Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) Reviews

We use this solution for our perimeter firewall to protect our web applications, systems, and network. We are running our complete business with Check Point.

The complete traffic is managed by Check Point. The Check Point threat emulation blade is enabled to protect zero-day attacks and it will detect and prevent attachments and other payloads from this type of attack.

We have been running Check Point for the last ten years and it protected our network, systems, and applications against the latest attack. Our organization is running 500 applications that are being protected.

The next-generation firewall will manage all of the traffic and prevent the latest & advanced threats from attackers. The latest operating systems R 80.20 is wonderfully designed and allows customers to manage everything with a single console.

The most valuable feature is that we are protected against zero-day threats.

Everything can be managed from a single console.

We would like to see the following improvements:

1. Multiple ISP redundancy.
2. CPU utilization.
3. VPN traffic.
4. HA concept, where if we apply the policy in the primary appliance that should be applied to HA appliance automatically.
5. The number of bugs has to be reduced.
6. The number of false positives should be reduced. 
7. Threat emulation has to be improved.
   
8. Reporting has to be improved.

I have been using Check Point Next Generation Firewall for ten years.

We are happy with Check Point technology and support.

Both IN and OUT traffic is managed by Check Point. We are happy with Check Point technology including the protection, management, and the ability to secure the enterprise network against advanced threats.

The solution is easy to use. I like the monitoring the most.

All the advanced features of automation, especially the first installation of tunnels, need improvement. Also, in terms of configuration, in terms of tuning, and fine-tuning the system, I think they do make it a bit hard for users. Right now, we need to teach admins, the network and security admins about system fine-tuning in terms of load balancing between CPUs, assignment of processes. I don't think a network admin or a system admin should deal with it in terms of when we are speaking about the firewall or networking device. It should be automatic.

It's a stable solution. There are about 15,000 users installed behind the firewall.

It's a scalable solution. It's very good.

It's easy to install Check Point, but not in the case of a large environment and multiple clusters. This is an ongoing project I can't tell you how long deployment takes. It's a huge network that I have. I have three people maintaining the solution.

I have a basic network firewall and not the advanced feature, full feature security system. I think they are the best. Still, for instance, when installing a tunnel in Check Point vs installing a tunnel in Cisco, the difference is that in Check Point nothing makes sense, and in Cisco you have the duration capability, the hierarchy of the configuration.

I would rate this solution as 8 out of 10. Mostly because of configuration problems - problems with configuring VPNs, and panels, etc.

We primarily use the solution as a firewall device and for our VPN.

It gives me very detailed reports. The endpoint solution for clients is wonderful.

We're looking at the endpoint because there are some smaller issues with internet connectivity within our country.

Although they have it now, we don't have a license for it, and I think mobile device security should be a standard feature. I cannot control someone bringing their device to my network and what they do.

Within the first four weeks, we had a few little issues with stability, consideration issues here and there. But the partner helped and gave direction that and now it's better. It's still under warranty so we are okay with it. We have about 250 users. We also have the administrative and the IT team in the company that manages different solutions.

We are definitely planning to increase the scale, especially the endpoint. The cost in comparison with the brand new addition will be okay.

Right now, the agreement we have is elaborate enterprise support. That means we are entitled to an engineer within 48 hours if we have issues that can't be resolved remotely. I've been satisfied with technical support so far.

We were using the Sonicwall NSG 3400. It's a good appliance, but the major problem is they don't have competent technical partners in Nigeria. So all our support was via email, phone, and remote. It wasn't very good which is why we had to change it. Sometimes our network went down and we had to start calling so that we can call on the device. They needed to have someone in Nigeria that could assist. That's why we had to leave it.

The initial setup was very straightforward. You can customize it and change it as you need. But the initial information is wonderful. Initial deployment took approximately two and a half days. Then, to complete everything took a week. Deployment took about 3-4 people.

We had a partner. A representative of Check Point came and did the implementation.

We pay a license fee on a three year basis. We have a three-year license. We pay $5,000-$6,000 a year.

I would advise anyone to try Check Point.

I would rate this solution 7.5 out of 10. I think they should make their licensing simpler.

The management of our company requires a firewall implementation. We use Check Point to complete the network compliance rules.

We use Check Point NGFW for compliance. The initial request leads to secondary requests. By the time you have recognition, there is recollection. For the main service, it's collection.

The feature we have found to be the most valuable is the management firewall. 

This product has room for improvement in technical support for Africa. There are some problems with African countries. We also need to provide excellent services. 

The additional feature I would most like to see included in the next release of this solution is removal management.

The stability of the solution is quite good. It has a great GUI and it's comfortable. I love the content. Of course, you also have great support.

The new version is highly scalable. Now all of our users depend on the firewall. We have about 150 users. We require two staff for deployment and management.

We previously used Sophos. We switched for more security. 

The initial setup was straightforward. Our deployment took two or three weeks. Deploying the first one was two weeks, but the other ones were around one week.

For the first setup, I used a consultant. For the second one, I didn't. We didn't need one.

Licensing costs for this solution are on a yearly basis.

On a scale from one to 10, I would rate this product a nine. Nobody's perfect.

• Perimeter and datacentre firewalls
• URL filtering
• Anti-bot
• Anti-malware
• Application awareness.

Consolidated many of our DMZ services into one appliance, and it's easy to add IPS functionality on firewalls.

All of the above mentioned.

Simplify licensing.

Our primary use case of this solution is to use it as a security gateway. 

The visibility and the logging are the most valuable features. Also, their interface is second to none. The best thing about it is the interface but it crashes too often. If it can stop crashing that would be great. 

Their support is completely useless. They need to improve that and the stability. The main reason we are moving on from Checkpoint is because of their stability and their support. There are way too many bugs. You just can't get things to work properly.

They don't need to bring any more features. They need to focus on stability. They should stop trying to be funky and stop trying to develop new things to catch people's attention. Just focus on what they already have and make it work. It would be a good product. Just make sure it works. 

When it works, scalability is perfect. 

Six years ago we were using a Fortinet solution. The reason we switched to Checkpoint was because of the central management. It can manage up to hundreds of devices without failing but in reality, it doesn't actually do that. Central management was better than Fortinet back then. That was several years ago. I don't know Fortinet now. The reason we chose Checkpoint was the central management. We needed to manage up to about 700 or 800 devices.

The initial setup depends on how many features you want to turn on. If you just want a simple set-up, with not a lot of features, then it's easy. You can set one up very quickly, within a day. If you want to have a lot of features turned on and your environment is slightly more complex than standard, it can take up to a few months because you will always run into bugs. It's going to stop you from proceeding and you will be battling with it for a long, long time. Contacting support won't always help. You could potentially waste months of your time and not get any value from it. 

We had Checkpoint support engineers for the implementation. The people are helpful. They support their product. The problem is that there were too many problems. Even their support can't fix it. They try their best to help but when the product isn't great, there's not much you can do.

This solution is way too expensive for what it is worth, especially when it doesn't work. It's just pointless. It's time wasted.

I would rate this solution a three out of ten. The reason I give it a three and not zero is because the visibility and the interface are great. Other than that, they're too much of a headache. We've had painful experiences that we never want to go back to. 

Check Point is a very good solution. My primary use case is as a perimeter firewall. I never use Check Point's IPS. I always work with another IPS, in a different appliance. I always use the firewall modem as a firewall.

We have good support from Check Point. They always send us information about new products, new technologies, and new attacks worldwide. We are looking for endpoint protection and Check Point is one of the brands that could provide that technology to us.

The most valuable feature of Check Point is the management console. Another feature that is most valuable for me is that the configuration is easier than other firewalls.

I would like for them to develop the ability to manage a cloud firewall with the same console. That would be very helpful.

Another thing I would like to see improved is that when I start policies in Check Point's console, it takes a few minutes. It could be better and faster.

We never had an outage of the appliances or the consoles. Stability is very strong. I never had a problem related to stability.

Scalability is good. Since four years ago, we have been increasing the number of users and the traffic. The solution is working well and working with our progress.

I always work with a partner so the partner is in contact with Check Point. Their response is very fast. In all of the cases, it's very fast.

We switched because it is a good product and because of the cloud support. We are moving to the cloud step by step and the cloud support is important. If another company has better cloud support it may be a factor that would influence my company to switch to another solution. 

Important criteria that we look at when choosing a solution is the local experience and the local support. That it is very important. 

I wasn't there for the initial setup but from what I heard, it was straightforward. 

We looked at Cisco vs Fortinet. We chose Check Point because of the cost benefit that this product offers.

I would rate this solution an eight. It's a good solution. The management is easy. The console is very practical but in order to be a ten, it should be faster.

I would advise someone considering this or a similar solution to prove the solution before choosing the final vendor. Prove that it will be very helpful for you.

We use this product as firewall protection.

We are a utility company, so we need efficient antivirus protocols. The firewall support is extremely important to our organization. Checkpoint helps us protect our company from outside threats.

It is easy to configure and it is a valuable antivirus protection. I especially like the IPS feature of this product.

The presentation of the reports need to be more user-friendly. 

Sometimes we have problems. In those cases, we just need to reboot the system.

The scalability of the solution is not great for us because we have old equipment. With newer equipment, I think the scalability would be much better. It is no fault of the solution itself. 

The Checkpoint tech support takes a long time to resolve problems. 

Prior to Checkpoint, we considered Cisco. 

It was a complex setup. We had a partner configure the equipment. 

The price is high in comparison to other solutions. 

We are currently considering Fortinet as another possible option. 

After much evaluation, we have decided to change our firewall.

We are a large University with more than 1000 employees across seven faculties and growing. Student population is more than 15,000 in-house and 30,000 external. The University of Kelaniya Sri Lanka primarily uses the Check Point 4800 device to protect users and servers. The product also enables the VPN with advanced security policies inside our network. This gives us a better security posture. Valuable features include a good VPN, IPsec, and SSL. We use Check Point 4800 as a perimeter firewall and our internet bandwidth expanded to 1Gbps.

We use it mainly for security and content control. Earlier, we could not block BitTorrent and other high bandwidth downloads from our firewall. After introducing this NGFW, we have improved our security posture, and now, have peace of mind. 

The most valuable feature is the IPsec VPN. The application and content filtering is perfect for our university. This device gives us alerts and reports on a daily and weekly basis. It gives us the opportunity to know what is going on. The Smart Dashboard and other user interfaces are very easy to use and can be handled without any significant IT skills. It allows for easy policy management.

The Check Point Capsule VPN is a great feature. It connects to our university in a few seconds.

It's easy to handle and manage. No need for significant IT skills to manage this solution.

Check Point Smart Dashboard does not support my Apple MacBook Air. It only supports Windows versions. Checkpoint does not support captive portal in IPv6. We had a big issue. Not solved yet by Checkpoint experts.

Check Point is a stable product.

No issues with scalability. 

We used Cisco ASA 5510 as our perimeter firewall before purchasing this NGFW. It only had firewall features. We switched because we were looking for a strong gateway level security with attributes like antivirus, anti-spam, IPS, web content filtering, application control, and secure wireless access points.

The initial setup was straightforward.

A vendor team implemented this. They gave us in-house training for our staff. They are experts in Check Point and taught us well.

It has a great ROI. 

Pricing is negotiable and competitive.

We selected the following brands and models by going through different reviews:

• SonicWall 9200
• Sophos XG 750
• Fortinet FortiGate 1500D
  
• Check Point 15400

We requested that the vendors do a PoC. Check Point, SonicWall, Sophos and Fortinet agreed to run one. Finally, we chose Check Point.

We are in the higher education sector in Sri Lanka. We produce graduates to our country and other countries.

It is our next-generation firewall and IPS.

We had some security issues that WatchGuard could not resolve. Since installing Check Point, we have not had any troubles. We don't have any security problems anymore.

Also, as we are systems integrators, we could not offer only one brand to our customers. We had to expand to several solutions to enable customers to make their own decisions.

It's a gateway and we can integrate some of their functionalities. It's a gateway for us to work with them. Compared to the previous solution we had - WatchGuard - Check Point really works.

We looked very closely at ArcSight's solution because it's a multi-vendor solution. With ArcSight we could have Check Point, we could have RSA, we could have any brand and integrate several brands, from a security point of view. With Check Point, you cannot do so, you can integrate with Check Point products. Check Point forces the customer to buy only one vendor's solution but the trends of the market are not to work with only one vendor. If Check Point could work with other vendor solutions, that would an improvement.

It would also help if they had solutions for the SMB market. Check Point is only useful for customers that have a big IT budget. If they don't have the IT budget, the customer has to buy a solution that from another vendor.

For the last 10 or 12 years, Check Point has been at the top of the industry ratings, so this demonstrates they make good products. The stability is really good.

Technical support is really good. We work with a partner from Check Point, a very good partner. The time of response is very good. We are satisfied with the solutions that Check Point has provided us.

Before using Check Point we were using WatchGuard, but it was not a good brand. Support from them was very difficult. We decided on Check Point because, first of all, their salespeople did a good job. In addition, their position in the market helped us decide to buy. Also, we are systems integrators and many of our customers use Check Point. Their feedback helped us make the decision to go with Check Point.

An important criterion when selecting a vendor is that the vendor has to provide support here in Peru. Our experience with WatchGuard not having a local representative was that the support was not good in terms of time of response as well as difficulties with the idioms of the language. We speak Spanish and the support was only in English, so it was difficult.

I'm not part of the technical staff. But from what I heard, the setup was fine. I believe the installation and deployment were without any problems.

Check Point solutions are very expensive here. It's good, but it's expensive.

Some vendors offer a PoC. When you do a PoC you can more easily see which is the better solution. We would recommend requiring a PoC.

I would rate Check Point an eight out of 10. They're not a 10 because of their pricing.