Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) Reviews

We are a company that is rapidly expanding our presence across multiple regions and moving key operations to a hybrid cloud model and needed a scalable, prevention-first security platform to bolster its security stack. 

Check Point Security Tooling by Check Point Software Technologies offers a robust and comprehensive cybersecurity solution tailored for the insurance industry. With features like advanced threat detection using AI and machine learning, firewalls, intrusion prevention, and endpoint protection, it ensures the security of sensitive customer data and compliance with industry regulations. Its user-friendly interface and seamless integration with existing IT systems allow for minimal disruption and quick deployment, making it adaptable to both small and large insurance firms.

The solution has improved our organization by providing a scalable, prevention-first security platform to better protect critical applications and sensitive client data, and meet industry compliance requirements. We chose Check Point Quantum Security Gateways and Check Point CloudGuard Network Security to protect our on-premises and cloud-based assets. The Quantum gateways in the data center are paired with a cluster of CloudGuard cores in the cloud, safeguarding assets and services in both environments with next-generation threat prevention. 

Check Point’s unified security management made it easy to implement controls and access real-time security data for on-premises and cloud environments. Since the rollout, Quantum's anti-bot, antivirus and SandBlast capabilities have delivered consistent protection. 

The following features provide consistent protection and make it easy to ensure security everywhere.

• SandBlast Zero-Day Protection in the Quantum Security Gateways, which defends against the latest cyber threats.
• Advanced threat prevention, the Intrusion Prevention System, and threat extraction defend against the latest cyber threats.
• The unified security management made it easy to implement controls and access real-time security data for on-premises and cloud environments.

While the higher cost and complexity may pose challenges for smaller companies without extensive IT resources, the value provided by Check Point's advanced capabilities and excellent 24/7 support justifies the investment. Overall, it is highly recommended that insurance firms prioritize data security and regulatory compliance, especially medium to large companies with the resources to manage and fully utilize its features.

Although the interface is user-friendly, further simplification and customization options tailored for non-technical users would benefit smaller firms without dedicated IT teams. Intuitive dashboards and guided setups can help in reducing the learning curve.

Increasing the automation capabilities for threat detection, response, and reporting can help reduce the manual workload on IT staff. Automated compliance reporting tailored to regulatory requirements could be particularly beneficial.

I have been using it for a year.

Stability is excellent.

Scalability is excellent.

The customer support is excellent.

The setup was straightforward using the unified security management modules.

We implemented it in-house.

It is difficult to calculate ROI, as it mitigates risk.

It is an expensive solution, but worth the cost.

We looked at various options.

Customers employ Check Point Diagnostics for their multi-branch solutions. They're also using Foundation Firewall with Blade Security and Check Point Harmony Connect. Their primary focus is on prevention, particularly in terms of access to ServiceEdge. This approach ensures the safety of packets and applications for our IT customers. Consequently, we are investing in quality hardware to support these secure solutions.

Our investment in quality hardware has proven to provide a better customer experience. They heavily rely on Check Point Firewall and Check Point SaaS Connect to safeguard their networks from external threats and attacks.

They should work towards the WAN intergration.

A cloud service that unifies multiple network security products and deploys within minutes.

Check Point has proven to be an exceptionally stable solution. We've been deploying these devices to our customers since around 2013-2014, and during this period, we haven't received any RMA requests or hardware-related field requests from our customers. There have been no reported issues or failures on the customer side. From our perspective, Check Point devices are known for their robustness and granularity in the market. When it comes to stability, we would rate Check Point ten out of ten.

The solution is very scalable, so I would rate it 10 out of 10.

The quality of service can vary depending on your SLA (Service Level Agreement) and the specific services you receive from Check Point. In our case, we've had a positive experience. Depending on the level of support, such as 24/7 availability, we've consistently received responses within the agreed SLA timeframe. This has been a satisfactory aspect of our service with Check Point.

Positive

We've determined the most optimal days for MAC setups at our customers' locations. We rely on our in-house experts rather than seeking assistance from Check Point's site. Our expert team takes charge of ticket management and ensures smooth customer implementations. To date, we've successfully deployed this solution for numerous customers, including approximately 2,500 customers with endpoints and over 50 branch locations. One noteworthy customer in the software industry, known as SIM Contact Modules, also received our support for their deployment needs.We've successfully implemented various security measures, including data protection, cloud DLP (Data Loss Prevention), granular policy enforcement, and Jira integration. Additionally, we've set up sandboxing and connected to Azure for protection against phishing and malware threats. Throughout this deployment, we encountered some minor issues, but overall, managing and configuring the deployment process was relatively straightforward. It takes almost one day. 

It's very easy to set up it and I would rate it 9 out of 10.

The pricing of Check Point is relatively high when compared to other competitors like Palo Alto and Fortinet. While Palo Alto may be on the higher side in terms of cost, Check Point's pricing is similar to that of Fortinet. In some cases, Check Point offers better value for the features it provides. We initially considered other options but ultimately decided to purchase hardware that came with three years of iOS. This approach eliminated the need for any additional costs associated with Check Point.

I would rate it 10 out of 10.

We will suggest the Check Point solution to customers and other partners. This way, they can obtain a comprehensive solution in one package, addressing all their needs. Whether it's deploying data with Jira, setting up cluster attacks, or utilizing various features through a single connection, this approach ensures customer satisfaction and contributes to our business success.

I would rate it 9 out of 10. 

One use case of SASE is for a partner customer who needs a secure and fast connection for their employees to access the final customer's data center and cloud. Green protection and security measures enable access to all information, including the data center's applications and networks.

Harmony SASE can prevent threats, provide global network protection, and manage API evaluations of user posture. Its software solution also ensures connectivity and protects against NSF filtering.

Check Point complements our more robust solution with Harmony SASE. This solution allows me to see Harmony SASE as an additional layer of security. It profiles security for users connecting remotely, whether working from another branch, a hotel, or an airport. In this case, we needed to protect these connections quickly, so we deployed it as the fastest solution for this customer.

There is a hefty cost, but it has excellent coverage. We need SASE management for five websites, including streamlining, logging, and monitoring. The solution offers the final customer three cloud coverage options and an excellent price point. Our competitors are Palo Alto, Cisco, Symantec, and Solar.

If the dashboard allows the PMS administrator to easily and quickly deploy configurations, it will facilitate the solution's faster deployment.

It is stable. It brings strong stability to the program, including updates to protect against new ransomware attacks.

Check Point's support is on par with the best in the market. Check Point Harmony SASE is a leading solution in both the local and global markets.

Positive

Unlike Cisco, Microsoft Azure, and similar solutions, SASE Insight offers limited visibility. It is slow in detecting and reacting to threats at the point of entry in real-time. Microsoft’s solution is focused on protection but doesn’t provide comprehensive security management. Although it deploys easily, Microsoft’s approach to security isn’t sufficient for robust threat prevention, especially against ransomware. Check Point's Harmony SASE is a more effective solution as it includes several advanced tools and sandboxing capabilities for thorough threat prevention and management.

The deployment is easy, but financial customers must have a comprehensive protection solution. Check Point's Harmony provides complex protection with its firewalls and other features.

The return of the SASE web addresses the void in the quality of information protection clients have in their employment. We can check the information, ensuring higher value and effective deployment, ultimately benefiting us. It is crucial to verify the quantum of protection provided and the conditions and access to private information. 

Harmony SASE may not be the cheapest solution but offers more value. It provides enhanced capabilities and features that justify its cost. We are conducting several trials with the new rigs in the silver packs to evaluate their effectiveness.

I recommend Check Point's solution, including various verticals like Quantum, CloudGuard, and Harmony. Harmony SASE, in particular, covers mobile endpoints, email, and collaboration. It's known for easy and fast deployment, as well as efficient administration through the portal. This solution provides organizations with real-time protection and is considered one of the best in the market.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I work remotely from quite a remote location in South Africa, for a US-based Software company (GoCanvas/Device Magic). GoCanvas and Device Magic are 2 software platforms used for data collection on mobile devices. In order for me to access platforms such as Salesforce and Cornerstone, I need to be connected to the Perimeter81 GoCanvas VPN. Salesforce is an important integration to our entire organization, and I need to be connected to the Perimeter81 GoCanvas VPN to access my own shared Salesforce account.

Perimeter81 has made it easy and hassle-free for South African employees to access certain platforms needed to do our work on a daily basis. 

Before having the pleasure of being on the Perimeter81 GoCanvas VPN, it was very frustrating. I had many hassles with JumpCloud and I could not get onto the platforms I needed to be working on to get my work done.

I never have any issues with Perimeter81, it really is simple and easy to use.

It really has provided a seamless gateway to much-needed platforms.

I work on a Macbook Air M1, and I love the small icon at the top of my screen that allows me to see when I am connected to the VPN or not. I don't have to open the app to connect to the VPN - I can just click on the small icon and a small tab opens wherein I can click "Connect". It's simple, easy, and convenient.

It would be nice to have a notification sound when Perimeter81 disconnects, as I sometimes don't notice when the icon shows that it's disconnected, and I end up wasting time waiting for my browser to load a page that shows an error, usually error 404.

I've used the solution for 18 months.

The solution is very, very stable. I never have issues with Perimter81.

The scale on which this platform can be used is vast. I work remotely in a remote location in South Africa. We have 400 people in our town (it's a tiny place), and yet, Perimeter81 connects me to a VPN that allows me to access US-based platforms.

I have never had to contact customer service or support for Permieter81.

Positive

I am not sure which solution was used before the company started using Perimeter81.

The initial setup was very straightforward.

Our IT team set me up; I received an email and followed the prompts.

My understanding is the initial setup was handled in-house.

I cannot speak to the ROI.

I do not know the details of the cost or licensing.

I did not evaluate other options.

I'm overall super happy with this product.

In our company, Quantum SASE is available for namesake in our environment since we rely on Check Point Secure Web Gateway for its firewall functionalities. Most of our company's customers use firewalls from Check Point Software, Palo Alto, or Fortinet. The simple use case of the tool for our company's customers stems from the fact that they have a general internal network or many users for which a firewall is required to secure the network traffic flow and communications that happen from outside to inside the company.

When it comes to Check Point Quantum SASE, though the OEM provides security, it is not 100 percent full-fledged to meet the requirements from the customers' end. There are no OEMs in the market that provide 100 percent security. The security of the product has to be improved.

I have been using Check Point Quantum SASE for seven years.

The product's stability is very good. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

In firewall products, scalability is not required. If you set up the two firewall tools, no scalability is required. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

My company deals with 20 or 30 customers of the tool.

My company's customers extensively use the product.

The support from Check Point Quantum SASE is very good, and the response from the support team is fast. The support from Check Point Quantum SASE is customer-friendly and knowledgeable about troubleshooting issues.

The product's initial setup phase is very simple.

The product's installation process consists of racking, stacking, and mounting, after which a user can directly start the appliance and configure the HA status and policies.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

The solution can be deployed in two or three days.

One engineer is required to take care of one single deployment process.

The ROI of the tool can be calculated depending on the tool's ability to be used for multiple use cases and protect the confidential data of users. It is very simple to calculate the product's ROI. If you use Check Point Quantum SASE, then your internal users are protected from outside attackers.

Check Point Quantum SASE provides SASE functionalities with all the required features. Check Point Quantum SASE's price is higher than what its competitors offer. The price of the product is something that depends on the requirements, and the purchase or order value of the customers.

The price of the tool depends on whether customers need SMTP, NGTP, or Check Point NG licenses.

I consider the product to be a medium-priced solution. There are no additional costs attached to the tool.

The solution enhances the ability of our company's remote workforce to secure access to corporate resources since we use VPN to secure work-from-home users and domain users.

Check Point Quantum SASE offers all the features essential for threat prevention, threat emulation, threat extraction, anti-spam, and anti-malware.

In relation to Check Point Quantum SASE, I haven't worked with the part involving WAN architecture. I only handle cybersecurity for a portfolio with respect to the LAN segment, and not WAN segment.

I rate the tool's performance a ten out of ten.

Check Point Quantum SASE can be described as the world's best security product without a doubt since it is a market leader in its segment.

The performance and reliability offered by the tool depend on the customer environment, and after considering aspects like throughput, how many users, and how many concurrent connections, my company plans the sizing part of the tool.

The value of working with the tool is good, as it can secure users, environments, and applications.

I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

We primarily use Perimeter 81 for VPN purposes.

The customer support was excellent. They were very helpful whenever we needed assistance. Also, the gateway they provided worked well. The availability of support programs made it easy for us to resolve any issues promptly. The solution itself was quite similar to others we have used, so the strong support was a distinguishing factor.

There are a few areas where the solution could be improved. For instance, we sometimes encounter connectivity issues, which can be problematic. Recently, I experienced a connectivity issue while trying to move to Azure. Connectivity issues can be quite frustrating.

Moreover, in the past, they may have charged differently for their services, which could have impacted the current performance or connectivity. However, I am not entirely sure about the specifics of their previous service offerings. But overall, connectivity issues are a common occurrence when using VPNs.

We've been using Perimeter 81 for almost three months now.

Scaling Perimeter 81 was easy to do. Around 20+ users were using it.

I had a moderate level of experience with the support. During the installation phase, I found it very easy and supportive. However, after that, when I faced an issue, the support person themselves became part of the problem. We went back and forth trying to resolve the issue, but unfortunately, nothing worked out, and we had to find a solution on our own. So, that's been my experience with their support.

The installation on Azure was actually quite easy. I had to provide a couple of personal details for data installations, and then I was able to set it up. 

In Azure, there were multiple instances available for the installation, which was helpful. It was a good experience, and I was able to get it up and running smoothly.

For the installation of Perimeter 81, it didn't take long at all. Setting up the backend and connecting with the users only took about ten minutes. It was a quick process, and I didn't spend more than that time on it. However, I didn't handle the filling up of all the details myself, as that part was handled by a third person.

We only had a single point of contact for the deployment. There was one person available to assist with the installation and configuration.

When it came to maintenance, we faced some connectivity issues, and whenever that happened, we contacted their support for assistance. There were some technical workarounds provided, but sometimes the response and resolution were not satisfactory, which became frustrating. Due to this, I had to get in touch with the solution team often. Eventually, I decided to move away from their service.

Perimeter 81 charges separately for gateways and VPN connectivity, but compared to Azure, it seemed more reasonable. Azure's pricing details were not as clear as Perimeter 81's. While Azure team mentioned certain areas, Perimeter 81 provided a clearer breakdown of the pricing, making it more understandable. So, I would say it was moderate in terms of cost.

Perimeter 81 offers both monthly and yearly licensing options. Users can choose whichever option they prefer based on their needs and preferences.

For those planning to use Perimeter 81, I would recommend going ahead with it. However, I suggest ensuring that there is a reliable tech support process in place. It's essential to know which person would be available for assistance so that you can connect with them anytime you face any issues. Also, it's important to avoid any support connectivity issues during usage. In my experience, they were in a good space when it came to using the solution.

Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten. 

We use the solution for secure remote access and access policy governance.

As part of our SOC2 Type 2 audit preparation, we wanted a solution that will be able to enforce secure passwords and two-factor authentication on our remote access to company development and production environments (hosted in GCP).

We were using a different VPN provider yet struggled with getting those policies in place. As timelines were very aggressive, we decided to look for a managed service or a SaaS offering, and Perimeter 81 was very quick to respond and provide a test account.

We were finalizing our SOC2 Type 2 audit and decided to move to a different remote access vendor.

We were able to implement Perimeter 81 within an hour with all the required services (SSO) and infrastructure (GCP and SaaS applications).

Distributing the agent was very simple, allowing us to enforce security posture on our devices (i.e. S1, Disk-encryption, etc.).

The team is now evaluating the Firewall-as-a-Service capabilities as well as the Secure Web Gateways to see if we require any additional policies in place as we're rapidly growing.

The multiple geographical access points with dedicated IP addresses allow the team to deploy site-2-site tunnels with specific IP restrictions as well as configure IP whitelisting on many of our SaaS applications. 

The plug-and-play Wireguard site-2-site connector was a great add-on as it allowed the team to just run a script and have our entire GCP network get connected to Perimeter 81 without any manual configuration. 

SAML and SCIM support made our life much easier as every new user just logs into the account, gets the correct permissions based on their SSO group enrolment, and is immediately able to access relevant resources, SaaS applications, and environments.

The platform still lacks relevant dashboards and the ability to customize them based on our needs. 

We would love to also see real-time usage and traffic data as well as be able to build reports. 

Adding better QoS and traffic shaping to the product will be a nice add-on as it'll allow our admins to prioritize some traffic over others and identify users that are heavy traffic users in the platform.

We need the ability to connect the agent prior to computer login. The ability to allow a silent connection (i.e. the agent is completely invisible to the user) could be cool for bigger organizations.

I've used the solution for over a month.

So far, the solution looks good and stable. There are no downtimes or disconnections.

They offer great chat support. Technical support is responding within minutes with helpful answers.

Positive

I've used NordVPN, Cisco AnyConnect, OpenVPN, and FortiClient.

The initial setup is very easy to set up thanks to a helpful and intuitive UI as well as plug-and-play connectors for the site-2-site deployment.

The ROI is very good, as we were able to do a cut-off within a week and using it since.

It was great to be able to implement everything without any assistance and within an hour.

We evaluated FortiClient, NordVPN, and OpenVPN.

The solution has great UI/UX and a super helpful support and documentation center.

Check Point Quantum SASE is a next-generation email security solution. It can be used to protect users from phishing emails.

The tool connects as an API. The installation is very easy. The integration with the existing network was very easy. It is a good tool. We can rely on it.

The tool could be more user-friendly.

I have been using the solution for more than a year.

The tool is very stable and highly reliable. I rate the stability a ten out of ten.

I rate the tool's scalability a ten out of ten. We have approximately 120 users. We have plans to increase the number of users. Our team members are experts. Anyone can deploy and maintain the solution.

The support is good. The support personnel give prompt responses. They take ownership of our issues and communicate with us quickly. They try to get back to us quickly.

The setup is very easy. The deployment can be done without much effort. It is done at the API level. It is deployed on the cloud.

I do not face phishing attacks and downtime due to the product.

Check Point Quantum SASE is a SaaS-based product. We have to pay yearly. The product is reasonably priced. There are no additional costs associated with the tool.

I evaluated Microsoft Defender. Defender is a good solution, but it is not reliable.

One of the biggest challenges organizations face is email threats. They are completely unknown. The users get deceived by them and tend to click on them. Previously, there was a solution called Avanan. It was one of the pioneers in email security that ensured no unwanted email came to our inbox. I will recommend the product to others. People must look at the solution very seriously. It will help them safeguard their organizations.

Overall, I rate the tool a ten out of ten.