What is our primary use case?
My use case is mainly for new products that come up in the marketing field, products that are fast and need quick assimilation.
We connected protections, mainly of the WAF for products that do not need too much scam validation or more complex functions. The aim was to provide a quick response to marketing campaigns, customer transportation, and things that need very fast implementation.
How has it helped my organization?
Check Point CloudGuard WAF has helped our organization in time-to-market manners; the time to market is very short. Unlike other products we tested, which were a bit more complex, they would take a day's process. Check Point CloudGuard WAF only takes a few minutes of assimilation and then goes live.
Its ability to protect our applications against threats without relying on signatures is one of the benefits I liked about this product. It does not depend on signatures. It looks at the anomaly in behavior. This is what we call a modern application. It saves us the headache of these updates and also the fact that the zero day usually has no signature.
The ability to preemptively block zero day attacks and detect hidden anomalies is exactly its advantage. The zero day does not wait for a signature but looks at behavior. This is how a modern app should be. If you wait for the unknown, your application will be affected, but with this solution, even if you don't know where the attack could come from, the product protects it because of the behavior. That's the advantage.
The assimilation time is short, about a few minutes only, so it is very simple for us and shortens the time of our functions. I'd say it has lowered 30% of our time.
In a product like this, there are not many false positive cases, at least not in our type of implementations, which are not complex. When you do not hear about any false positives, it is a sign that the solution is doing its job.
What is most valuable?
This product is very simple, it does not require complexity in its implementation. Its ability to deploy our materials quickly is what we appreciate the most.
What needs improvement?
I would like it to be able to analyze more complex functions, although I did not examine the case study of more complex implementations. Things like forum fields, etc seem to need a little more focused protection of the fields scheme validation. I would say that the more automation this product has, the easier it will be to work with it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Check Point CloudGuard WAF for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were never any server issues, they're very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I am not really sure about its scalability since our framework is very limited at the moment. I am guessing that after we try to deepen our use cases, we may scale then.
How are customer service and support?
Check Point is known for providing really good service. If a ticket is opened, it is addressed and not neglected. The emphasis is on the Israeli team, which knows how to achieve escalations and provide a response. We were never left without an answer.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have had several protections from other WAF products that we have tested. Their implementations were longer, more complex, and sometimes, because of the speed we would implement it after it went live because of the times. The time to market was short, and we didn't have time to achieve the desired time window.
Today, with Check Point CloudGuard WAF, there is no way we'll go live without protection.
We used and evaluated Radware and Reblaze. They were very expensive and also dependent on third-party services. With Check Point CloudGuard WAF, everything was done easily in-house.
How was the initial setup?
I'm in charge of the regulations, the SECOPS team is the one involved in the deployment. I'm more of a policy guide, and from what I've noticed, the experience was good.
What about the implementation team?
We always have a business partner who accompanies us in projects of this type. We have always had a good experience with them, the're very professional.
What was our ROI?
The biggest ROI is that the time to market is good; I am not holding back the business. I do not look that much at attack prevention because that's something that every product usually does. The ROI is the time to assimilate and the short time to market. Those are its benefits.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am less knowledgeable with prices because I only define the requirements and look at the execution. I know that its price is relatively expensive compared to other products but it gives benefits that are worth it.
What other advice do I have?
My advice would be to use this solution since it's cloud-based and the deployment is quick and easy.
Overall, the platform is great. I would consolidate it from the usual infrastructures, though. Every platform requires someone to focus on it, so it would be good if an integrator would be more involved in this specific solution.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.