Palo Alto Networks VM-Series Valuable Features
AV
Aravind Vellingiri
Cyber security consultant at L&T Technology Services
The VM-Series firewalls are described as useful for security posture, offering next-generation features such as Unified Threat Management, app-centric capabilities, and threat intelligence. The firewalls use sandboxing and behavioral analysis to allow or quarantine new traffic. They help in identifying legitimate domains and instruct admins if approval is needed. This set of features is very helpful in daily tasks.
View full review »
MuhammadNadeem
Sr. Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
App-IDs in Palo Alto Networks VM-Series are very important and working fine. We mostly use App-IDs due to which we are securing customers who are vulnerable and who need security solutions.
There are Dynamic Address Groups, EDLs, and integration with other solutions such as Forescout for Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, which we did two years ago. There are API integrations as well. We mostly automate the security structure for the organization using SIEM solutions, integration with SIEM solutions, and XDR solutions. This is very interesting.
View full review »
RonnieYazdani
Head of Sales at Omgea Exim Ltd
I find Palo Alto Networks VM-Series easy to deploy, and none of my customers have had significant complaints. My customers have high certifications provided by Palo Alto Networks. The friendly dashboard and the ability to easily command and use the CLI make Palo Alto Networks VM-Series a better product. It offers robust solutions, making it valuable to my customers.
View full review »Buyer's Guide
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series
February 2026
Learn what your peers think about Palo Alto Networks VM-Series. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2026.
884,656 professionals have used our research since 2012.
SB
Sanket Bhostekar
Assistant Manager at Aditya Birla Management Corpoartion
From a Synapse perspective, they have better visibility, better CV detection, better exposure detection, and it is in a single tool, so we are happy with it.
The integration of Palo Alto Networks VM-Series within my existing network infrastructure and security tools is good; they are resilient, and we can integrate with anything easily.
View full review »FN
Frank Nguyen
Senior IT Infrastructure Specialist at contemi
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is very strong in security features like antivirus, anti-spyware, and machine learning capabilities that help scan for antivirus and anti-spam. This ensures high security for internal and external traffic. They frequently update antivirus patterns and application threats, which provides reliable protection. I also value GlobalProtect VPN for supporting remote users as most of my employees work remotely. Additionally, Palo Alto Networks helps me visualize and manage network traffic effectively, blocking risky files and enhancing network security.
View full review »
ØM
Oyvind Mattland
Senior Security Consultant at Netsecurity.no
The most valuable features are the DNS security and threat prevention capabilities. The DNS security significantly enhances security through visibility and detection, allowing control over crucial traffic like DNS, which is often exploited by ransomware. Additionally, threat prevention and URL security are crucial licenses I recommend to customers, raising the security level substantially.
View full review »
GR
Gerald Rodrigues
General Manager at Tilaknagar Industries Ltd
Palo Alto offers excellent security, with features such as email scanning, malware protection, and efficient VPN and antivirus capabilities. There is no latency, making it faster compared to my previous solutions. The services are hosted and run quickly, which enhances our operations. The security against DDoS attacks has also been improved significantly.
View full review » A
Chandra A
Senior Manager Technical Security at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
The most effective features for threat prevention include the threat prevention signature level, the application filter capability, and the visibility provided by the firewalls.
We use these tools to prevent all known and unknown threats using Palo Alto Networks' Wildfire and other data filtering tools to gather information, analyze traffic, manage malicious traffic, and offer visibility, control, and attack prevention.
View full review »
AshwaniTyagi
Regional Manager at Orange
Very good reliability and feature set, such as advanced protection against malware, anti-spyware, and Wildfire. It also has good VPN capabilities and integration capabilities.
View full review »
Hamada Elewa
System Engineer - Security Presales at Raya Integration
The threat prevention and WildFire features are the most valuable features. DNS is another good feature of the product.
View full review »SK
Senthil-N
Product Manager of IT Ops and Management at ManageEngine A division of Zoho Corporation.
Palo Alto is easy to use. The UI is very easy to understand and does not require any certification or highly skilled technician to handle the firewall. It is very user-friendly and straightforward out of the box.
View full review »
Muhammad Zubair Khan
Head Of Information Security-CISO at PricewaterhouseCoopers
Palo Alto is a good product. The features are up to the mark. No other product can compete with Palo Alto’s features. The filtering feature is good. We can block the traffic and examine the report easily. The blocking functionality works very well compared to other firewalls. I rate the ability of the tool to keep up with the trends in firewalls an eight out of ten.
View full review »
Aqeel Junaid
Junior Executive - Information Security at sunshine holdings
The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that its UI is good since it offers options. In terms of being compliant with the firewall security standards, the product falls in the first or second place. The product can also be considered as NGFW. In general, the product is user-friendly.
reviewer1360608
Security Technical Lead at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Wildfire, a sandboxing product, allows for analyzing malware in virtual machines. Its strength lies in threat intelligence, which is significant for proactive defense. Palo Alto's robust threat intelligence supports new updates, and I can open cases directly with their Threat Intelligence team. Customers appreciate the throughput and reliability of VM-Series Firewalls, as they can be managed efficiently through Panorama.
View full review »SB
Serge Birdi
Network Architect at Correla Ltd.
We've integrated all necessary functions into a single box shop currently. This setup is convenient for those who aren't yet in the cloud and prefer to stick with familiar tools. However, there's now a plethora of cloud-based tools that offer similar functionalities, leading to potential duplication and increased costs.
In terms of security breaches, the product aids in categorizing and monitoring traffic, allowing for the identification of potentially malicisous or incorrectly formatted applications. While there are often false positives, the product has successfully detected unauthorized traffic streams.
View full review »
Kim Ejby Lorentzen
Senior Principal Solutions Architect, HPE Aruba Networking - Full Stack Platform Expert at Danoffice IT ApS
The most valuable feature of the solution is the zero-trust security architecture.
View full review »AW
Aditya Wagh
Sr. Networking Engineer at Emerson
I like the UI. Most things are accessible from the user interface and it is quite user-friendly. With respect to both VM-based firewalls and physical firewalls, it's easy to create updates.
They have a centralized Palo Alto Customer Support Portal and if we require any licenses, such as a next-generation firewall license, we can easily download and integrate them with this solution. We can also schedule periodic updates. That is quite user-friendly.
In terms of functionality, we are using IPSec tunneling and Palo Alto's WildFire feature. We use the security policies, Panorama, and Prisma Cloud as well.
We use Panorama to manage our security policy model across on-prem and public cloud environments. It plays a key role with respect to centralized management, for physical enterprise firewalls and cloud-based firewalls. It gives you centralized control over all the infrastructure. Unified policies can be pushed from that centralized place with templates.
When you deploy VM-Series Firewalls, they are quite flexible. You just have to select the instances, storage, security policies, and firewall rules. Within minutes, you can deploy the firewalls.
We are also able to adjust firewall sizing on the fly, which is important. Initially, we decided on a firewall based on the throughput assumptions. But in peak hours or during a peak month for traffic, we need to scale the firewalls. That should be automatically done. AWS and Azure provide very good features and, by using them, within a second it automatically scales, based on the incoming traffic.
View full review »
Charles Salameh
Senior Cloud Engineer at Netcetera AG
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series has everything centralized. You have the VPN solution, firewall, routing, UDR, flexibility, updates, and full visibility of your traffic. You can also perform log debugging. It provides all the things that Azure's firewall doesn't offer. Plus, you have full ownership of your device.
View full review »
OusaidAbaz
Security Network Architect at Inmac
The VM-Series scalability is fast and easy to implement, improving our security posture as our Azure network grows. The only minor issue we've faced is with the apps ID configuration, which requires specific matching for application filtering. Tools like Loopback help us identify open or denied flows between two firewalls and manage the servers effectively. The Palo Alto system easily identifies rules and objects within roles, making maintenance straightforward.
View full review »RM
Rahul Madan
Security Consultant at Airpel
The product is easy to use and deploy, and it enhances the overall security posture while deploying the application in the cloud. The most effective features of the solution for threat prevention are Layer 7 inspection, SSL decryption, IPS, and the web filtering profile. You can use the solution to easily protect your data from cyber criminals, including insider or outside-based attacks.
The solution is easy to deploy, easy to manage, and easy to create policies. An organization's overall security posture can be improved by deploying Palo Alto Networks VM-Series firewall.
Deja Srivatjanapong
Principal Network Engineer at Soiel
The tool provides ease of use for GUI management and deployment. The product provides more visibility into our traffic. It also helps with troubleshooting a bit of high-level next-generation platforms. The auto-update feature of App-ID is valuable. Traffic monitoring, threat monitoring, and dashboards are the most impactful for our network security.
Having visibility and alerts and being able to react to them is valuable. The integration of VM-Series with cloud services has helped us a lot to streamline our security operations. The solution has ease of use. The web interface and the traffic monitoring are more centralized.
Imrankhan Pathan
Technology Specialist at YASH Technologies
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series' security features are all good.
Centralized management is valuable because it allows us to configure settings in one location and apply them across all three locations.
JH
Jason H.
Director of IT at Tavoca Inc
The most valuable feature is the CLI.
We have the firewall configured for zero-day signatures, which is very important to us. We must be HIPAA and PCI compliant, which means that we need those signatures immediately.
There is no noticeable trade-off between security and network performance. In fact, so far, we've not seen any negative network performance with it. We're very impressed in that regard.
View full review »
reviewer9216065
Sr. Cloud Security Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The most effective feature for threat prevention is the threat prevention model in the VM-Series. This is bundled with advanced URL filtering, decryption, and wildfire sandboxing.
View full review »
Mitul Rajput
GM COE at Anuntatech Management Services Ltd
IDS, IPS, web filtering, and URL filtering are valuable features. Palo Alto is a good product. We have become a major reseller of the product. The tool is beneficial to us. The solution strengthens our IT posture.
View full review »IC
IndrshCharasia
Lead Security at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The most valuable feature is the proxy write. It's called the Write Fill process. It's in a bundle of everything. Palo Alto has everything, including CAD management, malware protection, and a file management system. There is a bundle of packages. This is not in the latest edition of Azure Firewall.
The VM-Series reports how much bandwidth a particular IP is using. You don't need to regularly log into a website, like a Cisco command, to see what kind of ACL it's getting. There isn't an ACL use portal event. You can go there and see how much my ACL has been getting me.
It automatically tells what rules are in place, like scheduled and additional rules. You don't need to create new rules every time. It will automatically tell you that this rule exists.
Palo Alto's next-generation firewall is classless, and it's a bundle of everything, including malware management, bandwidth utilization, and how much each IP is costing you. It offers bandwidth utilization, DDoS protection, a next-generation firewall, and everything I need in one bundle.
You can integrate fully automated virtual firewall deployments and provisioning into existing DevOps workflows if you are a good developer. Palo Alto offers help for it, but you should have developer knowledge.
It's easy to migrate workloads to the cloud. They expose the API also. In two days, I can implement two firewalls in different regions. It's flexible. That is a feature of Azure and Palo Alto. This kind of integration is why I am able to do the migration in two days.
View full review »
Janardhan Reddy
Manager-Information Technology at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
We are using the complete box. We are mostly using the security services and firewall rules in Panorama.
We need to look at different variables and granular policies of various tools. This makes it easy to understand.
We use Palo Alto’s Panorama centralized management system. We have an on-prem firewall where Panorama is very good for pulling logs in from the cloud so we can see what is going on. It gives us visibility into that as well as showing us what attacks are coming in.
Palo Alto’s Panorama centralized management system simplifies our security posture based on our requirements. Instead of manually pulling logs, then generating them into readable formats, it gives us the console in a readable format to view.
View full review »
Ahmed_Shalaby
Senior Cyber Security Engineer at Beta Information Technology
The most valuable features of the solution are its stability, ease of implementation, ease of operation, and security.
View full review »
Nasir Akbar
Presales Engineer at SAUDI PARAMOUNT COMPUTER SYSTEMS
The solution enables organizations to enforce policies. We can control every endpoint that is connected to the network.
View full review »
Hendrik-Du Plooy
Regional Manager at Saber1
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series's most valuable feature is the visibility of the environment.
View full review »
Nick Rama
System Engineer at Nexus Technologies,Inc.
The main advantage of Palo Alto Networks VM-Series stems from the fact that you can access it with the help of cloud services.
View full review »
NiteshSharma
Pre Sales Architect at network techlab
The most effective features for threat prevention are application-based prevention and WildFire. These features cover various threats, such as ransomware, malware, etc. They provide real-time visibility. By applying appropriate policies, threats can be blocked.
View full review »reviewer1881555
Infrastructure Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Regarding Palo Alto, my company normally does a high availability configuration for our customers, which are active-active and active-passive. There are multiple add-on packages a customer can choose from in Palo Alto, including antivirus, web filtering, IDS, and IPS solutions.
View full review »SS
Shrijendra Shakya
C.T.O at Sastra Network Solution Inc. Pvt. Ltd.
This is a firewall product and every OEM has claims about their special features. This device is very user-friendly and offers ease of monitoring.
Changes to the configuration happen quickly.
There is a single pane of glass for reporting, which is quite good.
The interface is user-friendly.
View full review »DS
Darshil Sanghvi
Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
A valuable feature of the solution is that it is not dependent on the hypervisor so we can install it on Hyper-V Microsoft software and deploy it. We have even installed it on Nutanix 81, in which it is supported. It is not dependent on the platform and is stable.
View full review »
Ricardo S.
IT Infrastructure Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Its security features, i.e. antimalware, threat prevention, URL Filtering, VPN, antivirus are the most valuable. The ID-User integrated with AD and 2FA feature is also very useful to provide access to servers and some users in the company.
reviewer1267734
Executive Cyber Security Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The Palo Alto VM-Series is nice because I can move the firewalls easily. For instance, we once went from one cloud provider to another. The nice thing about that situation was that I could just move the VMs almost with a click of a button. It was really convenient and easy and an option that every firewall will not give you.
it_user1415211
Senior Manager Network Engineering at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The most valuable feature is that you can control your traffic flowing out and coming out, allowing you to apply malware and threat protection, as well as vulnerability checks.
It has an advanced engine that does parallel processing for packet and deep packet inspection. It also supports user authentication.
View full review »BK
Barbara Kipp
Manager, Information Technology at SWPA Corp
The most valuable feature is the Posture Assessment.
View full review »TM
MADAPALA JOSHIKA
Network Engineer at Peristent Systems
The product's most valuable feature is pricing.
View full review »AS
Alexandru Sireteanu
Assistant Professor at Facultatea de Economie și Administrarea Afacerilor din Iași
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is very easy to use. It takes maybe one week to learn how it works, but the suite itself is very flexible. After you install it, it's very easy to use because of the intuitive web interface.
It's great for me at the moment. I have all I need. All the traffic is very well filtered, and I believe it's the future of the firewall.
reviewer1303821
Network Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
The VM series has an advantage over the physical version because we are able to change the sources that the machine has, such as the amount of available RAM. With a physical machine, you cannot the resources without adding something to the machine.
The management can be done from a single console window.
View full review »reviewer1415460
Senior Network Architect at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The most valuable features are the User ID, URL filtering, and application filtering. These features have helped us a lot.
View full review »it_user1429398
Senior Network Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
What I like about the VM-Series is that you can launch them in a very short time. You don't have to wait for the hardware to route for them to be staged and installed. From that perspective, it's easy to launch and it's good because it is more scalable.
The product is quite responsive.
View full review »it_user1429398
Senior Network Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The most valuable feature is that you can launch it in a very short time. You don't have to wait for the hardware to arrive and get it staged and installed. From that perspective, it is easy to launch. It is also scalable.
View full review »reviewer1286028
Security Operations Specialist at a logistics company with 201-500 employees
The feature that I have found the most useful is that it meets all our requirements technically.
View full review »it_user1386156
Technology Specialist at Accretive Technologies Pvt Ltd
In Palo Alto the most important feature is the App-ID. It's the biggest selling point in my opinion.
Another important application feature is the Content-ID.
The solution offers great templates.
Overall, the solution has a lot of great features on offer.
View full review »VG
VishalGilatar
IT Security Head at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The most valuable features are web control and IPS/IDS.
The work from home features, VPN and SSL VPN, are useful and part of the GlobalProtect functionality.
View full review »it_user1323414
ICT Infrastructure Specialist (E-Transform Project) at Ministry of Communications and Information
All of the next-generation features are valuable and set Palo Alto apart from other firewalls.
The application filtering, or AppiID, and URL filtering are good.
The interface with Panorama makes it very easy to use.
View full review »it_user1053030
System Administrator at a government with 201-500 employees
The most valuable features are security and support.
The packet routing speed is very good.
View full review »it_user848262
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It prevents data loss and business disruption.
View full review »MR
Michael Robtoy
Infrastructure Team Lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
In AWS, Palo Alto provides us a better view than flow logs for network traffic.
View full review »SS
Sachin Sheth
Director of Cloud Security at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The next-generation features of its IDS and IPS.
View full review »PK
Pradeep Kurra
Cloud Practice Engineer at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
- Firewalls
- VPN
Director7d48
Director at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
- Full content inspection
- Visibility into the traffic in AWS.
SystemAd6a48
System Administrator at DeepMap
It offers a single pane of glass for all the different types of installations.
The easy of use is pretty good.
View full review »PT
Pavan Tipirneni
Solution Architect at JM Family Enterprises
AWS has improved our agility to apply firewall rules. It has reduced the amount of time that it takes to apply firewall rules because everything is based in the cloud. It helps us to bring agility to the project teams when applying them.
View full review »DR
Dan Rabinowitz
Director of Infrastructure at Arcadia.io
- It is the leader in the marketplace.
- It has the ability to create Palo Alto VM-series using software.
- The VM-Series has all of the components (out-of-the-box) that you need in a very secure environment.
CA
Christian Amaya
Support Engineer & IT Professional at SISAP
The granularity which is used to confirm applications based in users.
When you have VMware NSX, it is easy to deploy this virtual firewall because it is fully integrated with the VM solution. If I want to segment any type of network inside the data center, it is about two or three clicks, and it works.
View full review »RO
Rene Ortega
System Engineer at a tech consulting company with 501-1,000 employees
- Its strong intelligence is the feature that I like the most.
- A solid operating system with all the necessary data center security features.
- Easy to manage.
AC
Adao Costa
Managing Partner at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
The best features are:
- User identification
- Application identification
- Logs and monitoring.
it_user798924
Technical Lead Infrastructure at a healthcare company with 201-500 employees
Threat management. That is very important, obviously. There has been a lot of press about hacking, virus vulnerabilities, the cron bug, etc. It is very important that we detect these as soon as it happens, so we can implement measures before they get on to our network. It is very good at doing that; it is very good at identifying these vulnerabilities.
View full review »IW
Ittipol Wichaidej
Solution sales at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The tool's cloud version makes application migration easy.
View full review »Buyer's Guide
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series
February 2026
Learn what your peers think about Palo Alto Networks VM-Series. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2026.
884,656 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Palo Alto Networks VM-Series Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: February 2026
Popular Comparisons
Fortinet FortiGate
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
Netgate pfSense
Sophos Firewall
Cisco Secure Firewall
Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls
WatchGuard Firebox
Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW)
Cisco Meraki MX
Azure Firewall
Palo Alto Networks WildFire
SonicWall TZ
Microsoft Defender for Identity
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Palo Alto Networks VM-Series Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More:
- Primary Use Case
- Benefits
- Valuable Features
- Room for Improvement
- Customer Service and Support
- Initial Setup
- ROI
- Pricing
- Other Advice
- Which product do you recommend: Palo Alto Network VM-Series vs Fortinet FortiGate?
- Is Palo Alto the best firewall for an on-premise/cloud hybrid IT network?
- Which is the best IPS - Cisco Firepower or Palo Alto?
- Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls
- Which product do you recommend and why: Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Virtual (FTDv)?
- How does Azure Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks VM Series?
- What do you recommend for a corporate firewall implementation?
- Comparison of Barracuda F800, SonicWall 5600 and Fortinet
- Sophos XG 210 vs Fortigate FG 100E
- Which is the best network firewall for a small retailer?
