Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) Reviews

The Check Point firewalls are used to protect both the edge and datacenter firewall environment.

The firewalls have been deployed in a high availability design and are virtualized using Check Point VSX VSLS. This means we have multiple virtual firewalls protecting different parts of the data center (e.g., DB, Edge, WAN, pre-production.)

We have activated multiple software blades, including firewall, VPN, URL filtering, Application Control, compliance, reporting, and threat emulation, to name a few.

A similar design has been deployed at the DR with a similar set of firewalls.

The following has been improved:

1) The edge security posture has greatly improved. We are now able to detect and prevent threats coming from the public internet. The firewall is able to block know threats using the inbuild Intrusion Prevention blades.

2) We can connect with other organizations using site-to-site VPNs to enable inter-organization communication.

3) Check Point comes with a strong management solution that allows us to monitor and track threats that are detected and prevented. It also helps us be in compliance with industry standards.

The following features have been valuable:

1) IPS - The edge security posture has dramatically improved as we can now detect and prevent threats from the public internet. The firewall can block know threats using the inbuild Intrusion Prevention blades.

2) VPN - We can connect with other organizations using site-to-site VPNs for inter-organization communication.

3) Management Blades - Check Point comes with a strong management solution that allows us to monitor and track detected and prevented threats. It also helps us be in compliance with industry standards.

The following can be improved:

1) The management solution is currently using a desktop client for administration purposes. This should be improved by ensuring configuration on the firewalls can be done 100% using a web-based approach. This is currently a work in progress in R81.X, yet should be fast-tracked.

2) The Check Point TAC support has, in recent years, deteriorated. Getting support is usually a pain as the TAC engineers don't seem to understand our issues fast enough and are not readily available. This is in contrast to the amount of money paid for the support.

I've used the solution for five years.

A lot of improvement is required in how checkpoint TAC engineers handle their assigned cases. Tickets can be opened for very long without clear solutions.

Neutral

We previously used Cisco ASA 5585 Firewall.

The setup was fairly easy as the team is well trained.

We worked with Check Point professional services.

This is a premium enterprise product, hence the price is very high.

We looked at FortiGate Firewalls.

Check Point should review their pricing models especially for the African market.

We use the solution for threat protection in the banking and finance sectors.

Check Point NGFW is popular because of the protection it offers. 

The pricing and UI need to be improved. 

The enterprise is quite expensive. There are small boxes that are competitive enough.

I have been using Check Point NGFW for a year.

The product is stable.

I rate the solution’s stability a nine-point five out of ten.

The solution can scale up to enterprises.

I rate the solution’s scalability a nine-point five out of ten.

The initial setup is easy, but maintenance is very difficult. Deployment and fine-tuning take a day.

There were no glitches or issues. We were able to achieve a positive ROI for our business. It saved them a significant amount of money that would otherwise have been spent on dealing with ransomware activities.

The product is expensive and costs around one-point-five million.

I rate the product’s pricing an eight out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive.

Thorough planning is essential when implementing a Check Point NGFW. You need a checklist outlining what policies to establish. While the installation is straightforward and does not require much effort beyond obtaining a license, creating and configuring policies can be time-consuming. Therefore, allocating sufficient time and resources to policy creation is crucial to ensure effective security management.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

We primarily use Check Point NGFW for network segmentation and traffic control. It effectively segments our network into zones, allowing us to manage and secure traffic flows between different segments.

The platform's technical support services need enhancement. 

The product is highly scalable and crucial for our large-scale deployment needs. Its scalability is a ten out of ten.

The technical support is generally responsive, although there have been occasional delays in accessing specialized assistance tailored to our needs.

Positive

The deployment was handled by dedicated experts within our organization, ensuring a smooth setup. While I didn't oversee the technical aspects directly, our team found the process straightforward, minimizing operational disruptions.

The product is on the higher end of the cost spectrum, but the investment is justified by its high-quality performance and reliability, which are paramount for our security infrastructure.

Check Point NGFW has consistently provided stable operation which is critical for our organization's security needs.

Managing firewall rules and policies is intuitive and efficient. The interface allows us to quickly adapt to new security requirements and maintain compliance with organizational policies.

I highly recommend it for organizations seeking robust network security.

Overall, I rate it an eight. 

At the organizational level, we needed to protect the security of our organization. This is where a much broader need arises. We must protect each of the branches that our company has - in some cases larger than other branches. We took on the task of implementing a next-generation firewall from Check Point which allows us to have valuable equipment that adjusts to the needs of each of the branches according to their size and organizational demand by the number of users. This equipment is designed for infinity architecture. 

The designs, including Check Point next-generation firewall equipment, have allowed us to have all branches interconnected with the same brand and the same site-to-site communication service. We can encrypt the traffic through these VPNs and ensure communication in all directions, solving transactions and access to applications and services within our organization and outside of it. Additionally, we have a content filtering robot that ensures that users and applications are reached solely and exclusively by our networks and users. 

The most outstanding feature of Check Point is the possibility of having more than 60 indicating services within it. Among the most outstanding in keeping safe is its rule management, VPN configuration, SSL, and, above all, HTTPS Inspection, which is a solution that allows us to see what users do. We can decipher the activity of each connection and see what is inside it. In this way, we ensure that the data is not violated or violated by third parties outside our organization and we validate the internal and timely security. 

The Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) Configuration Guides in XL cluster are very complex and other guides should be reviewed to validate configuration references. They should be updated for new versions.

Something worth mentioning is the need for Spanish support and better representation for teams in the Latin American area. There is a growing demand for these IT services and new technologies.

Its guides are identical to the existing ones. It would be more pleasing that these guides be updated and improve their design.

Give it a try, and it will help you more in these times when users are more remote than local.

I've used the solution for two years.

It is quite scalable. That said, it is complex to integrate cluster services from the same equipment.

I was testing WatchGuard and Fortinet. In the end, it was easier for me to integrate Check Point.

The cost is quite high. That said, it must be understood that it is not only a firewall, it is a solution that integrates more solutions within it.

We're using Check Point NGFW for network security, intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, application control, DDoS attack protection, sandblast, mobile device management, identity-based access control, reporting, access control policy, scalability, state-of-the-art security gateway, support, threat prevention, accelerated policy installation, concurrent security policy installation, advanced routing, easy upgrading, logging and monitoring, smart events, and smart console.

Check Point has improved our organization's security posture, especially the IBAC, application control, IPS, and IDS. It's easy to set policies on the firewall, which has greatly simplified cleanup and management.

We recently upgraded from R80.10 to R40, and we've had an overwhelmingly positive experience with this version. Our visibility of threats and vulnerabilities has improved. Check Point added new features and revamped its reporting and analysis.

Check Point's rule management helped us simplify access control. At one point, we had more than 1,000 access control policies, and it was challenging to manage them all. We cut it down to 300 policies using Check Point's management features, and we are still working on reducing this further to achieve the best way to manage policies. Its logging and monitoring enable us to trace and investigate suspicious traffic.

Check Point doesn't warn us when rules are about to expire. It was also inconvenient that we had to change hardware when we upgraded. It would be nice if they made the new version compatible with current hardware or if it only required a minor upgrade.

I would also like it if Check Point cut the number of steps needed to upgrade from R77 to R81. They should also make it possible to convert access control policies from the firewall to the management server and to downgrade from a higher version to a lower one. 

I've been using Check Point NGFW for six years.

The solution has been stable, and Check Point promptly delivers patches and updates.

I rate Check Point support nine out of 10. When we need help, they're always fast and efficient. Check Point's customer service is one of the major reasons we've stuck with this solution.

Positive

We adopted Check Point because of the cost and support.

If you have the right training, you can set up Check Point with minimal supervision.

Before you buy, check which features you need, and if possible, I recommend signing up for at least a three-year license.

We considered several vendors, including Fortinet, Cisco, Huawei, Sophos, and Barracuda.

The primary use case for these firewalls is to protect our perimeter from unwanted traffic in and out of our network as well as to control the flow of data to comply with our company security policies. 

It also plays an integral part in restricting or granting access at a granular level for certain users or vendors allowing us to monitor and protect end-customer data as well as protecting our users and network from malware, bots, ransomware and other bad actors that could disrupt our business operations.

Check Point NGFW products have improved the operation of our organization by allowing us to secure our perimeter from attacks, probes, malware, DDoS, bots and general bad actors. It also allows us to secure outbound traffic from our users. 

It allows us to fine tune how we allow users to access resources both in our DMZ and externally. This helps us to secure customer and user data in order to prevent privacy issues, prevent loss of operations or downtime which we cannot accept. 

Being able to use the products in redundant pairs has also allowed us to provide a more stable network.

There are several useful features that we utilize that are now valuable assets in terms of protecting the network. These would include user identification (ID Collector), IPS, antibot, antivirus, application, and URL filtering as well as the standard firewall security rules. They all work together to provide layers of security to protect both inbound and outbound traffic in order to minimize loss of private data as well as to ensure our network is free of bad actors attempting to use malware or ransomware against us.

Check Point could improve its products by working on stability. Overall, it is a stable platform, however, at times we have issues with 'quirks' and bugs that cause issues for our end users and typically are not straightforward to fix. 

Another issue that presents itself is upgrading. Small hot fixes are not problematic. That said, updating to a new version of the OS has been an absolute nightmare and caused significant downtime and a number of issues - not to mention wasted engineering time. Simplify the upgrade process and they may regain confidence in this area!

I'd like to see more use of applications and URLs in security policies moving forwards.

I've worked with the solution for seven years across two different companies.

The stability is good, yet it could use some improvement.

The scalability is very good.

It has always been slow and difficult to use technical support. It depends on a case-by-case basis, however, you have to chase and manage the case yourself or it will go nowhere. This likely comes down to a lack of experienced agents.

Neutral

We previously used Cisco ASA. We switched due to the fact that Cisco's product was very hard to manage and lacked any real intelligence.

The initial setup is complex. A very large and multifaceted environment will always be complex to configure.

We used vendor support and account teams and in-house technical engineering.

It's expensive, however, compared to the cost of not protecting the network properly, it's worth the cost.

We looked at Palo Alto, Fortinet, and Cisco.

Carefully consider the vendor before making a leap. It's very difficult and costly to change vendors at a later date.

My main use case for Check Point NGFW is that my organization is using it as a firewall and using it in emails also.

I can walk you through a situation where Check Point NGFW made a difference for my organization by helping in getting or stopping the emails which are unwanted and can be harmful for my organization.

The best features Check Point NGFW offers in my experience are the real-time prevention and the virtualization and reporting capabilities.

These features impact my day-to-day operations by helping in improving the security postures in day-to-day activities.

Monitoring graphs for Check Point NGFW can be made better, and that is something I wish worked better.

I have been using Check Point NGFW for around half a year.

The main use case for Check Point NGFW involves securing organizational network parameters from a wide range of cyber threats, such as those associated with malware, unauthorized access, and data exfiltration.

Check Point NGFW has positively impacted my organization because, as a security provider, we have business from multiple nations worldwide, but certain nations where we do not have any business relevancy require traffic blocking.

Check Point NGFW helps us significantly by preventing sophisticated cyber attacks, controlling user access to application websites based on policy and user identity, segmenting the internal network, and providing centralized firewall management. These features have helped us manage and strengthen our security posture.

We have observed improved network visibility and control with detailed reporting and logging after implementing Check Point NGFW, along with a stronger compliance posture and reduction in incidents.

In my experience, Check Point NGFW offers excellent region-wise blocking capabilities, which proved particularly valuable during recent tension between India and Pakistan border crossing issues.

The IPS, anti-bot, threat emulation, and URL filtering features are working exceptionally well from a prevention perspective.

Check Point NGFW deployment in our organization showed that the initial setup and policy design can be complex, especially for teams unfamiliar with Check Point's architecture. Licensing can be confusing and expensive, so segregating it into a simple format would be helpful.

Software updates and hot fixes require compatibility checks to avoid disrupting the production environment.

I have been using Check Point NGFW for almost a year and a half.

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Check Point NGFW has been straightforward, as everything is better and convenient to use.

I work in Secure System Private Limited as a security analyst for the last six years. I can share specific outcomes and metrics I have seen since using Check Point NGFW.