What is our primary use case?
There were about ten people involved in the initial project. We conducted some POCs regarding customer security issues we were facing. We outlined ten cases, and these cases were created by a local Check Point engineer in Vilnius, Lithuania, to demonstrate scenarios. After testing all these scenarios, we realized that with certain preconfiguration or suitable configuration of Check Point products, including firewalls, we could effectively address the security cases we had.
Currently, we have plans to develop more Check Point CloudGuard products, as well as some on-premise ones, and certify engineers. We also plan to demonstrate the value of Check Point products to about five or six customers, along with a local Check Point representative.
Discussing cloud security and demonstrating its functionality can help build customer trust to initiate POCs and deep dive sessions with architects and others. This business is emerging notably in regions like Scandinavia, where there are more CloudGuard security projects with Check Point. We foresee a similar trend as the market matures and investments increase.
How has it helped my organization?
In our market nowadays, a topline risk is phishing. People can just open up malicious email and you can get terrible consequences. We're using Check Point to meet our demands for security, including email security. They have quite good email cloud security in Check Point. We have quite good ratio of getting getting phishing emails caught. Now, there is a lot of hybrid work from everywhere, from home, from the branches, from the main office, from the cafeteria, and so on. We want to manage everything, see how every employee is working, and provide secure working conditions for all the employees.
What is most valuable?
The products offer low false positives and excellent inspection of phishing emails, alongside monitoring of all internet traffic. These features provide significant value to the customers currently working with us. Combining these features into a single management platform that integrates with third-party vendors would be beneficial, providing a holistic view of all security solutions. This consolidation is essential due to the limited number of IT professionals capable of managing multiple platforms.
The network security has positively affected our confidence in secure cloud deployments and mitigation. When we speak about cloud security and show how it is working, we can get more trust from the customer to start the POC, to do sessions with a customer and architects and so on. Now, we have much more cloud CloudGuard Security and more cloud projects with Check Point.
What needs improvement?
This year, I have noticed that Check Point is working on consolidating all aspects into one management platform to provide a comprehensive view. This platform should include Check Point vendors as well as third-party vendors.
I am unsure what else can be done, however, customers need a holistic view of all security solutions across their platforms, which is critical at this moment due to the limited availability of IT professionals.
More integration into one solution with increased automation would be beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
Our company has been working with Check Point for three years. Initially, it took about one and a half years to finalize all the negotiations and get approvals from the IT side to start working with Check Point. Then, one year ago, we began a Proof of Concept (POC), which was aimed at IT technical staff and team leads.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There have been a few approaches and POCs, however, I have not observed any downtime. I understand cloud solutions depend on internet bandwidth and other factors, yet I have not noticed any risks due to the excellent bandwidth. I must say, it performs very well, so I have no concerns at the moment.
How are customer service and support?
The understanding depends on identifying the customer's pain points. It often depends on the relationships we have with the customer and the shared information. Once you know the pain points, you know the best way to approach the problem.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use a different solution. Perhaps my colleagues have tried other solutions, such as Fortinet, but I am not entirely sure. I think Check Point might have been one of the earlier adopters of cloud-related functionalities in our understanding.
In our market, Check Point speaks more frequently about cloud security compared to Fortinet. We mainly work with two vendors: Fortinet and Check Point. My technical colleagues have been involved in some testing concerning cloud security.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is sometimes more expensive than some vendors. It's not a matter of pricing, it's a matter of what you get, from the customer's point of view.
Building close relationships is crucial to understanding the pain points and discussing the best approach with Check Point representatives. This process can take time, making it difficult to rate satisfaction from one to ten.
What other advice do I have?
Check Point is one of the best in the market. I would rate it nine out of ten, as not many well-developed products are available in the market, which is still relatively new.
Cloud offerings are bringing new ways of working, applications, and security features. It is challenging to keep up with all the changes from cloud providers. For example, Check Point Cloud products are specific, and on-premise solutions offer more stability as updates can be managed internally. In cloud environments, updates are typically automatic, which can lead to downtime or lost connectivity. This issue is inherent to using cloud solutions as opposed to on-premise systems.
I rate the overall solution nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner