Item: WatchGuard Network Security
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with WatchGuard Network Security

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use WatchGuard Network Security systems for managing our multiple firewalled networks. The granular security controls and straightforward UI make it easy to configure things as we need them. The site-site VPN functionality and point-site VPN clients enable our offices to collaborate effortlessly and enables WFH to be a nondisruptive option. A small team can manage everything due to its accessible UI options.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Site to Site VPN
Customer Support
WebUI management interface

Cons

Local >> Cloud firewall management migration
OAth integration
Consistent interface among multiple management methods

Return on Investment

Cost:function is acceptable
Not overly complex, allowing us to manage in-house instead of having to use a third-party service provider
pretty much fire-and-forget, allowing staff efficiency

WatchGuard Unified Security Platform

similar needs are housed in a single interface. It has expedited our management process by allowing us to use a single product instead of having to hunt through numerous product dashboards or interfaces.

Again, simplicity has made in-house management tenable. We don't use every WatchGuard product, but the ones we do use work well together,

WatchGuard Cloud

Cross-product integration makes it feasible.

Alternatives Considered

UniFi Cloud Gateways and UniFi Switching

Watchguard Network Security made it easy to add on capabilities as our need for complexity grew.
If we were to start over from scratch, we may go elsewhere. But vendor inertia has favored WatchGuard Network Security and its capabilities have been satisfactory enough to prevent us looking to make a hard pivot elsewhere.

Key Insights

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

Not sure

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

Yes

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

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of WatchGuard Network Security go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy WatchGuard Network Security again?

Other Software Used

SentinelOne Singularity, N-able N-sight RMM, Microsoft 365

Likelihood to Recommend

As we're not a massive organization with a limitless IT budget, WatchGuard's solutions have made network security and management feasible for our small team. I could imagine at larger orgs it may be too simple for complex use cases, at least among the SKUs we utilize. It's a good balance of complexity for us, though.

The licensing is a maze to navigate, but that's industry standard at this point unfortunately.