Check Point Security Management Reviews

The Security Management server provides centralized management to manage all the security gateways.

Many organizations will have more than one firewall. This may be in the same location or in a different location. Users can manage all the firewalls from a single location.                                    

It provides centralized logging for all incoming and outgoing traffic.

The solution centralizes licensing and auto-licensing with smart updating. 

In organizations where there are many firewalls, one firewall license may expire. We can easily update licenses from the smart console from the same location or from different locations.                                               

It also provides centralized logging that helps during troubleshooting - which provides detailed logging of access rules, NAT rules, application filters, VPNs, etc.                                                                                                              

The centralized logs and management are helpful. All of the logs are stored in an external server or within the Management Server. All of the logs are very easy to understand and provide detailed information about the instance. 

Through the Management Server we can easily enable all the features and easily disable them as well. 

Check Point offers PS services in India. As per personal experience and based on many organizations, Check Point needs to improve PS services. 

For the past one and a half years, I have been using a Check Point Firewall and Check Point Management Server.

The stability is the best.

I am satisfied with the scalability.

So far, there is no point reach out to technical support.

No, we have not selected any other solution.

As a Check Point implementation engineer, I found the setup process easy. 

The vendor expertise is very good.

The licensing price is a bit expensive. However, it provides very good security at the perimeter level.

No, we have not evaluated other options.

They just need to improve PS service in India.

We utilize Check Point Security Management for our daily security operations, including managing firewall rules, reviewing alerts, and generating reports on a weekly basis.

We've integrated Check Point Security Management with some of our business associates' portals for HR, finance, and payroll activities, which are outsourced. Check Point alarms us about any version changes on these sites, allowing us to block unauthorized changes. So far, we haven't encountered any serious incidents that require immediate action. We receive incident reports, but they usually involve blocked or quarantined threats rather than major security breaches. Additionally, our internal management console provides us with alerts, adding another layer of security monitoring.

Over the past 1.5  years, we've started monitoring it more regularly, analyzing alerts closely. The most beneficial features for us are the alert classifications, which help us prioritize critical issues, and the detailed reports that provide insights into attack origins and purposes, such as TLS violations or content violations. 

While we use a cloud-based Security Control console, we primarily conduct in-depth analysis of reports on a weekly basis to enhance our security posture.

Check Point EDR has room for improvement, especially in the area of Data Loss Prevention where it currently lacks functionality. 

I'd also like to see enhancements in content filtering and categorization features.

I would appreciate the ability to restrict forwarding of confidential documents to specific groups, ensuring tighter security measures.

I have been using Check Point Security Management for the past 1.5 years.

I would rate the stability 9 out of 10. 

I would rate the scalability 8 out of 10. 

We faced issues, but with the help of tech support, it was solved. It took almost one week approximately to set the solution through firewall.

We rely on tech support to enhance our capabilities.

We have a small, focused team of four engineers.

Currently, we only use Check Point and are satisfied with its benefits in terms of time-saving and security performance, estimating a 30% time savings.

The pricing can be estimated around 3 or 4 out of 10 in terms of expense.

I have evaluated another product before Check Point but found the local account manager to be more aggressive.

I would rate the product overall at 8 out of 10, mentioning that while functionalities are there, improvements could be made to make it more user-friendly for laymen, such as incorporating drag-and-drop functionality.

We use the product as a primary gateway firewall for all offices at different locations. 

We have deployed their high-end firewall UTMs to medium business grade devices 1400 series. They are easy to manage either centrally or as separate devices. We are using them for Network security including firewall rules, NATTing, Web application access, IPSec VPN tunneling between offices and cloud services, user VPN clients for access from home, data encryption, anti-malware/anti-virus solutions, and as network gateway devices for routing and DNS.

We have seen tremendous improvement in the overall security of the organization's IT assets. We performed Pen Tests and External vulnerability audits on our network and we always scored top-rated thanks to Check Point. 

Their management portal and firmware are very stable and don't require frequent maintenance. Their IPSec tunneling is very stable, especially with Azure and AWS networks. 

Access to detailed network logs in real time helps us decide and take prompt action to block/fix threats. 

The most valuable aspects of the solution include:

• IPSec VPN Tunneling: they are easy to configure and offer multiple options to set them up with Cloud services and other vendor firewall products over certificates, shared keys etc.
• DDoS Protection: Firewall cleverly handles such attacks without compromising on performance.
• HA and Clustering: Seamless load management and High Availability between nodes of firewall clusters.
• Firewall Rules: You have access to set up rules at a very granular level and all are accessible through the GUI platform as well as over CMDLET.

We didn't find any major feature missing or lacking in Check Point products that we used. We'd just like them to continue to improve their products with new features and updates. 

We'd like to see more and more integration possibilities between Checkpoint and other vendor security solutions such as Malwarebytes, SIEM solution providers, and standalone vulnerability scanners.

The Check Point SandBlast platform could also be merged with the Check Point GAIA platform for a central management console and easier controls.

I've used the solution for more than ten years.

The solution is very stable compared to peers.

The solution is highly scalable.

Technical support is satisfactory, however, it takes some time to escalate your ticket.

Positive

We did use Sophos and Cisco ASA, however, they were either complicated products to manage or lacked features.

The initial setup wasn't difficult after you attended free platform support sessions by Check Point.

We handled the initial setup in-house.

We evaluated Sophos, Cisco ASA, SonicWall, and FortiGate.

Our use cases are protection infrastructure in a financial corporate environment.

Check Point firewalls meet all the PCI guidelines that regulate players in the financial market.

The support is pretty incredible.

There is room for improvement in reliability. 

I have been using this solution for ten years. I worked from version 840 to 8120.

I would rate the stability a six out of ten.

It is very scalable. I would rate the scalability for this solution a ten out of ten.

I initially took Cisco training for routers, switches, and firewalls. I did actually work up the Cisco firewalls long enough to convert them to Check Point.

The initial setup was complex. But that was really the fault of Check Point just because we deployed it into the Google Cloud environment, and their environment is a little different.

We have security management deployed on-premises and on the cloud.

The pricing is about par for the enterprise-class firewalls.

Palo Alto and Cisco. And the reason for going with this solution was the price.  So, with Cisco, it was priced. We actually checked the overall price of the cost of ownership. When you talk about support costs and everything else, was cheaper than Cisco. And with Palo Alto, also had reliability issues that could not be overcome by their support.

I definitely recommend it, but unless you're fully trained and experienced on Check Point, you should get the better support program. 

Check Point has support rep programs that go all the way up to putting one of their own people in your business to help you. Then, they have support programs. If you're an expert, you just need to be able to download updated files and stuff. They have support programs like that, too. The worst possible situation is if somebody isn't really skilled with the thing and they cheap out on the support program, and they'll just flounder.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We have physical Smart-1 appliances and virtual appliances in our environment. We merged all of the old managers into these managers and managed to centralize the management of firewalls and see the logs altogether.

We are using management API to apply large configs, clear rules, block malicious IP addresses with SAM rules, and migrate the VLANs with it.

We deployed a management HA to provide rulebase synchronization to our DRC firewall segments. We also distributed logs to different Smart-1 appliances to gain performance.

First of all, centralized management is great. With this, we are managing all of Check Point products from one central management. Applying rules, nats and managing app&URL Policies, threat prevention, and IPS protection rules. 

Secondly, centralized log and report management. We can distribute logs to our log appliances with centralized management and view logs without logging additional devices. 

HA Structure provides good coverage and works fine. With HA structure, we can manage two data centers as one, and this is helping much.

We can keep old revisions, and with that, we can check or revert to one when needed.

It's useful that we can find unused objects. This helps us to get rid  of unused objects in our database,

Proxy support is valuable for us. We can apply centralized proxy settings to get additional databases when we need them.

Revision history and detailed audit log is a good feature with this we can always feeling safe if somethings go wrong, I'm sure that I can go back the old one.

Smart Event is a very good feature. It provides a graphical view of the traffics and provides history.

The filter syntax is very good and helps control when we need it.

I am happy with Check Point Security Management. However:

1- In order to work management console, you need some good appliance or you need to provide more CPU and Memory to the appliance.

2-If you overload your appliance with detailed log, you need additional appliances. For big companies even smart 5150 kinda devices is not enough.

3-I normally had trouble updating licenses automatically. We always need to add manually and this is tiresome.

5- API seems to be fine but need some improvements and Check Point should provide scripts to its customers for tiresome jobs.

I've been using Check Point Security Management for about five years.

Most of the time, it works well. However, if you overload appliances with old policy revisions, objects and rules, install times will vary. You will have a slow GUI interface and have trouble viewing logs. 

For virtual appliances, you have the option to increase your disk, CPU, and memory for your needs. This will provide a very good opportunity to improve the performance of the Security Management.

Most of the time, technical support is good. We can easily open a case, and they can assign an engineer quickly. However, you will have problems if something is very odd. You may need to connect with R&D to address the issue and get a custom fix.

Neutral

For Check Point, I did not use something different. However, for Palo Alto firewalls, I am using Panorama, and it's also doing its job very well.

We have a professional service provider that we work together with to apply changes to Check Point appliances. Also, Check Point's knowledge base is very vast and provides lots of information if you need some help. The community is very helpful as well.

You should analyze your needs and purchase regarding to that analysis. Most of the time, you want to use only some features. Don't pay too much.

For Check Point firewalls you don't have any alternative.

We use the solution for VPN with multifactor authentication, IPS protection, and threat emulation. We have deployed the product in the cloud data center.

It's very easy for management to understand workflow and everything.

Check Point Tech Support will not assist with new configurations if we encounter any issues during the configuration process. They only provide support if there are issues with existing configurations.

I have been using Check Point Security Management for four years.

The solution is stable.

It is 100% scalable. Behind the firewalls, around 25 web applications are accessed daily. Each application can be accessed by up to one lakh people every day.

Support is good.

Positive

Previously, I worked with FortiGate, and integrating that product with cloud platforms was very difficult. The workflows were overly complex, and the documentation was inadequate.

Check Point is superior to other security vendors. Their signature database, which includes antivirus, IPS, and anti-malware, is highly advanced. The system is easy to understand, and deployment via the web interface is also straightforward.

For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new vulnerability known as Log4j emerged. While many vendors were unaware of this vulnerability, Check Point promptly emailed all its customers to inform them. They reassured customers that their gateways already had predefined prevention signatures to protect against this threat, requiring no additional action. 

The initial setup is straightforward. Fresh deployment and creating the gateways will take approximately three to four hours.

With Fortinet, managing the product through cloud formation can be difficult to implement in a cloud environment because it's not straightforward. First, we need to spin up some VMs and configure everything manually. In contrast, Check Point provides a more seamless cloud formation process. With Check Point, you click on the cloud formation option, and the VMs and necessary configurations are automatically set up. You will get GUI access quickly.

Only two resources are required. One knows Check Point, and another guy knows the cloud platform where they want to deploy the gateway.

The integration process is straightforward. If you have some knowledge of your cloud service provider, you can easily integrate with it.

It has improved over the past four years. Previously, pushing any policy from the management server to the security gateway could take around ten to fifteen minutes. However, this task is now completed in about one minute with the new firmware version. This improvement demonstrates the substantial advancements made in the Management of Check Point products. It continuously updates its products to align with security standards and market awareness. They implement these updates in their own unique way. It is a strong player in the security market and has a long-standing presence. Their solutions are reliable and trusted for real security needs.

Maintenance is very easy.

First, we will thoroughly understand their requirements. Once we understand clearly, we will design tailored solutions for them. Next, we will present these solutions to the customer for review and discussion. Following their approval, we will run POC, collect evidence as required, and submit the comprehensive report.

Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

One of the recent use cases for this solution has been related to a power company, which was facing issues but was able to get its infrastructure secured and get back its business continuity and growth. In addition, its management was able to get back its confidence with solutions or services provided by Check Point.

The client was able to quantify its security elements. As a result, a strong defensive framework was developed. Deployment of Check Point's solution resulted in the evasion of any existing and potential threats.

Check Point is not just a firewall. They deliver everything including IPS, application control, threat emulation and extraction, identity awareness, and more. In line with the quantum security gateways, other elements and services as provided by Check Point have also proven to be very helpful and reliable in keeping the company environment secured. The organization has also gone a great mile to tag itself as a proactive threat elimination expert in the industry viz a viz its competitors.

Harmony Endpoint is one of the great solutions by Check Point; it ensures compliance with policies and minimizes the risk of threats entering through endpoints. 

It's a great complete endpoint security solution that prevents the most imminent threats to the endpoint such as ransomware, phishing, or malware. 

It has proved to be very successful in identifying ransomware behaviors such as file encryption or attempts to compromise operating system backups and safely restore ransomware-encrypted files automatically. 

While the console and administration work well, they have to work on performance since it consumes a lot of CPU and memory. There is also latency in the administrative panel when entering. There has been a problem with updating licenses as well. There is ground-level feedback based on interaction with the relevant stakeholders that states implementing it would make a major difference in the overall experience.

I've used the solution for two years.

The solution has not caused major deviations and the historical experience has been quite good. The stability and reliability of the solution is pretty much appreciated

The overall impression of the scalability is good and impressive.

Technical support has been pretty good.

Positive

I have been involved with a lot of other partners in parallel, depending on the requirements of the customers.

I am not directly involved in the setup and deployment of the product.

The implementation was handled by an in-house team.

I've witnessed an ROI of 25% to 30%.

Users should actively evaluate the existing options available in the market and finalize the one that matches their requirements, budget, and priorities. Check Point can definitely be considered based on my personal experience.

The choice to evaluate would not be my personal decision but the requirement raised by the customers.

We use Check Point Security Management for firewall management.

The solution is easy to use and comes with few vulnerabilities. You don't have to worry about release upgrades. Life cycle management is very easy. 

Check Point Security Management lacks some of the competitor features. 

I have been using the solution for six years. 

Check Point Security Management is stable. 

We have around 4,500 users for the product.  

Check Point Security Management doesn't have good support since it is difficult to get the right person. 

Neutral

The solution is expensive.