AnilKumar34 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Support Engineer at TNS Networking Solution Pvt. Ltd
Reseller
Top 10
Easy to manage and scale and has logging features
Pros and Cons
  • "I found logging and management features the most valuable in Palo Alto Networks Panorama. Another good feature of the product is that it lets you define global firewall policies and templates."
  • "Storage in Palo Alto Networks Panorama needs improvement. My company also experienced deployment issues when the product was first installed, particularly when binding with the firewall. It's not as user-friendly because not everyone can deploy it without some knowledge."

What is our primary use case?

We provide Palo Alto Networks Panorama to customers in the education and government niches, for example, for state and defense accounts. The product is for logging and log management.

What is most valuable?

I found logging and management features the most valuable in Palo Alto Networks Panorama.

Another good feature of the product is that it lets you define global firewall policies and templates. For example, if you have standard procedures, you can create a single template and apply it to all your firewalls. This feature is attractive to many users.

I also like that Palo Alto Networks Panorama is easy to configure and manage.

What needs improvement?

Storage in Palo Alto Networks Panorama needs improvement.

My company also experienced deployment issues when the product was first installed, particularly when binding with the firewall. It's not as user-friendly because not everyone can deploy it without some knowledge.

Updating Palo Alto Networks Panorama was also a bit challenging when upgrading your firewall, so that's another area for improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've worked with Palo Alto Networks Panorama for the last three or four years.

Buyer's Guide
Palo Alto Networks Panorama
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Palo Alto Networks Panorama. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Palo Alto Networks Panorama is a stable product, but sometimes, the patch creates some issues, so it's a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Regarding scalability, Palo Alto Networks Panorama is a scalable solution. You can scale it whenever you want. You can add storage. Scaling it is easy, so it's a nine out of ten for me.

How are customer service and support?

Palo Alto Networks Panorama technical support is good. Regarding response time, it depends if you're getting partner support or direct support from Palo Alto Networks.

Sometimes you need to wait a maximum of four hours to receive support, and sometimes, it just takes half an hour. It also depends on the type of ticket you open. If it's a critical ticket, you'll get a call from technical support within fifteen to twenty minutes.

I also like that Palo Alto Networks extended support to distributors, where you can raise a ticket directly with a distributor.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I've used AlgoSec, and compared to Palo Alto Networks Panorama, AlgoSec supports other OEM firewalls, which means you can configure Fortinet, Palo Alto, Cisco, and other firewalls on it. In contrast, Palo Alto Networks Panorama only supports Palo Alto Networks devices, which is a drawback.

Otherwise, if you compare Palo Alto Networks Panorama with other products, such as Fortinet and Checkpoint, feature-wise, Palo Alto Networks Panorama is more complete. In contrast, Checkpoint and Fortinet are only thirty to thirty-five percent complete.

If not for the OEM firewall restrictions, I'd rate Palo Alto Networks Panorama as ten out of ten compared to other products.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup for Palo Alto Networks Panorama could be pretty easy if you've had some training. It's not like you can go and do it and find it easy without a guide or training. Before implementing the product, you'll need at least one to two weeks of training because it'll be complicated to go hands-on without some Palo Alto Networks Panorama training.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing for Palo Alto Networks Panorama is always high. If you're going to sell the product, you always have to talk about the technology because it should be about the solution rather than the price, or else you'll lose potential customers.

What other advice do I have?

My company works with Palo Alto Networks Panorama, including other Palo Alto Networks solutions, such as MDR, NGFW, and SOAR.

My company is a system integrator rather than the end customer. My company provides and sells Palo Alto Networks Panorama to end customers.

Palo Alto Networks Panorama is deployed on-premises, particularly by customers in the government.

A state data center where my company deployed Palo Alto Networks Panorama had fifteen thousand to eighteen thousand users. The number of firewalls was eighty, with two Palo Alto Networks systems.

My rating for Palo Alto Networks Panorama is nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator/Reseller
PeerSpot user
Security Unit Manager at Digital Hub Egypt
Real User
A straightforward setup with good firewall reporting dashboards
Pros and Cons
  • "The dashboards are very good on Palo Alto. They offer a centralized dashboard for managers as well."
  • "Panorama needs to work on its configuration issues."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is primarily used as a firewall reporting feature.

What is most valuable?

The dashboards are very good on Palo Alto. They offer a centralized dashboard for managers as well.

What needs improvement?

The solution needs to improve its pricing model.

Panorama needs to work on its configuration issues.

They should also focus on firewall management. Many clients have multiple firewalls, so Palo Alto should offer better management of them. They could model themselves off of AlgoSec, or maybe FireMon which are other very good firewall management tools.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for two or three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. Palo Alto, in general, is pretty good. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very scalable. We manage about 12 firewalls. The maximum might be 100.

How are customer service and technical support?

Support from Palo Alto is very good. You can get it from the distributor or from Palo Alto directly.

How was the initial setup?

The setup is generally straightforward. Deployment times vary, according to the client's environment and if they have multiple branches, etc. It can take anywhere from one to three days. After that, you have to fine-tune a few items, and that can take another two or three weeks. So the entire deployment process, depending on the organization, can take anywhere from three days to three weeks. Maintenence only takes one person, once again, depending on the setup of the company itself.

What other advice do I have?

Most of our clients deal with the on-premises deployment solution, as cloud solutions in Egypt can occasionally be insecure.

I would advise anyone looking to implement the solution really focus on sizing before beginning the implementation.

I would rate the solution nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Palo Alto Networks Panorama
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Palo Alto Networks Panorama. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Kelvin Choy - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Specialist at Television Broadcasts Ltd
Real User
Top 5
An affordable and easy-to-use solution, though central firewall management could be better
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is easy to use."
  • "The central firewall management could be better."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for long-term traffic blocks when our management needs to receive information on specific events or for theory testing. Panorama sits on the firewall and manages traffic blocking.

What is most valuable?

The solution is easy to use. 

What needs improvement?

The central firewall management could be better. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working with Panorama for two years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable; we didn't have any downtime.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our IT department has around four users who manage the solution, and another department has over ten end users.

How are customer service and support?

We contacted technical support in Hong Kong, provided by a local partner of Panorama, and they aren't the best; there is room for improvement.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

Another division handled the initial setup, but they said the deployment should be easy as it doesn't require complex tasks. It's simple to open the software and configure the tool.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is relatively cheap; I rate it four out of five for affordability. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I evaluated another solution, but Panorama is easy to use and deploy, plus the performance is better. I can quickly install policies.

What other advice do I have?

I rate the product seven out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Mahomed  Moty - PeerSpot reviewer
IT-Support at Bytes & Pieces
Reseller
Allows users to see the endpoint status; provides good technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "What's most valuable in Palo Alto Networks Panorama is that it allows us to see the status on the network side, particularly on the endpoint, because we also use it for the internal network."
  • "As the cybersecurity threats have become more aggressive these days, Palo Alto Networks Panorama can still be improved, particularly on the security side, for example, more network management, and penetration test. Improving the security feature for internal endpoints is needed in the solution."

What is most valuable?

What's most valuable in Palo Alto Networks Panorama is that it allows us to see the status on the network side, particularly on the endpoint, because we also use it for the internal network.

What needs improvement?

As the cybersecurity threats have become more aggressive these days, Palo Alto Networks Panorama can still be improved, particularly on the security side, for example, more network management, and penetration test. Improving the security feature for internal endpoints is needed in the solution.

What I'd like to see in the next release of Palo Alto Networks Panorama is more training and more marketing.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been distributing Palo Alto Networks Panorama for ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Palo Alto Networks Panorama is a very stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Palo Alto Networks Panorama is a scalable solution, and we don't have any issues scaling it.

How are customer service and support?

For me, the technical support for Palo Alto Networks Panorama is good.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup for Palo Alto Networks Panorama is not complex.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

My company pays for the licensing cost of Palo Alto Networks Panorama yearly, and it's all-inclusive, so there's no need to pay extra for some features.

What other advice do I have?

My company has a partnership with Palo Alto Networks and it is a reseller of Palo Alto Networks Panorama.

The version of Palo Alto Networks Panorama being used would depend on the hardware side and the client, but I cannot remember the exact version. We are on a new version: version eight if I'm not mistaken.

My company has a team for the maintenance of the solution.

My rating for Palo Alto Networks Panorama is eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Sr. Systems Analyst at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
It can manage devices in groups based on their use. The application ID capabilities have been useful for things like Active Directory.
Pros and Cons
  • "Firewalls: The application ID capabilities have been very useful for things like Active Directory, and not having to identify every port that Microsoft has decided to use."
  • "The ability to add scheduled jobs would be a significant improvement. Panorama has the ability to push out OS updates, but it would be nice to be able to schedule those updates so not to affect the site during normal business hours."

What is most valuable?

Panorama: Provides a central management capability for all of the firewalls. It has the ability to manage the devices in groups based on their use. We use the firewalls in two primary functions and the ability to provide management of the different groups of firewalls is very useful.

Firewalls: The application ID capabilities have been very useful for things like Active Directory, and not having to identify every port that Microsoft has decided to use.

How has it helped my organization?

I can’t say that it has significantly improved the functions of the organization over the firewalls that we were previously using. The addition of a good central management capability has helped improve the management of the firewalls, but the functions for the service that is provided to the users has not significantly changed.

What needs improvement?

Panorama: The ability to add scheduled jobs would be a significant improvement. Panorama has the ability to push out OS updates, but it would be nice to be able to schedule those updates so not to affect the site during normal business hours.

Firewalls:

  • (1) App-ID is good, but could be better. We use off ports for some common services and App-ID does identify the application correctly, but the rule allowing the traffic does not allow the traffic without adding the ports to the rule. This negates the need for App-ID in the rule. If App-ID worked as I think it should, we would use it and then block the common port.
  • (2) Integration with Microsoft Active Directory incurs significant additional traffic across the WAN circuits. We have a number of GCs across our environment and the configuration of Active Directory in the firewalls requires significant communications to all of the GCs across our environment. We were seeing the firewalls generate around 500kb of WAN traffic communicating with all of the GCs. After reviewing the configuration with Palo Alto support, the config was correct. While we do want to be able to use the User-ID functionality of the firewalls, that kind of overhead is not acceptable.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Panorama and the PAN FWs for just over one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far we have not seen any issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have not run into any issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support with Palo Alto has been very good and responsive.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously were using Cisco ASA devices. The switch was made based on central management and the NGFW functions. The timing was in the middle of Cisco delivering their NGFW functionality. The other issue that led to the move was when Cisco presented their recommended replacement for the existing devices, they recommended their Meraki line with Internet management, which was not in line with our requirements for many of our more sensitive firewalls.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup is very easy. After working with a few new installations we were able to put together a script to apply the new firewalls to setup the management access, Panorama location, high availability (HA) configuration and the initial IP stack. This makes it easy to start the OS updates and initial rules from Panorama. By having the HA setup scripted, it also makes the OS updates a single download instead of a download for each device. The HA connection allows the firewalls to copy the OS over to the other firewall with the single download. That is important because there are several large downloads necessary to update the OS to the current OS levels.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing is high compared to other vendors in the same space. Licensing is also fairly high for different functions to be added on, like Intrusion detection/prevention, user VPN, URL filtering. Some firewall vendors offer the “additional” licensing/functions as part of their license for the device and then others offer it like Palo Alto.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

The original decision was made by a different group within the company. The re-evaluation included Cisco ASA, Cisco Meraki, Fortinet and Palo Alto.

What other advice do I have?

Talk to other customers. Start with the ones recommended by the vendor, but also in forums as well. Everyone understands that recommended customers are handpicked and forums can be contain spurned customers. But if you look for information regarding specific functions that you need, you can find more useful information. Make sure if you hear something glowing from a vendor recommended customer about a function, check on that function online.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Sales engineer at MUK
Reseller
Top 5
Easy to set up, user-friendly, and offer various types of deployment capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "It is really useful for big deployments."
  • "It is not a cheap product."

What is our primary use case?

The basic use case is when you have a lot of Palo Alto Networks firewalls. Panorama is a security management tool for all of your Palo Alto Network devices. Every time you create some configurations or when you need to manage a lot of branches with Palo Alto Network devices, and when you need to group these branches to use the policies, the configurations on a group of devices, it's useful. It's easier to use Panorama to manage stuff.

What is most valuable?

It's user-friendly. Users can easily manage the configurations, the policies, and the objects inside Panorama, inside the Palo Alto Network devices. 

It is really useful for big deployments. It's useful for users that have two devices. 

We have the ability to install Panorama in a public cloud deployment, and of course, Palo Alto also has their own cloud in which you can store the logs of all of your devices and basically get the reporting and get management for these logs through Panorama. Palo Alto has cloud firewalls and they are also manageable through Panorama. This is like a cherry on the top of all of your network security from Palo Alto in your organization.

The setup is easy.

What needs improvement?

It is not a cheap product. Some kinds of Palo Alto devices can cost a few thousands of dollars, and Panorama will be even higher. For the big customers that have a lot of devices, it is crucial to get all the benefits from the Palo Alto Networks portfolio regarding network security.

For a highly secure environment, they sometimes need only hardware appliances, not a virtual machine. 

For how long have I used the solution?

Palo Alto Networks was the first vendor in my cybersecurity career. I started to work with Palo Alto Networks at my first job in a small integrator company in Ukraine. I've been working with Panorama for maybe 16 or 17 years. There was a small period of three years between this experience, and now I'm again working with Palo Alto Networks.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's really stable. We have a public cloud and hardware and we have a virtual one, and all of them are really stable. We have not seen critical issues or a lot of comments from the customers that it is not a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's really scalable. It's based on the number of devices. If you need 25 devices, it will be one license. If you need thousands of devices to manage, it will be another kind of license. It's really scalable and can install the machines with the high availability mode, so it's really stable.

How are customer service and support?

Support answers quickly. I have no issues with Palo Alto Network support. Basically, our company is an Accredited Support Center of the Palo Alto Networks for our customers and basically we are also providing support at the lowest levels. 

How was the initial setup?

It's really straightforward to implement. It's not something where you need some special engineer. Palo Alto has a really great document portal, docs portal, where you can find all the needed information to deploy this. That said, it is really straightforward for any administrator who deployed something before. You just click next, next, next, you just then need to change a key, and that's all.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's not the cheapest solution. It can be quite expensive. There are other less costly options available on the market.

What other advice do I have?

I am working for an official distributor of Palo Alto Networks.

It is on-premises, and it has cloud abilities too. Public cloud deployments are available.

I can recommend the solution to new users and suggest, firstly, that they choose their mode of Panorama. They need to decide if they will deploy in a public cloud or maybe on-premises. If you have a lot of Palo Alto devices, you will need Panorama. If you have this significant amount of Palo Alto Network devices, when you get Panorama, you will get a lot of features that will make your life easier.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
PeerSpot user
Luke Wainwright - PeerSpot reviewer
Cybersecurity Engineer at Networks Unlimited Africa
Real User
Top 5
Secure, performs well, and is simple to use
Pros and Cons
  • "Everything about the reporting and everything about Palo Alto Networks Panorama is good."
  • "There is always room for improvement in anything."

What is our primary use case?

We use Palo Alto firewalls, for our perimeter security. It is our perimeter security product, which we use as our perimeter security firewall. As a firewall should, protect us and our organization at the perimeter.

What is most valuable?

It's an excellent product. It's doing its job, and we like it. The ease of use is quite nice. Everything about the reporting and everything about Palo Alto Networks Panorama is good.

What needs improvement?

Everyone, I suppose, would like the price to be improved. Price is always a good thing to change.

There is always room for improvement in anything. But I couldn't really comment on that off the top of my head.

In terms of updates, I believe everything is in order. That is not an issue for me.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Palo Alto Networks Panorama for five months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Palo Alto Networks Panorama is 100 percent stable. We have it running in HA status, obviously, for failover, but It's extremely stable. There are no complaints.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Palo Alto Networks Panorama is scalable.

We have a large organization. We are a retail company, with approximately 4000 users who are protected by this firewall.

How are customer service and support?

I have never contacted technical support personally. We do outsource our support to another company. When there are issues, they are responsible for resolving them.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We use their product called, Cortex XDR.

We use an onboard, a custom CRM platform that we created in-house. At the moment, we do not use a commercially available one.

I have been with my current company for five months. And we were using checkpoints as our perimeter security when I first joined, and we moved to the Palo Alto Panorama platform. And it's a fantastic product; we love it. As an organization, it has been very well written.

How was the initial setup?

I wasn't involved in the installation because, as I previously stated, I just started working for my current organization. 

I wasn't directly involved in the transition, but it went smoothly.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I couldn't comment on price as I am not really involved in the commercial side of the business.

I am not aware of the licensing fees.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I am aware of XSOAR, but we haven't had any dealing with it yet. We are on a journey to potentially onboard that within our environment. But, at this point, we don't have, the budget for it.

What other advice do I have?

It's doing its job for us. Since we cut it out, from Checkpoint to Palo Alto, everything has improved noticeably. I recommend it.

I would rate Palo Alto Networks Panorama a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Reseller
Top 5
Centralized management system for network visibility and control; has good stability and technical support, but not easy to use
Pros and Cons
  • "Variable creation and template stack functionalities make Palo Alto Networks Panorama a brilliant solution. It is a completely scalable system, with good technical support."
  • "The ease of use of Palo Alto Networks Panorama is an area for improvement. Another downside is that you need a lot of comprehension to understand what it is."

What is our primary use case?

Palo Alto Networks Panorama can be used for managing all your files at once. Its primary use case is that it's a centralized management system for firewalls. For example: we have a company with four different sites, and each one of those sites has two Palo Alto networks in there, so rather than do one integration, then replicate it four times, what we do is we plug it all into Palo Alto Networks Panorama and make the change once, and it pushes out to all the firewalls, regardless of where those are located.

What is most valuable?

What I find brilliant in Palo Alto Networks Panorama is that you can create variables. The template stack function of the system is also valuable. You can create one profile for several firewalls, and I find that really, really cool. If there's a file on the network that needs to have an address arrangement, you can just import it similar to how you do a CSV import. It's a solid product and it does what it's supposed to do.

What needs improvement?

The ease of use of Palo Alto Networks Panorama is an area for improvement, because it's not very easy to use. The downside with the system is that you need a lot of comprehension to understand what it is. There are also risks associated with making a change, e.g. you can accidentally break your network which knocks off the firewall, and then you can't get back on again. If you know what you're doing, e.g. if you're a specialist, then there won't be any problems, in general.

It's important to gain an understanding of Palo Alto Networks Panorama, or the concept, before you start. It works like Palo Alto, but it doesn't at the same time, because you have templates, and the templates have to be applied before your variables, and then those variables directly affect your objects. It's important to understand how it works. I wish they could make it easier, and a bit more intuitive, but if you're doing the training, and you're properly in the system, then it will make sense the way it's explained to you, otherwise, it'll be hard to make sense of it.

It could be difficult to get to the stage you want to be on with this system. It's similar to a different language, and it's so hard to just do it on your own, but if you are in the culture and you're speaking to other people, then it becomes easier because you're doing it. That's the learning curve right there, e.g. if you've never done it before, you'll sit and look around saying: "What is this? I don't understand." If you're doing the training, and you're more involved in the product, or even if you speak to specialists, they will be able to help you, then you start to learning it and what it can do.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been dealing with Palo Alto Networks Panorama for four years now.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Palo Alto Networks Panorama is very, very scalable. The way the system works is that you have clustering, so you can have all these machines connect to each other in stacks. It's a completely scalable system.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support for Palo Alto Networks Panorama is good. I'm giving them a score of four out of five.

How was the initial setup?

The setup for Palo Alto Networks Panorama is quite difficult, because you're essentially building this one machine, then you have to create all the log ins, then once you've done that, you start registering your files, but you have to do an ingestion on them. You have to bring the file all in, and then it takes the config then puts the config back out again, but that config will then be a "protected config", so if I was logging onto that machine locally, I can't change that file.

The setup is quite easy just to build the machine, but to get it to work is quite difficult.

What other advice do I have?

I've been dealing with version 10.0 of Palo Alto Networks Panorama. I'm a reseller of this solution.

One person could do the deployment and maintenance for Palo Alto Networks Panorama, but what we do in our office is: we have a buddy system. If there's a change that needs to be made, e.g. if someone does the work, someone verifies it, and then catches any problems there, because if you're managing several firewalls, one more change might break all of them. That's the risk that you're in.

My advice to others who are planning to implement Palo Alto Networks Panorama is to look at the use case, e.g. if you have two firewalls, or if you have several firewalls across the country, it's best to get a specialist in to help you deploy it. For a regular IT guy who works in a company managing the server, etc., it'll be such a hard learning curve to go through. Try and learn it yourself if you can, but if not, always defer to a specialist.

I'm rating Palo Alto Networks Panorama seven out of ten, just because it's quite difficult.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Palo Alto Networks Panorama Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Palo Alto Networks Panorama Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.