Check Point Harmony Endpoint Reviews

This solution handles AV, malware, VPN, ransomware and so much more. It's a solution for all of our endpoints. We have 250 users spread out over the southeast US and they all connect back to corporate for onsite ERP. 

Most of our workforce is remote in offices or homes in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee. We also have technicians that work in plants with limited or no internet connectivity so when they get to a hotel or other public internet hotspots. The auto-connect to VPN is critical to them having a secure connection to our corporate network.

The solution has provided enhanced security on all endpoints for URL filtering, VPN, media encryption, and scanning. One of the most common responses from our clients is that they love the auto-connect of the VPN, yet hate that we scan all USB devices they plugin. 

When our technicians are working at a plant with no internet and they go to a public hot spot, the VPN auto-connecting to corporate secures their data back to corporate without them having to do anything. 

The scanning of ransomware has stopped dozens of attempts from malicious websites.

The anti-ransomware blade is great. It stops device encryption automatically and has caught hundreds of cases on client laptops. 

One of the coolest features is that it provides an HTML report on the laptop and the endpoint console for the administrator. It will show you the forensic report of where it came from and if it spread to other systems that have the endpoint client installed. 

The best thing is it never gets past the first client as it looks for bad behavior. If needed, you can open the console and allow it.

The product updates are a manual process for my administrator and can take several hours out of his day. I understand this is partially due to the Windows version limitations. When you do need to update the client version it is pretty easy. Usually, it's a case of the end-user not being online to accept the push of the software. That is where it can take up a few hours of my administrator's time. The administrator has to wait and email for our technicians to go to an internet available area. It is usually not a big deal, however, it can take time.

I've been using the solution for five years.

We have this at an enterprise level and we have it for all our endpoints. We use the product for disk encryption, anti-malware, and BPM blades.

The solution offers disk encryption, anti-malware, and BPM blades. For example, the Disc Encryption Software Blade is actually a part of this endpoint security solution. The whole thing is good for us.

The product has been proven 100% effective with us. We haven't had anything related to any threats passing to us for the past five years.

The solution is easy to use. It is self updated when there's a new version. It updates seamlessly, no matter what features you have. However, depending on what we use, there are some features that they will not apply in the clinics. We don't have the preview screen. We can customize it in a way that it doesn't disrupt our operation depending on if it is a laptop, it is a desktop.

The security is very good.

The solution is very straightforward.

The solution scales well.

We have found the stability to be very reliable. 

The solution is mostly very good. The reason why I'm trying to compare it with FireEye is due to the fact that it's supposed to be a mandate by the State. We are trying to justify the fact that we don't need to change our environment. For example, if the only thing that they want is to provide reports for the State, then that's a different story. We can customize the reports based on what they're asking for. We don't need to change or want to, however, the State may require us to.

Technical support can be a bit slow at times. 

We've dealt with the solution for ten years.

The solution is very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. Its performance is good. It doesn't crash or freeze.

The scalability of the product is very good.

The solution offers very good technical support. While they may be a bit slow, they always come through with a solution. 

The initial setup is very straightforward. It's not a problem at all. 

I have no information in terms of the pricing. I'm not involved with neither the purchase, maintenance, contract, or anything that has to do with licensing.

The company may be interested in trying to change to FireEye. I'm looking at it now to see what differences and advantages are at play. 

We're just a customer and an end-user.

I'd rate the solution at a ten out of ten. We've had no problems with it at all.

Kaspersky is suitable for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB), while Harmony is for enterprise segments. There are different requirements for enterprises versus SMBs. At an SMB, one administrator handles the firewall, network, and endpoints. You have more specialization in an enterprise. So at a larger scale, where you have a 5,000 or 10,000 users use case, Harmony helps pinpoint where security is lacking on a particular machine. 

Harmony's endpoint sandboxing is really good.

I haven't had any difficulty deploying Harmony for up to 5,000 users.

Check Point support is really good.

Harmony is very easy to deploy.

Check Point Harmony is definitely pricier compared to other endpoints.

I rate Check Point Harmony 10 out of 10. It's a unique product. It's the best in this class. I feel that Harmony is better than Crowd Strike or any other similar solution in that class. However, I would like to see more competitive pricing and better training for partners. 

We primarily use the solution for anti-malware. We installed it on around 300 systems. Since we required some application to safeguard ourselves in this situation of work from home, so we were evaluating Antimalware products. 

After some research, we finalized Check Point and took a demo. The product seems fine as per our scenario and fits current conditions. We were evaluating it for work-from-home situations. it had a multifeatured tool that helps in safeguarding the current digital attack vector for organizations of all types.

It helps in safeguarding our infra from malicious attacks. However, initially, we faced lots of challenges while implementation as the vendor who was implementing it made blunders, which resulted in chaos for the organization. 

Our team worked almost 24/7 for 3 to 4 weeks to resolve the issues. We haven't requested the encryption feature, yet they implemented it. Our laptops were already encrypted, so it started decryption and re-encryption, which was a nightmare for us. We are still facing a few challenges for which we couldn't find any reason for the issues we've since found that were not there before installation.

We found all features valuable - other than the encryption since we were already using that feature. Since we required some application to safeguard ourselves in this work from home situation. We were evaluating anti-malware products specifically. 

There can be scenarios where this encryption feature will be applicable and fruitful if it is implemented with proper planning and organized with respect to a particular organization. There have to be proper requirements gathering and a plan to work effectively.

There are improvements required in terms of accuracy. It gives you an alert for malicious sites, which, after searching on the Google database, don't come out to be the same.

There can be scenarios where specific planning will be required before even giving thought to implementing it into an organization - be it small, medium, or large. Everything needs to be organized with respect to each particular organization. There has to be proper requirement gathering and a plan for the SOW to work accordingly. 

I would suggest that the Check Point team always allocates an SME to all the vendors before implementation as it will improve the first impression. In my case, I had pretty much faced disaster after implementation that I would not suggest anybody go with the product.

The product needs to improve the security infra.

I've been using the solution for three months.

In terms of stability, I would rate it at a five out of ten. There were issues like once a version was installed and was not working properly, even the checkpoint team couldn't uninstall it and as a result, we had to format the system. few cases were reported for software installed but was not visible in the control panel.

The scalability is good.

Our ROI has been neutral.

Cost-wise it's cheaper than other options.

We did evaluate another solution. However, I can't reveal the name.

We primarily use the solution as an antivirus. We want to protect our systems from malware and viruses.

We are still doing work from home and we are not sure how long this will last. Before Check Point Harmony software, we depended on Windows Defender Antivirus, but we realized that it was not so good. We wanted some good AV so that users who are working on a VPN would have an antivirus installed on their system. 

Also, we wanted a sandbox feature so that, if any machine got infected, we can automatically isolate it from the network.

When starting, we faced many issues. It was due to a partner mistake, however. The partner gave us the wrong setup which caused laptops to crash and it lowered the efficiency. We escalated to our Check Point sales account manager. He immediately set us up with some other partner and tried to resolve the issue. He found the root cause, but still, we needed to format the system. It has been more than 3 months, and now the user's system is working fine. 

We always receive alert emails from Check Point regarding malware or virus status, which is helpful.

We like the sandbox feature. If any machine got infected, it would get automatically isolated from the network. As such, we haven't faced any issues. We like that we have an option to isolate. 

The alert email from Check Point is also very valuable. If any machine didn't get a scan or has a virus due to visiting various websites on a browser, it automatically sends us an email to warn us. Accordingly, we can take action on that particular machine. 

Overall, the antivirus is good.

Technical support could be better. When we register a complaint, we need to register it via the portal only, which is atime consuming.

When we register the complaint, it says there's a minimum of four hours of turnaround time which is high. It should be a minimum of 60 minutes. 

The GUI of Harmony is very slow to upload. I'm not sure if it is due to the internet, but still, at times, we found that when we click on any tab, it takes a minimum of five seconds to get it open.

All other things are okay from our end.

One feature we want to add is an EDR/XDR into this antivirus module.

I've been using the solution for 4 months.

The stability is good.

I found the solution to be okay. I'm not sure how others are providing the support as we haven't checked that.

Technical support is good.

No, we haven't used any other antivirus. It was by default in Windows.

The initial setup was okay.

We implement it through a vendor. 

I would rate their level of service at a 2 out of 5 where 1 is lowest and 5 is best.

If we talk about ROI, then the solution is good, as we are getting a sandbox feature in it plus the VPN licenses if we have the Check Point firewall.

The setup is okay depending on the partner and what the relationship is with you and your partner. The pricing is okay.

Yes, we have evaluated other options. For example, we've evaluated Sophos.

We primarily use it for end-to-end security for endpoints and the co-relation of events from one single console. We have been able to protect our endpoints with Harmony. The user experience is also good and there is not too much to be done with respect to the endpoint changes (the best part). Features like Threat Emulation/Threat Extraction, Antibot, Anti- Exploit, Anti Ransomware protection, UBA, Zero-day Phishing protection, Behavioral Guard, Encryption, VPN, and compliance makes it more powerful and helpful to our security team in order to protect the environment.

Our organization's overall security posture has improved with Harmony Endpoint protection. This has helped to secure against all modern age threats and risks that came in during the pandemic. 

During the pandemic, the users, for example, have been forced to work from home and that's been forcing the IT to do overtime to protect the endpoints. After introducing Harmany Endpoint we have seen the incident levels going down to close to zero. 

The single dashboard provides complete visibility over endpoint security and the administration can view the actionable tasks to follow up easily without searching across multiple reports/consoles. 

All of the available features are good (for example Threat Emulation/Threat Extraction, Antibot, Anti-Exploit, Anti-Ransomware protection, UBA, Zero-day Phishing protection, Behavioral Guard, Encryption, VPN, and compliance), however, the one I have thought to be very valuable is the Ransomware Protection Feature which has been used widely during the pandemic. It protects as well as saves original file copies to prevent data loss.

Forensic Analysis provides a complete analysis of threats via detailed reports. The threat prevention, which includes a detailed threat landscape is very good.

The VPN connectivity and compliance check are also very good features.

Support's service and the response times can be improved. The triaging of the tickets takes a long time and the tickets are only resolved with escalations. 

With respect to the product, we feel Endpoint vulnerability management is one of the modules that is missing and it is something that is required. Adding this will strengthen the product and help in taking proactive steps towards protecting the environment.

DLP Module & Patching are required from an endpoint perspective. It would be good to add those in an upcoming release/version.

I've used the solution for more than 6 months.

We have deployed it on the cloud which helps it to be scalable and cost-effective.

We were using multiple solutions to protect the environment in the past. These include solutions such as McAfee, Websence DLP, encryption, etc. however, now it is all happening with this one tool and console 

Easy to set up and start using.

A single administrator can manage the complete solution. It's easy to deploy and does not require any additional effort. We're able to have multiple solutions within a single solution.

We implemented the product with the help of our OEM and our in-house team. There were no major challenges during implementation or even in day-to-day operations.

Harmony Endpoint, in terms of the deployment, integration, and setup, costs less than other solutions.

Yes, we evaluated other products as well, however, with respect to feature price and integration availability, we selected this product.

Harmony Endpoint is a good product and scalable with business growth. 

The main option for which this solution is used is to have all the peripheral equipment protected - avoiding risks due to malware and viruses. The solution can be managed by device, with filtering and analysis of the information of all collaborators available there. 

It's used to analyze emails from key users and for content filtering rules. It does not allow dangerous downloads, which protects the work of the organization outside the main network. It gives tools to the collaborators to make the work outside the installations (home office) easy.

With COVID affecting the world, a solution was needed that could be able to provide security at workstations outside of the organization itself. With the sandblast tool, coverage is made on the equipment that we provide (laptops) and employees can carry out their activities from home. The tool has provided us with security to ensure that the computers are protected while also providing information analysis. It offers easy control and implementation of content filtering rules. Thus, you have control of all the organization's teams outside and within the operational network.

The endpoint agents, which can be installed in one go, are great. The communication with the console is very dynamic and remote, without the need to return to the computer locally. 

From the administration console, we can generate content filtering rules and labels, as well as run an analysis of emails and downloads that the collaborator does to fulfill their functions. Informing the administrator of threats by mail gives us the facility to detect real-time vulnerabilities in order to continue fulfilling the objective of safeguarding the information of the organization.

There needs to be compatibility with the most recent versions of the various operating systems. They need to be up-to-date with the signatures of new viruses and the latest ramsonware. With the encompassing of all its solutions in one platform, there should be artificial intelligence for specific analysis to thus be able to anticipate and detect unique risks to the organization. 

To be able to count on the administration console on any device and online cloud would be ideal. We would like there to be no need to install clients as executables.

I've been using the solution for one year.

We like the idea of ​​continuing to implement more solutions offered by Harmony.

Technical support is good. They comply when we need support or have product questions.

No, Sandblast was chosen as the first option.

The solution meets our business needs. 

We did look at Fortinet solutions.

In my organization, we have deployed the Harmony Endpoint Check Point tool with the idea of being able to secure the deployed part of our mobile corporate devices in order to start the security processes at the point as close to the user as possible. 

Using its ease of deployment capacity and its power in detecting malware or insecure elements, this tool provides us with the peace of mind we were looking for in an environment of several thousand terminals deployed on the network in many places and environments.

By using the Check Point Harmony Endpoint tool we have improved our network visibility, have extensive control of our network and our users, and, above all, have a level of security against cyber attacks that we did not have before. 

Now, we are able to detect and avoid security breaks. We can better understand the use that our users make of the devices, and, most importantly, we can apply security policies that keep our users safe as well as the organization's own systems and data. The personal information of our users is also secure.

Right away, we noticed when using Check Point's Harmony Endpoint tool, was the ease of deployment. In our case, it was deployed without too many difficulties, considering the deployment involved several tens of thousands of devices. 

Once deployed, the dashboard and all the inventory information that we had been able to obtain and that we did not know about before proved to be very interesting. 

One of the strengths of Harmony is its power to detect threats and keep us safe. Also the ability to apply policies specifically to users or groups is very useful.

I still don't have a clear opinion of the possible improvements that the tool may need. There are still functionalities that I have not been able to try completely and I would like to spend more time using the tool before offering an opinion to the IT Central community on this point. 

Something that is very important to me is the remediation or recovery capabilities after an attack. From what I have seen so far, this tool maintains the quality line of Check Point products and is always ahead of the needs of the market.

I've used the solution for seven months.

This was the first endpoint tool we use in my organization. We didn't use anything previously.

The only thing I don't like about the solution is the time to pay for the licenses. That said, I really believe that it is a fair price according to the quality of the product offered.

We also looked at Panda Security Adaptive Defense, Cisco Secure Endpoint, ESET Endpoint Security, and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.

After analyzing and comparing other solutions, we determine that Harmony has the best value for money.

The solution should be able to provide next-generation security for endpoints and should be able to monitor, detect, mitigate, and block attacks, as well as provide complete visibility in terms of the chain of events so that forensics can be performed accordingly.

All of the security features should be provided on a single agent and it should be lightweight and should not have a performance impact on the endpoint.

Provide required/relevant logs on the console and also should be able to forward to the SIEM solution. So accordingly, a use case can be created. 

The agent should be tamperproof and the admin should not be able to shut down or stop services without the security team concerned, or by using a password.

We should be able to integrate and share IOC with other security devices.

The Check Point SandBlast solution, also known as Harmony Endpoint, is able to detect, block, monitor, and respond to any malicious activity that happens on the endpoint. With a single agent deployed on the endpoint, it's able to provide complete EDPR functionality, with help of multiple security features and modules.

This agent can be pushed either from the Check Point management console or by using other patch management solutions such as SCCM.

It is able to provide a consolidated security posture for all Windows endpoints on a single dashboard and also provide threat hunter visibility for any security threat on the endpoint, and able to mitigate the same. 

Provide capability of reproducing any security threat and also provide RCA/attack tree. 

File/hash can be swiped across the network using the security console, which provides visibility on the endpoint according to its priority.  

Harmony Endpoint provides complete EDPR functionality using multiple modules and features that are available with the solution. These include Compliance, Anti-Malware, Media Encryption, Port Protection, Firewall, Application Control, Full Disk Encryption, Remote access VPN, Capsule DOC, URL Filtering, Anti-Bot, Anti-Ransomware, Behaviour Guard, Forensics, Threat Emulation, and Anit-Exploit. This group of features is able to protect the endpoint from any next-generation attack. Any of the modules can be enabled or disabled based on the organization's requirements.

Harmony Endpoint is able to detect, monitor, block, and mitigate attacks on the endpoint and it builds and maintains relevant logs for later inspection. The agent sends telemetry/metadata to the centralized console for forensic purposes.

Policies for endpoints can be created based on the username or endpoint.

Integration with the Threat intel platform is helpful for blocking any attack at an early stage.

The complete solution can be hosted on-premises or SaaS on the cloud.

Remote access VPN is provided as default in the base license.

A different Policy Server can be configured and hosted at each location so that the agent does not have to reach a central location to receive policy updates. Policy servers are created using an OVF file, which can be installed on any Virtual Platform such as VMware.

It has secure communication between the Policy Server and the Management Console using Certificate/SIC communication.

The agent footprint is small on the endpoint.

It supports integration with other security solutions for sharing threat intel within an organization or over the cloud.

The anti-ransomware module is very strong; it's able to detect any ransomware attack at a very early stage.

Host-based firewall policy configuration is simple, which helps to access an endpoint if the machine is not in the organization's network.

The Threat Hunting module is not available for on-premises deployment.

The user has to connect using the VPN to take Policy Server updates when the solution is hosted on-premises. This adds overhead, as the user has to connect to the corporate network to get the policy.

In the case of a hybrid setup where the Policy and Management Server is on the cloud, the Sandbox appliance has to be on-premises.

Policy configuration and deployment are complex.

The application control and URL filtering features are not very strong.

Application Control databases are generated locally and it does not provide any visibility to the admin on which applications are installed on the endpoint.

The solution is supported only on Windows and MAC and not any other platform.

So far, the solution is stable.

The solution is scalable we can add multiple policy servers based on requirement and it will be integrated with the central management server (Primary/Secondary). 

In the case of the SaaS offering, it is managed by Check Point. 

Technical support is excellent.

We used McAfee AV but it was not able to provide the next-generation capability that we were looking for.

The solution required the Management Console and Policy server for initial setup and it can be increased based on the requirements.

We had assistance from the vendor during deployment and the service is excellent.

There are three different licensing models including basic, advanced, and complete, and it needs to be selected according to the endpoint. For example, it matters whether it is only required for a Windows endpoint as opposed to providing support for BYOD/Mobile devices.

We evaluated Windows ATP and CrowdStrike.

In case you want to set up the solution on-premises and you want to deploy multiple policy servers, it is complicated. You will need an OVF to be deployed at each location and sometimes, organizations don't have the compute or supporting platform for deployment.

Also, for connecting remote users there is a dependency on the VPN, hence it's again a challenge for users to connect to the policy server for updates.

Currently, our servers are not protected by a working anti-virus solution that receives updates. These servers & particularly the business are at extreme risk of not only suffering a breach and losing data, but also have a high risk of infecting the rest of the subsidiaries owned by Tyrion.

The solution hinges on the following requirements:

• The ability to be completely managed from a Cloud environment, including the ability to download new signatures whilst not on the corporate network;

• The ability to generate reports based on set criteria (which can help justify the cost);

• Ability to generate alerts or notifications to an administrator in the event an infection is detected so that Security Incident Response can be initiated;

• Where possible, the tool should have the ability to complement existing tools sets, replace already existing toolsets, or bring something beneficial to the table to help strengthen the security posture;

Implementing a fully functioning anti-virus solution gave the company the ability to defend against almost all threats that occur either on or off the network. It has further given the security team the ability to respond to incidents quicker and perform root cause analysis easier, thus reducing the number of man-hours needed to fix a potential outbreak.

Additionally, it will also give the security team greater reporting capabilities to show the business the types of attacks it faces on a monthly basis. This is through a monthly report & it will help the business tailor security training to its end-users so that they can better defend themselves against these attacks.

The most useful feature so far has been having a functioning and up-to-date anti-malware scanner. This has found multiple dormant threats that have existed within the business that other anti-virus products could not detect.

In addition to this, threat extraction & threat emulation have been a big benefit to give the users more autonomy. For example, allowing them to release their own spam emails that were captured by our spam filter, knowing that the files that are released will be scanned and checked for known viruses.

The only two bug bearers of Check Point SandBlast that I have come across are as follows:

Sometimes, the Cloud Management Portal can become unresponsive or take a long time to process a query. This in turn will cause the browser to freeze, which will require closing and reopening of your browser.

The second is that getting useful "administrator" information requires digging into the policy rules via a second management agent installed on your computer. However, once installed, it is easy to navigate and use so is more of a slight inconvenience than a major issue.

So far, the Check Point SandBlast Agent is in the deployment stage, as we have only had the product for one month.

Stability-wise, we are 90% happy. If the web console could be made more stable, this would go to 100%.

In my opinion, this product is extremely scalable.

We have used multiple different anti-virus products including those by McAfee, AVG, and Kaspersky. This project was to centralize the AV to one single platform.

The initial setup is extremely straightforward. After engaging with Professional services and implementing best practices, we have had only one or two teething issues with the product, which can be easily resolved with a rule change.

Our in-house team implemented the tool with vendor support. Vendor support was extremely knowledgeable of the product and its capabilities

The number of man-hours saved administering multiple AV systems has been the biggest ROI.

Initial monies replacing all AVs with a single product is about £10k.

We looked at Kaspersky, CloudStrike, and VMware Carbon Black.

If you have never used a Check Point product before, I would highly recommend engaging with a Professional Services provider to help with the deployment of the tool & ensuring you implement the tool based on best practices.

Additionally completing the training for the Checkpoint Sandblast tool will equally achieve the same goals.