Share your experience using AhnLab Managed Security Services

We had the firewalls set up in the cloud systems. We were using them for VPN as well as the encryption of traffic coming in and leaving the cloud.

When COVID-19 hit and everybody started to work from home, we did not have a scalable VPN technology. Also, with more people working from home, security was a bigger concern. CloudGuard Network Security addressed both needs in one single product.

After implementing CloudGuard Network Security, overnight, 500 people could work from home on a secure and encrypted tunnel. What more could we ask for? When COVID-19 hit and everything closed down, we were able to spin this up within 2 weeks.

CloudGuard Network Security provides us with unified security management across hybrid clouds as well as on-prem. There is a single admin client that you can use. You can have a firewall deployed on-prem. You can have a firewall deployed in GCP. You can have a firewall deployed in AWS or Microsoft Azure, but you can manage it all with a single pane of glass. You can have a single management station managing all of these.

We are very confident about it and our security. It is a very robust solution.

The endpoint VPN is super stable. The routing is also very good. We tried a competing product first, but we could not make it work. We came across CloudGuard. The network routing across different virtual networks in Azure and AWS was way ahead of any of the other technologies. That helped us be able to cover the whole network using one single cluster.

They have come such a long way. There may be other areas that other people use, but as far as I am concerned, I have been very happy with it. There are always newer features getting added and new encryption protocols coming. I can see where they are going and how far they have come. I have been using the Check Point firewall since 2010. It has been 14 years, and I have seen how they have improved.

They are coming out with more SD-WAN express route support from a firewall perspective. That would be great. They keep on launching new features. That is how they work.

I was one of the first sites to use it as a PoC before they even introduced it to the world. It has been 4 or 5 years.

I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability. It has been running since we put it up.

I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability. It depends on your design. You can either have a static deployment where there is only one firewall, two firewalls, and four firewalls, or you can put it in the elastic mode where it will spin up as the load goes up. It will auto-scale up and auto-scale down. It is fantastic.

They are fantastic. Their technical support is absolutely great. There is ownership right from the top down. They know their product. They stand by their product. If there is a feature that is not working, I have seen them write patches for me in 48 hours. They offered to provide the patch by Sunday evening in Tel Aviv, and by Sunday afternoon, I had an email saying that the patch was available for our download. We could download it and reinstall it. That patch was only written because of something in my deployment. It was not like they had 200 customers who complained about it. I was the only one complaining about it.

Positive

We did a PoC for one week. We had some major issues because of sizing. We sized CloudGuard too small, so we made it bigger. The next week, we did another PoC, and it worked well. By the third week, we were done. We went live, and everybody was working from home. 

I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of ease of installation.

Their support was good. We set it up when nobody else in the world had seen it. We were probably the third company in the whole world to roll it out. We were that new to it. Nowadays, I would rate their support an eight out of ten, but in those days, it was one out of ten because we were all learning together.

I was the only one involved in its deployment. To deploy this, you need to have a background in IT security and networking put together.

We have seen an ROI. 500 people were able to work from home. That itself is a huge ROI.

It is one of the top solutions in the world. We know that it is protecting our entire cloud infrastructure, so it makes a lot of sense.

I quite like the way they priced it. It is very reasonable.

We did evaluate other solutions. We looked at Fortinet, and they could not do cross-VNet traffic at that time. We spent almost five or six days. We worked 10 to 12 hours a day. Even after 60 to 70 hours, they could not make it work, but it worked out-of-the-box with CloudGuard Network Security. In terms of ease of use, CloudGuard Network Security is any day easier.

We did not just go with our cloud vendor's cloud firewall because the cloud vendor did not have a firewall at that time. Secondly, even if they did, it is always good to have a third-party product protecting the cloud. If we are using AWS, I would not put an AWS firewall there because if there is a compromise somewhere else, it is most likely going to carry over to their firewall too because everything runs on the same fabric, whereas this is separate. It gives a completely independent security front end.

I would definitely recommend it. I have used it. I know how it works.

Check Point has been one of the pioneers of firewall technology. This is the only product that they really do. They are into cybersecurity firewall technology. They are not like other competitors, such as Cisco or Fortinet, who also have network switches, hubs, routers, etc. Check Point is a dedicated company that does cybersecurity. All in all, this is what they do. You can see the investment coming from the top down. They have ownership of the product. I have raised complaints that have gone up to Gil Shwed. He is the CEO and the founder of Check Point. I have got an email from Gil saying that he knows we are frustrated, but they are working on it, and he will make sure that this gets fixed. That is the kind of ownership they have.

Overall, I would rate CloudGuard Network Security a nine out of ten.

We are using CloudGuard Network Security to protect North-South traffic or VPCs. We are using the CloudGuard firewall between the Internet and VPCs. All the traffic needs to pass through the firewall.

CloudGuard Network Security provides features, such as threat emulation, that native cloud solutions do not offer. AWS, Azure, and GCP have a lot of features, but you sometimes need to pay charges for specific features. With Check Point products, you have all these features in one license. You pay once and you can use everything.

CloudGuard Network Security improves our security against advanced threats. Others do not offer features like threat emulation out of the box. CloudGuard Network Security protects very well against advanced threats.

We have a high level of confidence in our cloud network security by using CloudGuard Network Security. The product is similar to what we use in traditional data centers. The infrastructure is almost the same. The way to manage the policies is the same. It is very easy to implement and manage CloudGuard networks. There is some difference when you are using auto-provision, but in the end, it is the same technology. It is easy for a traditional network engineer to work with CloudGuard.

We did not go for the cloud vendor's cloud firewall because we wanted to be able to manage all the firewalls, policies, and other things from a single point. 

The most valuable feature for me is that you have just one license. You can test and implement everything you need with one license. You do not need to pay for separate module licenses when you want IPS or other features. The license includes everything that you need.

The version upgrades need improvement. We faced issues while upgrading our CloudGuard Network Gateway. When we tried to use the template that Check Point offers on their site, it was not available for the second to the latest version, so I was forced to upgrade my management server. That was very challenging for us.

I have been working with Check Point CloudGuard Network Security for 8 years.

I cannot remember the last time I had an issue. It is stable, but every product has a few bugs. If you maintain the configuration and the versions, everything is fine.

We do not have any problems because we can use the auto-provision templates. If I need to scale up or scale down, I can do this. If there is any issue, it is very transparent. For example, if I lose my gateway, the manager will automatically create a gateway and bring everything up.

Their support is very good. Their response is fast. You can contact an engineer in a few minutes, but it depends on the severity of the issue. In the case of a high-severity issue, you can talk to an engineer to assist you with an issue.

Compared to other vendors our company has been working with, Check Point has better support. They have the best technical staff.

Positive

We only use Check Point products. In our data center, we are only using CloudGuard.

It is very easy. With a few clicks, you can implement your firewall. 

It is fair. Its license covers all the features. There is a cost-benefit. The licensing for the cloud is better than on-premises because, with on-premises, you have to pay separately for different things.

Overall, I would rate CloudGuard Network Security a nine out of ten.