Check Point Security Management Reviews

We use the solution for a distributed lean IT environment where there's a need to monitor logs, threats, and events, or requires configuring security policies within a single dashboard.

It's great for customers who are searching for an upgraded top to bottom yet simple and improved log management solution. In such cases, Check Point Management works perfectly.

Wherever we have provided such a solution, it has become very easy for IT administrators to manage not only a single location but also geographically distributed workplaces.

It works similarly to other management software in the industry, but Check Point is far beyond all others due to its management log monitoring functionality.

After integration with the R80 series, Check Point has made most organizations become relatively secure as configuration with security policies, IPS, and log management extend to the maximum ability.

Previously, we needed to monitor all logs related to network traffic and threats and had to audit logs in different dashboards which sometimes felt time and memory consuming.

With the R80 management consoles, all tasks become very easy - starting from gateway management, log monitoring, IPS configuration, global properties configuration, etc.

Some of the great aspects of the solution include:

1. Smart Event is a great feature of the Check Point management console. It gives a complete graphical view of more than a year of traffic flow including botnet traffic, malicious host present in-network, compromised hosts, and many more.

2. Object (based on IP, hostname, domain name) configuration.

3. Application and URL filtering configuration.

4. Log monitoring and alert configuration.

5. IPS configuration with improved performance.

6. Applying filters based on source, destination, port, application, etc. which is easy compared to all other vendors in the market.

7. Managing clustering for gateways - including their live health check performance - can be done on the dashboard itself.

8. The SSL VPN monitoring based on users and tunnel monitoring are great value-added features present in the management console.

The solution could be improved in these ways:

1. In order to work the management console properly we're required to have more memory and CPU on the system where we need to install a setup.

2. Due to the large size of logs generated for daily traffic, even when old logs purging is enabled, we need to delete old logs manually or else it causes errors while publishing policies which slow down the process.

3. SD-WAN functionality could be added.

4. The required license addition for every blade is a bit of a complicated task for normal IT admins to understand.

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

Stability is always improving day by day with Hotfixes they are releasing.

We can scale up to a maximum limit.

The technical support is very knowledgeable.

We have good relations with Check Point. This is the main reason we have always preferred it. The technical support offered by Check Point is always a top priority.

Customer from Sophos to Check Point and ASA to Check Point has migrated to our centralized management from Check Point.

The initial setup is straightforward, however, it can get a little complex for migration from another vendor to Check Point.

We had the assistance of vendor support during the implementation.

Check Point licenses work very differently compared to other vendors. We need to purchase each blade in order to make it work, but we can easily obtain a trial (evaluation) license from Check Point to get visibility for the blade.

Check Point tries to maintain relationships with customers and they try to match their price with customer expectations.

Palo Alto is most preferred NGFW compared to Check Point, due to having a large market share.

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.

We utilize the security management solution to oversee all our Check Point products, including firewall, IPS, and antivirus policies. It serves as our primary tool for managing all Check Point devices.

Check Point Security Management excels over Forti Management in daily operations, policy management, and graphical interface. It is easy to open and edit policies, search within them, and view logs.

The only issue is that, you need to install an application instead of managing it through a browser. Thus, it requires installation. Additionally, it can be slow when multiple users access the manager simultaneously. Even with increased CPU and memory resources, some performance issues may still occur when multiple users check simultaneously.

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

Sometimes, we encounter crashes while working on Check Point Security Management, necessitating application restarts. We also face connectivity issues with certain firewalls, making it less stable than other products.

The solution’s scalability is good ; adding more CPUs and memory can give you more gateways.

20 managers are using this solution.

I rate the solution’s scalability a nine out of ten.

We currently have at least two or three cases open, and some are regarding demand. We struggle to find a good engineer who can truly help us instead of just sending some comments for us to run and provide feedback. They need to improve, especially in their initial client support.

Positive

The initial setup is complex.

Compared to Forti Management, Check Point Security Management involves much more work and is more difficult. You need to establish connections to all the firewalls manually, one by one. However, with the function manager, you point the firewall to the manager and accept it on the Management, and it's done. Additionally, you need to manage certificates on Check Point, making the process less straightforward than FortiManager. 

You depend entirely on the manager to edit the security gateway policies. If the manager encounters an issue with Fortinet, you can still access the FortiGate and delete policies. In Check Point, you cannot delete firewall policies directly on the firewall itself if you encounter a Management issue.

Deployment, including firewall synchronization, takes about four days to complete.

You usually need to create and use the VM Manager VM. So, you need to deploy the VM, configure the IPs, and install the Check Point console software. Then, you need to perform an SIP IT connection to all the firewalls to manage them. After that, you need to configure the firewall networks and public IPs. 

I rate the initial setup as seven out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.

The product is more expensive than Fortinet. We need to pay the license for the Management. I rate the product’s pricing a seven out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

It enhances our daily operational efficiency. Therefore, all management personnel prioritizing working on Check Point policies over Fortinet would benefit. However, maintenance upgrades, backups, snapshots, and synchronization between primary and secondary management can become cumbersome. These tasks tend to be more challenging and time-consuming.

The learning curve for Check Point is quite steep. Sometimes, when we recruit new members to our company, they take a lot of time to understand how our Check Point system works, including the connection between the Management and the firewall, among other components. With Fortinet, it takes only two or three weeks for them to get acquainted with everything. With Check Point, they need at least three months to become accustomed to upgrades, managing policies, and maintenance of the Management system. So, it takes at least three or four times longer than with Fortinet.

AI is essential for correlating logs and presenting the ones that matter. They could strengthen how they present logs by giving more attention to the ones that matter most.

Check Point is easy to use, allowing users to drag and drop objects effortlessly. However, it's essential to note that deploying and maintaining the solution may require a bit more expertise than some competitors.

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

Check Point Security Management Server is a comprehensive solution designed to streamline and centralize the management of security policies across an organization's network infrastructure. 

One of the standout features of the Check Point Security Management Server is its ability to manage security policies across multiple Check Point security gateways centrally. This centralized approach simplifies policy deployment, monitoring, and updates, making it easier for administrators to maintain a consistent security posture.

The Check Point Security Management Server has the ability to centrally manage security policies across multiple Check Point security gateways. This centralized approach simplifies policy deployment, monitoring, and updates, making it easier for administrators to maintain a consistent security posture. 

It offers high-performance capabilities to handle large volumes of traffic while maintaining low latency, ensuring minimal impact on network performance. This product greatly improved our company customers and allowed us to implement the solution easily.

The most valuable aspects of the solution are:

1. Centralized Management: It can centrally manage security policies across multiple Check Point security gateways. This centralized approach simplifies policy deployment, monitoring, and updates, making it easier for administrators to maintain a consistent security posture. 

2. Intuitive User Interface: The management console provides an intuitive user interface that allows administrators to configure and monitor security policies with ease. The interface is well-designed, with clear navigation and comprehensive options for managing security rules, network objects, and logs. 

3. Comprehensive Security Features: Check Point Security Management Server offers a wide range of security features, including firewall, intrusion prevention, VPN, application control, and threat prevention capabilities. These features work together to provide multi-layered protection against various cyber threats.

Check Point Security Management Server integrates seamlessly with other Check Point security products, providing a cohesive security ecosystem for organizations. It also offers compatibility with third-party security solutions, however, it is not a lot. This needs to be improved.

Check Point offers comprehensive product support and documentation, including online resources, knowledge bases, and technical support services. This ensures that administrators have access to the assistance they need to deploy and maintain the Security Management Server effectively, but when customers raise issues, the support is not satisfactory and timely.

I've used the solution for more than one and a half years.

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. 

I use it for managing ten clusters in our on-premise environment. With this kind of management, it's possible to question its policy and change many configurations in the files. With its management, we got all the logs from the environment. With Check Point Security Management, we get the benefits of deploying the configuration.

Owing to the availability of many kinds of incidents, I can say that the solution has served to improve my organization.

Regarding the tool's valuable features, I would say that Check Point is a very accessible and fast tool, especially when dealing with logs for the first time. It is a perfect solution for me.

From the Check Point Security Management solution, it's possible to get the situation of my clusters. I guess it lacks in providing visibility of the many incidents. Hence, the visibility of incidents is an area where I want the solution to improve.

I have been using Check Point Security Management since 2005, so I have used it for maybe twenty years. Also, I am using Check Point Security Management E84.20.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

The solution's technical support is very good. Hence, I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.

Positive

The solution's initial setup was easy.

It took a year to see a return on investment. I did experience a return on investment using the solution.

Price-wise, it is an expensive solution.

I recommend the solution to those planning to use it.

I rate the overall product between nine to ten out of ten.

I am using Check Point to secure my home office because I'm doing all my work from home. 

The company uses software called Harmony. Check Point integrates nicely, whether on an endpoint or mobile device. It integrates well with the firewall and can give me reports that I can check without going to an online portal.

You need some technical expertise to use the solution. I don't think it's accessible to the typical end-user. You need to access the box and use some command lines or the web interface. It would be nice to have a user-friendly dashboard and comprehensive reporting. 

I started using Check Point last year.

I contacted Check Point because the device wasn't logging into the portal to download the license I purchased. It took them about three days to answer.

I was using Untangled and switched to Sophos. I decided after a year that Sophos wasn't for me, so I tried Check Point. 

It took me about two hours to do the initial installation, but the total deployment took a day. I did it myself and found it somewhat complicated. You need to know what you're doing. Check Point doesn't provide enough guidance and assumes you know everything. 

I pay for a yearly license, but you have the option of a three-year or a five-year license. 

I rate Check Point Security Management seven out of 10. I recommend it if you're a technical person experienced in WFM security devices. 

We needed a solution that had the things required to keep the company secure, like confidentiality, centralization, and a range of technological services. 

There weren't many other leading solutions that allowed us to achieve our goal of centralizing most security resources in one place to achieve rapid, unified management and control of our assets, achieve our annual goals, and provide the best service. 

Security Management gives us complete visibility into our security operations, allowing administrators to identify and address problem areas, reduce unnecessary costs, and improve efficiency. 

It offers detailed reports on network usage and security, which helps my company to monitor and control its security expenses. 

Many excellent solutions can be plugged into Security Management to help us prevent threats and manage network security, such as the firewall. The firewall is one of the most powerful because it enables us to guard against attacks and threats on our perimeter in real-time and centrally manage everything to maintain a robust security posture. 

Check Point's hybrid cloud integration needs significant improvements. These resources need to evolve as data transfers to the cloud increase, so hybrid cloud models are easier to implement. Better hybrid cloud integration would improve how we manage our security logs and provide our administrators with a low-cost solution that enables them to meet all our essential requirements. 

I have used Securit Management for a year.

Check Point Security Management is highly scalable. It can adapt to the changing needs of your business, allowing your business to maintain a set spend without going over it annually.

I rate Check Point Security Management eight out of 10. 

The application intervenes in security situations in the organization and launches advanced threat prevention measures. 

It has automated security controls that can predict and block malware attacks. 

It is backed by AI deep learning that offers intelligent information and scales performance to unlock hidden malicious behaviors. 

Data fraud cases have reduced since we set up this product as the main security assessment platform. 

Employees can safely browse and share files with their colleagues without fear of external interference.

We are satisfied with this application as it improves internet browsing security across the organization. 

Each department can easily share data with the management without fear of data compromise. 

It is more flexible than other solutions in the market as it can be deployed in both cloud and on-premise. 

It prevents members from logging in to unsecured sites and running links that may spread viruses to clean data. 

The set features are updated regularly to meet company demands and comply with set community guidelines.

The advanced security operational features help the business to identify weak points that can leak data to unauthorized personnel and take necessary precautions. 

Autonomous IoT Security monitors the performance of applications and equips them with safety measures to prevent risks and attacks. 

Deep learning threat prevention has blocked unsafe sites and phishing attacks from cyber attackers. 

It has audited the entire network and removed threat barriers that are used to slow down workflows. 

The cost of running this software has been reduced due to the modern automated version that can work faster without human intervention.

Overloading and access to many members simultaneously slow down performance, which can lead to security threats. 

New users working with this software find it hard to integrate effectively with other applications without the input of the customer support staff. 

It sometimes blocks safe sites when I am researching, affecting the overall output and wasting time. 

If the authorization commands are not well set, it slows down the working capacity of the Operating System. 

I love the current version with upgraded features that can block more attacks and protect our work environment.

I've used the solution for nine months.

The innovative security enhancement models have helped us in curbing most online threats.

There is improved security in communication and internet browsing.

We have achieved most of the set goals due to customer service team transparency and assistance.

Positive

This solution has been awesome and offers excellent functionalities.

The setup was relatively complex. That said, the customer service team provided enough assistance.

The vendor team was responsible for setting up everything.

The measured ROI has improved from 30% to 55% from the deployment period.

The setup and pricing costs are favorable to many business enterprises.

I have no interest in other applications.

This is the best platform for reducing phishing and blocking malware attacks.

We needed a solution that would be in the cloud or on-premise, that would centralize the equipment, and that would help us comprehensively manage each of the appliances that we were going to place in the four branches that we manage. Starting from that premise, we started with Check Point Security Management being the number one solution as it was pioneering in managing multiple computers simultaneously. This tool helped us to be more efficient and better at controlling risk with our hybrid cloud.

Starting from the need for our teams to be in the cloud and on-premises data centers, we decided on centrally securing and managing all these environments, making them easier, and more user-friendly, and their policy configuration, management of blades in the appliances, and management completely remote. 

Among its value, we can say that it helps us administrators have less administrative management burden in each appliance that must be configured and managed. Another fact is that its version can be on-premise or cloud and this cloud version helps us lower costs.

Being able to install a version of Check Point Security Management helps us avoid the expense of creating a server dedicated to that function, and we save on equipment and technical personnel in installing it, which in the end accelerates the administration and management of equipment to connect to it. 

Among its advantages and features that add value is managing teams both on-premise and in the cloud, regardless of the type of cloud. It helps to have and use a solution that adapts to environments and is easy to manage and configure. 

Among the things that I would like in the future is for the solution to have its application on Android and iOS, as many of the administrators have adopted remote administration positions due to what has happened since the pandemic. This would help us to have an easier and simpler administration. I believe that these mobile solutions are part of the technological evolution and the promising future that new technologies bring us; this will help us with future innovation and management.

I've used the solution for one year.