Item: WatchGuard Network Security
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

WatchGuard Network Security is a fantastic product, one of which I'd readily recommend to others looking for a dedicated hardware solution. It's easily accessible for newcomers with all the information provided online, and readily customizable to fit in near any situation. We currently use it to maintain branch office communications, and have had no issues building it out more as the organization grows.

Pros and Cons

Very Robust Documentation for Integrating WatchGuard across multiple apps
Detailed Training Program available for Certification
Easy to backup and restore with minimal downtime

Hardware/Software Naming Conventions - High Availability makes me think of stock, not hot swapping
In my experience, it's difficulty in finding credible resellers
Lack of Licensing Information - What License does Which

Return on Investment

Enhanced Network Security to protect against global attacks
Pairs well with MFA provider
Allows for network segregation to protect internal machines from guest users

WatchGuard Partner

I'm afraid I cannot speak to this because the system was already setup before I started with the company as far as implementation is concerned. However, I can say that we've worked with a few different resellers, one of which being CDW, and they have been fantastic on getting us our orders quickly.

WatchGuard Unified Security Platform

WatchGuard's online client allows for a simplified, yet robust, means of maintaining devices and their licenses. This makes it much easier to keep said licenses up to date from the unified security platform. That said, if you make a mistake when creating an account, it is not easy to go back and delete it so that a new user can properly be on-boarded to maintain the company's devices.

WatchGuard Cloud

Unfortunately, we do not use the WatchGuard Cloud products suite. However, that said, I have evaluated the software included with the Cloud subscription, and I have seen nothing but great reviews and possibilities should the needs of the organization change accordingly. We simply just have other products performing these needs currently.

Alternatives Considered

Ubiquiti Networks UniFi

In comparison to Ubiquiti's UniFi system, WatchGuard Network Security allows for a much more developed system simply by nature of the amount of information they make readily available for all users. Answers I'm searching for usually come quickly when looking through WatchGuard's documentation, while with UniFi, I tend to need to rely on forums such as Reddit and Spiceworks to possibly find anything of merit.

Other Software Used

Cisco Duo, Notion, Discord

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?

Yes

Would you buy WatchGuard Network Security again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

WatchGuard Network Security can find a home within any new enterprise security solution - it definitely works better for smaller environments from my experience, however, I can see it scaling well with larger groups. The amount of documentation provided by WatchGuard Network Security is staggering compared to that of similar competitors, and I can near always find the answer that I'm looking for quickly and easily. Additionally, I was pleasantly surprised how detailed the configurations within the Firebox allowed me to go, which has greatly increased our security structure to the rest of the world. That said, the licensing that comes alongside it may limit usability, so additional consideration to which license one should use and the associated cost may make some purchasing decisions a bit more complicated.

A Plucky Little System that Scales Vibrantly

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with WatchGuard Network Security