Item: WatchGuard Network Security
Rating: 6
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

WatchGuard is my firewall and VPN administrator. It helps me creating my site to site VPN tunnels and SSL VPN users access to the network resources by using a software in their computers. It also helps me with MFA for these users. I am controlling DMZ for about 100 servers and VM and about 500 users in the Headquarter.

Pros and Cons

Multiple gateways for BOVPN
Extensive verbose on Network Monitor
Knowledgeable technical support
Good job detecting abnormal traffic in the firewall

Some functions are not present in the web version, and some functions are not present in the software installed in the computer
To get a "advance report" you need to install a second server in your network
Configuring Firewall rules is not flexible, takes a lot of steps
Hard to understand and find advanced configuration such as app protection or protocol based traffic
Hard to follow documentation

Return on Investment

No negative impact
Company has not been hacked in the past 2 years
I do not have a ROI but we have not lost client data or client business with watchguard

WatchGuard Partner

I worked with Firewalls.com, their sales department is quick but their support service does not work after hours or weekends, so upgrading a firewall while being supported is not an option (since you cannot do it during working hours [at least in NY time]) so I paid for the implementation but ended up doing it by myself.

WatchGuard Unified Security Platform

It is valuable to do an inventory of your devices and it is relatively easy to use but this platform only takes care of the license management. It has some functionalities to be managed from the cloud but it is too vague, lacks of advanced configurations, so you will prefer to manage the firewall locally.

WatchGuard Cloud

I only use WatchGuard cloud because it was a requirement for implementing MFA in my firewalls. Other than that, cloud platform does not offer any advantage over locally web based interface. It actually lacs a lot of functions and I do not want to have my firewall information in a foreign server (their cloud)

Alternatives Considered

Fortinet FortiGate

They are very similar in results but Fortinet is way easier to manage. They are equally complex when it comes to managing multiple devices across the globe but Fortinet has a better monitor solution. Also FortiGate has some firewalls capable of Virtual Firewall that helps when you have multiple tenants in the same building as our case. In our case, we solved it buying more mini firewalls for each.

Other Software Used

Checkmk, Ubiquiti Networks UniFi

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?

Would you buy WatchGuard Network Security again?

Likelihood to Recommend

Recommended scenarios is whenever a company needs a good firewall but Fortinet is not present in the market for any reason. I would not recommend WatchGuard for companies where there is a lot of scalability because managing VPN, firewall stacking and multiple devices across the glove starts becoming complex with WatchGuard solutions. They work well but are not easy to manage or not comprehensible.

Firewall
VPN
Load balancer

Innovative Uses

Load balancer to the internet
MFA VPN

Future Planned Uses

Perhaps attack monitoring

Likelihood to Renew

If I need to purchase new hardware, I will definitely go with a simpler vendor about the same price as Fortinet or Checkpoint.

WatchGuard works, but you need to know what you are doing

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with WatchGuard Network Security