neighborhood bar/pub where people just don't currently care about threats and simply desire Internet access.

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