Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) Reviews

Check Point NGFW proved to be highly scalable, secure, and stable, among other alternatives of multiple firewalls present in the market.

At an organizational level, the integration and implementation of Check Point NGFW took place on a priority basis due to data and system security concerns against malware and phishing attacks.

Check Point NGFW bifurcates, channels, and segregates the internal network and builds a secure VLAN, and separates it for every department.

Check Point NGFW is highly scalable and provides end-to-end resolution and customized productive service making Check Point NGFW more promising and user-friendly than its alternatives and services like navigation, control, and filtering ensure that all users stay connected to business applications and restrict traffic.

At the organizational level, the integration and implementation of Check Point NGFW took place on a priority basis based on our data and system security concerns about malware and phishing attacks.

Check Point NGFW bifurcates, channels, and segregates internal networks. It builds a secure VLAN and separates it for every department.

It's scalable and provides end-to-end resolution. It offers services like navigation, control, and filtering and ensures that all users stay connected to business applications while restricting traffic.

Check Point NGFW is great for data and system security management against malware and phishing attacks.

Check Point NGFW Firewall requires frequent updates to build more user-friendly dashboards. They need to begin the implementation of more active VPN support.

A few services of Check Point NGFW require immediate improvements, like the customer support portal and the ads management on the platform. These services need to be improved to help ensure mass adoption of Check Point NGFW.

Check Point NGFW Protects from all types of internal and external attacks, and it is easy to use. 

The integration of Check Point NGFW in my organization has taken about 1.5 years or so, and it's still going smoothly.

I haven't gone through any other platforms or solutions. However, these platforms have become a key part of our organization & work management.

Check Point NGFW is a highly scalable and secure solution that is user-friendly. It is up to the mark in terms of data and system security management. Potential users should just go for it. 

I haven't personally evaluated other solutions via reviews from some software review websites.

Go for Check Point NGFW. It's the best among market alternatives and is a must-have solution for professionals.

In the search to establish the best perimeter security while achieving standards, protection, reduced expenses, and additional benefits, we found this product. It allows us to see a low return on the investment that could be established. We like the Check Point brand, thanks to the characteristic benefits, evolution, and innovation that the brand has. It's allowed us to establish and meet the needs we have.

The state-of-the-art perimeter firewall we use today has great benefits and an outstanding number of available features put into place. The characteristics on offer have come to give an added value under a single investment, thus offering many advantages. We have achieved and a return on investment and the benefits are consistent with the expectations set in motion. We are managing to correct and protect not only one area, but we are putting into operation additional functions to achieve an appropriate level of security. 

We like that we can create different VPN services connected from site to site or remote desktop connections to establish connections from point to site or from site to site, thus giving us a really high capacity to establish and manage simultaneously. This has allowed us to be a little more flexible, giving each of the members of the organization the possibility of working from home and being able to interconnect with the different branches of our central service quickly, safely, and efficiently. 

The policy installation module should be improved. It needs to be faster and have a complete interface to manage and apply changes more quickly when creating a policy or wanting to modify an existing one. 

One of the features that has been getting better over time is the way you install and apply your policies. Before, they were very slow. Today, it has improved. That said, it could be a little faster and more efficient and thus achieve a fast, light, and efficient installation in the services that are being configured instantly when they are applied.

I've used the solution for one year.

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 are Check Point's Authorized partners, and Check Point NGFW is used for our Client's network security. These Next Generation Firewalls are excellent. All of our customers are happy. Check Point gateways provide superior security compared to any competitors in the Indian market. 

Our clients have networking solutions that range from 50 to 200 routers and hubs. Also, their endpoints range from 100 to 2,000 endpoints. Check Point's unique solution helps us to cater to all sizes of companies, from SMEs to large enterprises without compromising on any security vulnerabilities.

Check Point NGFW gateways provide superior security compared to any Indian market competitors. It delivers the highest-caliber threat prevention with excellent SandBlast Zero Day protection out of the box. 

Also, its on-demand hyper-scale threat prevention performance provides our customer with cloud-level expansion and resiliency on-premises. By integrating the most advanced threat prevention and consolidated management, Check Point's security gateway appliances are designed to prevent any cyber attack, reduce complexity, and lower our clients' costs.

The features which are most valuable include:

1] Uncompromising Security

2] Security at Hyperscale

3] Unified Security

4] Check Point's Quantum helps our clients in their overall cybersecurity practice

5] Protects network, data center, endpoints, and IoT

6] Ultra-scalable protection against Gen-V cyber attacks

7] Best Protection with SandBlast Threat Prevention

8] Maestro Hyper-scale Networking

9] Remote Access VPN protects your Remote Users

10] Highest level of security with Autonomous Threat Prevention

11] Modular Hardware and high-performance CPUs

We would like to see the following improvements:

1] Check Point can improve a little better in their technical services, especially in the Indian market. 

2] Check point can add features like log management which would be very useful to get compliant with CERTin standards. 

3] Check Point should look into SIEM solutions as today's Indian market is going towards SOC capability, and SIEM is the backbone of any SOC solution.

4] Automation is the crux of today's digital transformation era, and Check Point should include automation in its products.

5] Incident forensics like UBA or CASB is the next challenge in the security domain, and these features should be included if possible.

Its been three years since I strated using the product.

The solution is highly stable.

This solution is highly scalable.

The technical support is nice.

Positive

We are currently working with Sophos, however, we started recommending Check Point to our clients due to the excellent capabilities that they carry.

The setup is straightforward.

The setup, pricing or licensing cost of other products is on-par or a little higher than Check Point.

We have evaluated Sophos and Palo Alto.

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.

The product is basically for completing a firewall task. On top of that, the aim is to find a comprehensive solution with the innovations from next-gen. We made an isolated zone in a small part of the company. Here, we aimed to provide basic security features with few security devices. In this context, we ran the Check Point appliance by opening almost all the blades on it. The Check Point software architecture was able to provide quite good results because it ran on its own OS. It's pretty good as a VM. At a point where we wanted to isolate VM devices, we provided a solution with a VM series of Check Point.

It has similar features to other competitors in standard sizes, so it's not a subject where it differs much. It provides us with a layer of security as a firewall. With the new blades that are opened as an extra, it can provide solutions that are needed today, such as IPS and URL filtering. 

You can do app and URL filtering through a separate policy layer. The fact that these can be separated and made in different layers provides excellent convenience for the administrators who regulate the rules. In object searches, object explorer is very easy and fast.

In my company, there have between ten and 15 firewalls on-premises, and if I want to configure or push the same configuration to all of the firewalls, then the centralized management system is easy and very helpful. 

It is difficult to convey the end-user experience. However, in general, administrators can get used to the interface and start working quickly. Especially after Revision 81.10, I can say that everything became more stable and faster in terms of management. It should be said that it does quite well on the DDOS side.

There are parts that are still on the SmartDashboard screen and that condemn you to use it, which should be removed and moved to the SamartConsole interface, which is the main screen. 

In addition, when you want to open the gateway by double-clicking on the interface, sometimes it can cause silly problems such as freezing. To fix these problems, Check Point needs to get rid of the SmartDashboard screen completely. Also, there is a need for performance improvements in the interface so that when the data and rulesets are large, there is a need for performance improvements in the next versions.

I've used the solution for about six years.

We use the NGFW to give security and protection to our local network and internet user from internet threats like viruses, worms, bots, and intrusion. 

We also use it to control the internet URLs accessed by the user. We subscribe to two internet service providers with total bandwidth available of 450 Mbps and we have more than 700 internet users connected. 

Check Point's firewall does a good job of protecting the user from malicious threats. It is able to run smoothly without being a bottleneck in the network. 

Check Point NGFW helps us to secure our user's computer and our server and therefore helps us to maintain business operations. It has important features like an intrusion prevention system, anti-virus, and anti-bot capabilities. 

It also helps us manage bandwidth efficiently by managing what website is allowed to access by users. 

We're limiting user access to websites with high bandwidth demand like video streaming and social media, of forbidden websites like adult websites. 

We can manage which users have access to certain websites.

The antivirus, antibot, and intrusion prevention systems are great. It's very important due to the fact that to prevent is better than to recover. The features play a critical role in preventing any security incidents from happening and minimalizing them before they become bigger problems. 

Its URL filtering feature is great. We can manage which users are allowed access to which websites at a certain time. We can also manage which application is allowed and forbidden for the users. 

Check Point has a vast list of applications it is able to manage - from torrents to games, social media, etc. 

The product could provide an easier user interface and management, by combining all functions (network and policy configuration) into one single application rather than splitting it into different applications. 

Users will also really appreciate it if Check Point provides a free management and logfile analysis module. In the existing setup, a user must pay an extra subscription fee to have access to the firewall management module. It makes the user without a subscription unable to fully gain insight from the firewall log file so they are unable to fully utilize the device

I've used the solution for four years.

It's stable. The system runs with minimal problems. I said minimal because yes there were problems. In 4 years using checkpoint, we have maybe 2 major problem. One was hardware modul failure, that replaced as soon as possible by support team, and the other was software/configuration problem, that get solved also with the help of support team

It has the ability to scale depending on the product model.

They provide good support, depending on your troubles. For more complicated requests, maybe you will have to pay.

Neutral

Check Point is the company's first NGFW.

The initial setup is simple, however, customizing it could be complex.

We implemented the solution through a vendor team. The score I'd give for their expertise is seven out of ten.

if you pay for the setup cost, make sure you get it set up exactly as you need it to be.

We looked into Sophos, Sangfor, and Palo Alto.

We use the solution for the DMZ firewall. It's very common and very easy to make configuration, Having IPsec for tunneling solutions with third-party routers and firewalls with other branch offices is very helpful. 

It offers support for segmentation networks. 

The geolocation feature makes it so that our company can easily allow or block a location of IP and can integrate with our SOC or our log management system. 

URL filtering is very powerful for blocking malicious connections. 

The user interface is very cool and easy to use. It has anti-DDOS protection which is very useful too.

The solution is very helpful. Using Check Point helps our security team with mitigation and prevention with an easy user interface and configuration. 

Anti-malware and URL filtering can mitigation many malicious activity and log for event easy for us to send to our security operation center team, for internet solutions we use load balancing method with a round-robin algorithm which is very very helpful for internal user solution for accessing the internet with redundant availability.

URL filtering and anti-malware protection at=re the most useful as those can mitigate many malicious events and make connections between users and the internet safe. It's faster with the load balancing method and supports a round-robin algorithm. This firewall in our environment has high availability or cluster system which makes our availability higher, especially for business continuation plans. Support for troubleshooting and maintenance cases is great. They are very helpful and fast at solving many problems.

The network automation and security automation could be better. We need integration with more third-party security solutions.

We need two-factor authentication solutions for the virtual private network solution. We need a firewall or NGAV/EDR with lightweight resources that is still powerful for blocking and preventing attacks and malicious activity. 

We need enhancement for our perimeter for our security zone, especially for network access control with portal authentication. 

I've been using the solution for five years.

We did use a different solution. We switched as we need more enhancements. 

We also looked into Fortinet.