Check Point Security Management Reviews

We are managing Check Point firewalls worldwide, and establishing VPNs between the main data centers in geographic regions and the other agencies worldwide.

We also establish VPNs between agencies and customers depending on the need. Several different VPN communities are used. We also establish VPNs with customers and partners with different firewall brands (Cisco, Fortinet, Juniper, etc.).

We manage security policies for more than 300 hundred Check Point firewalls by using security policy templates and models.

Check Point Security Management has improved the way to manage several VPN communities depending on the needs.

We now have the ability to centralize the management and administration of about 300 Check Point firewalls all over the world. We are now able to interconnect easily those firewalls by establishing VPN communities.

We are now also able to monitor the different VPN communities in real-time.

We can use a security policies template to apply to our 300 firewalls and this is really time-saving.

The ability to easily mount VPN between firewalls, depending on the needs (star, meshed, or combined architecture) and depending on the type of firewall has been helpful.

We appreciate the fact that we can monitor the version of the managed firewalls in order to plan the firewall upgrades over time.

I like that I have the ability to apply a security policy model and template to many firewalls, depending on the firewall usage and architecture (DMZ firewall, LAN firewall, etc.).

We also like the way we can monitor the firewall traffic and we use this feature very often to troubleshoot user traffic.

We would like to improve the upgrade process in order to do mass upgrades to firewalls and to be able to upgrade target firewalls at the same time.

I would like to be able to use Check Point Security Management in a way where it is hosted on the cloud. I'd like secured Security Management directly reachable from wherever you are with no need to install the Check Point client software on the laptop.

I would also like to have the ability to easily export the Check Point security policies in order to exploit the data in other applications and have more compatibility with other applications.

I've used the solution for 12 years.

The solution is highly stable.

The solution is quite scalable.

They have good support that is reactive.

Positive

I also use Fortinet due to Check Point legal restrictions. Check Point is banned in some countries.

The initial setup was straightforward.

We implemented it through a vendor team with a very good level of expertise.

We have a good ROI.

We also looked into Palo Alto, Fortinet, and Cisco.

Check Point Security Management Server is a comprehensive solution designed to streamline and centralize the management of security policies across an organization's network infrastructure. 

One of the standout features of the Check Point Security Management Server is its ability to manage security policies across multiple Check Point security gateways centrally. This centralized approach simplifies policy deployment, monitoring, and updates, making it easier for administrators to maintain a consistent security posture.

The Check Point Security Management Server has the ability to centrally manage security policies across multiple Check Point security gateways. This centralized approach simplifies policy deployment, monitoring, and updates, making it easier for administrators to maintain a consistent security posture. 

It offers high-performance capabilities to handle large volumes of traffic while maintaining low latency, ensuring minimal impact on network performance. This product greatly improved our company customers and allowed us to implement the solution easily.

The most valuable aspects of the solution are:

1. Centralized Management: It can centrally manage security policies across multiple Check Point security gateways. This centralized approach simplifies policy deployment, monitoring, and updates, making it easier for administrators to maintain a consistent security posture. 

2. Intuitive User Interface: The management console provides an intuitive user interface that allows administrators to configure and monitor security policies with ease. The interface is well-designed, with clear navigation and comprehensive options for managing security rules, network objects, and logs. 

3. Comprehensive Security Features: Check Point Security Management Server offers a wide range of security features, including firewall, intrusion prevention, VPN, application control, and threat prevention capabilities. These features work together to provide multi-layered protection against various cyber threats.

Check Point Security Management Server integrates seamlessly with other Check Point security products, providing a cohesive security ecosystem for organizations. It also offers compatibility with third-party security solutions, however, it is not a lot. This needs to be improved.

Check Point offers comprehensive product support and documentation, including online resources, knowledge bases, and technical support services. This ensures that administrators have access to the assistance they need to deploy and maintain the Security Management Server effectively, but when customers raise issues, the support is not satisfactory and timely.

I've used the solution for more than one and a half years.

One of our company's priorities was to have centralization of all the equipment in a single firewall. With the tools provided by Check Point, we were able to achieve it, and in this way we were able to centralize all the records.

With this implementation, we were able to make more centralized management and of all the rules. It was very comfortable to be able to configure them and manage them and thus be able to make the whole implementation more orderly and be able to carry out our organization along a good path of security administration

Check Point Security Management came to help us a lot. With this implementation, we were able to generate a firewall rule centralization and management. This helped our IT department to have an order in security and thus be able to centralize it.

By having this implemented, our facilities' security has improved a lot since both employees and external users are audited before entering the network through Check Point Security Management and the rules that make these security filters possible.

Check Point Security Management has a great feature that allows you to automate the request of the automated server. This helps us reduce the administrative effort of the IT department and thus give priority to other things like the security of the company or with the characteristic It provides us with centralization, which helps us with management.

The SmartConsole has provided us with excellent help with the application. It communicates with the administrator and allows us to create policies and also look at the traffic log.

The web administration tool that allows administration in the browser must be developed even more. When one tries to enter the panel, the loading delays us. 

They can also implement version updating. 

Another feature that could be improved is the export of configurations to .CSV. This would further simplify the management and compliance with rules.

This solution has been used for approximately two year in the company.

The solution has excellent stability.

It is quite a scalable product.

The support experience has not been very good. We have had some problems with cases and meetings coordination.

Positive

There was no type of tool that would supply these qualities in the company previously.

The installation is easy. It is plug-and-play. However, the configuration must be done carefully.

The implementation was handled with the help of an engineer who had prior knowledge of the product. 

The ROI is there. Making an investment in security is always a very good idea.

Check Point offers a good price for its products. It is worth making the investment since this can prevent vulnerabilities.

Check Point was always our first option in terms of product choice. 

It is an excellent tool to implement in the organization.

As a consultant for a security infrastructure consulting firm, I install and integrate this solution at client premises. There are many types of client domains, such as financials, government, healthcare, etc. 

It's a stable and complete product that is easy to use and capable of managing their next-gen firewall infra around the globe without compromises. 

Once the Check Point infra is up and running, clients really appreciate its capabilities of centrally managing security rules, making traffic flows visible, and quick detection and response capabilities in case of issues.

It allows clients to quickly learn about the product and its capabilities and thus focus quickly on what really matters, security. 

The concepts are easy to understand but powerful. As the management is easy and fast, the workload is less compared to other products. Access can be restricted granularly so different types of profiles can access the management solution without the risk of breaking anything. The helpdesk people can investigate the first line and provide findings to other teams for solution implementation. 

The rulebase management and the shared layers concept are implemented well. It avoids double work and reduces the risk of human errors. It makes the management solution very scalable.

Working with multiple administrators is possible. Changes are visible to others once you publish changes.

Investigating logs is easy and fast. The search results are provided with all details, so an in-depth analysis of problematic flows is easier.

Installation of policies is fast. For R81.10+ releases, it's a matter of seconds (compared to many minutes in the past).

The upgrade procedure already made huge improvements, yet it remains more challenging compared to other products. However, everything is well documented and the Check Point support is very skilled, so risks are rather limited. 

As this is probably the most complete product within its segment, no huge improvements are required from my point of view. Another problematic point, the policy installation duration time is solved since version R8x, so that's good. Clients always tell me: "Check Point is the Rolls Royce within this segment, it is outstanding". 

I've been using the Check Point Management solution for more than 15 years.

It's very stable with no remarks. Fixes are provided on a regular basis and are easy to install. 

Scalability is very good. Hardware appliances are available and virtual instances can be installed. It is possible to install, for huge deployments, the multi-domain Server. Multiple instances can be installed for redundancy purposes. 

They have excellent support which has improved a lot during the last years.

Positive

We implement other solutions, such as the Fortigate (Fortinet), PAN, and Cisco Secure Firewall (Firepower) with FMC.

The initial setup and installation are easy.

Security Management Server is easy to configure. We have more than six security gateways in different locations. It is easy to manage security gateways separately from Security Management Server. 

Also, we use a security management server as a log collector. Security Management Server is easy to configure. 

We can separately manage and install policies for all gateways. It has separated by blades. It is so flexible. Jumping from one blade to another is really simple. R80.x versions are better than R77.x versions. 

The log section is really good to understand and is really fast. 

The layered architecture is really understandable and easy to use. 

Event correlation function is really brilliant. 

Check Point provides one application with all your needs with the management system.

I do not need to log in to another application or website to see inputs and outputs. 

The monitoring is the best.

The solution offers:

• Strong user community
• Product functionality and performance
• Financial/organizational viability
• Strong services expertise

Policy installation time can be reduced. Proof of concept really matters on this subject. Every organization's needs are different and unique. Therefore, before you purchase the product, use proof of concept as much as you can. 

I have been using Check Point Security Management for more than seven years.

The pricing is not bad.

We use the solution for cybersecurity.  

We use a Check Point internet security appliance and have recently purchased their endpoint security solution.  

We have found the systems easy to manage and monitor. These systems are providing critical security to our computing systems. Past systems have required multiple products from multiple vendors. The Check Point solution provides multiple products under a single interface, greatly simplifying my job.  

We have yet to implement all of the blades/features of the Check Point solution, however, we are very happy with those we have used.

The product has done a great job in protecting our business network and SCADA systems.  

The single management interface has simplified our procedures. Training has been easier since there is only one interface to learn, not multiple interfaces from multiple vendors.  

As we implement more features of the security appliance, we find more value in it. Our cybersecurity posture is stronger than it has ever been with the addition of the Check Point appliance. 

We look forward to implementing additional features of the system.

The single interface to manage multiple cybersecurity platforms is great. In the past, we had multiple security appliances from multiple vendors. Each of these had their own interfaces and their own peculiarities. Staff had to learn multiple interfaces to provide our systems with cybersecurity. Additionally, when there was an issue, multiple systems needed to be checked to clarify and remedy the situation. If something was getting blocked incorrectly, we had to search for which systems was blocking it and then determine whether the block was legitimate. With the Check Point appliance, all of the blades are accessible through a single interface. We can easily track the reason for a block.

Some of the configuration elements could be improved. 

More automation of the tasks that now need to be performed at the level of the operating system could be made more streamlined. For example, we've often had issues where the log space has filled up. It would really be nice to have a feature in the GUI that addresses the cleanup of old files/logs. This is very much a manual process now. I have to get a putty or WinSCP session to the device and dig through the directory structure to find old files that are safe to delete. Luckily, I haven't accidentally deleted any critical files (so far).

I've used the solution for more than five years.

We have found the Check Point device to be very stable.  We rarely have to restart the device and have never experienced a hardware issue.  

The scalability is seamless.  

Customer service and support have always been very responsive.

Positive

We previously used a Netscreen firewall.   

The Netscreen firewall was limited and we had to rely on other appliances from other vendors to augment its capabilities.

It was a straightforward implementation. We did have a consultant help us in the initial setup of the systems.

The level of expertise of our vendor team was very high.

Our ROI is the peace of mind that our systems are well protected.

The Check Point solution is pricy, however, for what you get for your money, it is well worth it.  

The setup is pretty easy and licensing is straightforward.

We asked for a recommendation from a security consultant. They indicated that Check Point was the premier vendor of security appliances.

I'm glad we made the decision to use a Check Point appliance and am sure that we will stick with Check Point when we replace our current system.

We primarily use the solution for the management of thousands of rules. partially automated via the well-documented API.

Managing the rules is a day-to-day business that takes a lot of time. It is really good that we can do the management through the dashboard. It is so comfortable, and, in contrast to other manufacturers, is structured much better. The integration of the logs allows a quick jump by mouse click between rules and log entry.

The API reduces the administrative effort so that we can concentrate on the essential things. in addition, it is an enormous advantage for our customers that rules are created automatically and are available immediately.

The transparency of the rules and the integrated logs makes daily troubleshooting easy and saves a lot of time. 

Managing the rules is a day-to-day business that takes a lot of time. The dashboard is great and much better in contrast to other manufacturers. 

The integration of the logs allows for a quick click between rules and log entry. 

The immediately visible audit logs are also a great advantage. This allows changes to a rule to be tracked quickly and any errors to be corrected.

The management API is the best new feature for me. It allows us to further automate our customers' automated server ordering.

The API reduces the administrative effort so that we can concentrate on essential things. It is an enormous advantage for our customers that rules are created automatically and are available immediately. 

For our private cloud, we have to stay competitive with the public clouds and the speed on offer is what counts here. It's good.

The new web management tool allows the management in the browser, which is a great feature.

The management API can be further developed so that all functions offered by the dashboard are also available via the API (for example,  Network Topology).

The new web management tool which allows the management in the browser has to be developed further so that all functions from the dashboard are available. Many of our administrators work with a Mac OS. Until now, the management of rules is only possible on  Windows as the Smart Dashboard is only available for Windows. Now, with the first release of the web interface, it is possible in the browser. All functions from the dashboard must still be possible via the web interface.

I've used the R77.30 version since 2013.

We've upgraded to R80.10 in 2019. The update was a bit complicated, however, with the pre-check and some cleanup, it went without a problem

We upgraded the R80.10 to R 80.30 in 2020. The update management with the migration of export/import was a remote update and was easy.

We upgraded R80.30 to R80.81 in 2021. The management update was very easy and through the wizard, everything was very clear in terms of the individual steps. The update of the gateways took place at night.

We do not have any stability problems.

Check Point Maestro offers the industry a new way to leverage current hardware investments and maximizes appliance capacity. It's in an easy-to-manage hyper-scale network security solution in order to bring our networks and data centers into the world of hybrid clouds.

The case handling is good. If you have experience and know what information the support needs, then the processing time can be minimized.

Neutral

In the past, we have used a Cisco ASA. Our management of the rules was not so good there.  We also use FortiGate. This already offers a nice web interface, however, managing a large set of rules is almost impossible there.

The initial setup was very simple. However, the migration of rules from other vendors was challenging.

For large migrations, we always use a service provider or the manufacturer's team (Check Point Professional Services). Here we can fall back on well-trained SE's with a lot of experience.

No exact ROI has been calculated.

All of our administrators have previously been on CCSA/CCSE training which provides good insights into the products. After various tests, we were able to carry out most of the setup ourselves in a developer environment. We were able to keep the costs for the migration low by using a lot of our own initiative. However, I would recommend the support of a Check Point certified partner.

Together with a Check Point partner (service provider), the requirements should be evaluated. Here, we were able to draw on the experience of our service provider and develop our environment according to our requirements.

We did not evaluate any other options.

I can recommend the Check Point solution.

I work for one of the biggest Australian banks that rely on Check Point firewalls for security enforcement across several points in the infrastructure environment.

The Security Management platform is a key component for our operation, in that it enables efficient central management for configuration and security troubleshooting. This centralised component facilitates and adds value to our daily operations, creating a single place for configurations and a platform that can present security logs that are used for the troubleshooting of security issues.

Check Point Security Management improved the speed at which security access permissions are granted across our environment through its centralized and easy-to-use nature. The possibility of re-using objects across different policies and also having the drag and drop capabilities are great. 

Moreover, having one single platform managing multiple firewalls reduces the time (and cost) of the provisioning of infrastructure services. This boosts the productivity and efficiency of teams across the board.

The Check Point Security Management platform provides a central location for the management of domains and firewalls in the environment. The nature of the product brings valuable returns to the operation, increasing efficiency when configuring and troubleshooting.

The intuitive interface also allows new team members to adapt to the technology if they are not familiar with it initially. It doesn't take much for one to familiarize themselves with the product.

Another great feature is to have available logs in a central location, enabling the troubleshooting of security issues anywhere in the environment.

One possible improvement for the platform would be the import of security policies via CSV or CLI. Even though the platform is simple, and creating security policies is a fairly quick task, creating a bulk of policies at once (ie. for a migration) could be a useful tool. This is probably possible through scripting, however, having an easy-to-use "import CSV" button would be beneficial.

Another feature that could be improved is the export of configurations to CSV. This is often useful to map current firewall policies or NATs. I understand that this feature is available currently, but would CSV bring objects with names (but not IPs) and groups (but not the members). The improvement of this feature would surely be welcomed.

I have been using Check Point Security Management for around 4 years.

The most recent software versions are very stable and trouble-free.

We have a very good impression of it so far. The possibility of adding firewalls to the fleet and keep a central management point makes it simple to grow the operation.

The experience with the Check Point Professional Services team, and TAC, couldn't be better. The team that works with my organization is extremely knowledgeable and is always willing to go the extra mile in order to find the best possible solution for any kind of goal we need to achieve. The TAC team is also always helpful and provides us with many valuable inputs in hard times. 

I have used different solutions from other vendors, but not on the exact same places. The Check Point Security Management platform was mostly used alongside others.

Perhaps because I lack experience setting it up from scratch, the initial setup seemed quite complex.

We had a vendor team assist with the setup.

Overall, the ROI is great. It is a solid and easy-to-use platform that adds a huge value that justifies every penny.

I most definitely recommend this platform when it comes to cost. The available list of add-ons creates great flexibility to the technology and is also easy on the budget - since you only pay for the features you use.

This is not applicable to my role.