Item: WatchGuard Network Security
Rating: 8
Author: Charles Meadows III

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Multi-site with hybrid infrastructure, connecting multiple clients via branch tunnels. Also, leveraging the sd-wan features for fail-over.

Pros and Cons

SD-WAN Failover
VPN Connectivity
Virtual Firewall
Customer service

WatchGuard Cloud can use modern interface and features
AP Wireless Dashboard can use improvements and more features
Enable MFA without purchasing another tool.

Return on Investment

WatchGuard has an easier learning curve than many other FW's. Our new IT team was able to quickly get up to speed with managing and deploying policies in a couple of hours.
SD-WAN Fail-over feature has keep our site able to conduct business when we suffer from ISP issues. Before implementing this feature if our ISP had an issues we had to shut down a site. Now with WatchGuard we can failover to a secondary ISP.

WatchGuard Partner

Insight and MNJ. Fairly happy and satisfied.

WatchGuard Unified Security Platform

This sounds like it would be a nice to have feature.

It provides us with a single pane of glass to view network related items. The edr solution was not modernized compared to other AV solutions. However, the firewalls and AP dashboards are good (could be better) but useful.

Alternatives Considered

Sophos Central Device Encryption, Sophos Cloud Optix, Sophos Intercept X for Server, Sophos Intercept X, SentinelOne Vigilance, Cisco Catalyst Switches, Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services and Aruba ClearPass

From a network security perspective WatchGuard is one of the best all around tools available. Many of the features you would like to see at a reasonable price point.

Other Software Used

Azure Backup, SentinelOne Singularity, Microsoft 365 Defender

Key Insights

Do you think WatchGuard Network Security delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with WatchGuard Network Security's feature set?

Yes

Did WatchGuard Network Security live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of WatchGuard Network Security go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy WatchGuard Network Security again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Multi-site, hybrid sites, and budget friendly makes them perfect for Mid-size organizations. Good amount of features that aren't super complex to configure makes them ideal for smaller IT teams.

Probably not well suited for huge enterprises and organizations that need to implement customized complex architecture.

Best bang for the buck

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with WatchGuard Network Security