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Astound Managed SD-WAN vs Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 13, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Astound Managed SD-WAN
Ranking in Managed Security Services Providers (MSSP)
28th
Average Rating
10.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Managed SD-WAN Services (1st)
Check Point Cloud Firewall ...
Ranking in Managed Security Services Providers (MSSP)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
244
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (8th), Vulnerability Management (5th), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (3rd), Cloud and Data Center Security (3rd), Container Security (6th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (5th), WAN Edge (3rd), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (4th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (5th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (5th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (4th), Compliance Management (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Managed Security Services Providers (MSSP) category, the mindshare of Astound Managed SD-WAN is 1.3%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) is 1.8%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed Security Services Providers (MSSP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security)1.8%
Astound Managed SD-WAN1.3%
Other96.9%
Managed Security Services Providers (MSSP)
 

Featured Reviews

JP
Executive Pastor at Grace Community Fellowship
Helps us increase network performance, provides speed for streaming audio and video, and gives us room to grow
I told Astound and Mark III about our needs and desires. We needed a Meraki firewall and speed on the fiber optic side. Based on our needs, Astound set up our desired solution and designed a system that gives us room to grow. We have no limitations based on what Astound or Mark III have provided. The setup was straightforward. Astound was very thorough about what would occur and what we needed to provide. On the day of installation, a Mark III representative and Astound made sure that everything we needed was taken care of. The initial setup took two hours. On the network side, it took two or three days just to define IP addresses and get through the firewall. Astound connected us with Cisco immediately to work on the Meraki unit. That was resolved that day. The router and equipment came from Astound. Then Mark III came in, designed it, laid it out, connected it, and configured it. When the network was installed, they worked with the sound team to make sure that our office, audio, and video needs were being met. Our primary need is WiFi because we need to meet the needs of our members and teams in various ministries on Sunday mornings. We have met that goal. We pay a company to manage our network, so we haven't had any issues. Everything is done remotely. We don't have an IT person in-house.
Oscar Nunez - PeerSpot reviewer
Ingeniero en redes y Telecomunicaciones at K-IT
Centralized management has reduced policy time and provides reliable multitenant protection
What I would like, what I think they should improve a little is the management of objects at large scale. When you work with multiple domains, there are thousands of network objects. Detecting duplicates and consistency across domains is a very manual process that should be more automated. Another thing: the SmartConsole interface is very powerful and very good, but the learning curve, compared to other solutions in the market from other manufacturers, could be modernized. I think it does not necessarily have to be done from a client application; it could be done via web, because via web I know that not all the options you have in SmartConsole are available. So it would be good if it could also be done from the web and all the options were available. Another thing that I would really like is more automation with Ansible or Terraform. I know it has improved in recent versions, but I think it is still not mature enough. Compared to other manufacturers that do have a bit more in terms of automation capabilities in integration flows with Ansible or Terraform, Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) could improve. Another thing that could be improved a little would be the TAC response time, because when there are very complex cases, I think there should be more speed initially, more ownership of those urgent cases, and not leave the customer waiting. This has happened to me: when I have cases open with Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) TAC, sometimes they do not respond and I have to keep insisting, and I think that part should improve. I do not know if it depends on who takes the ticket or on the severity of the ticket, but sometimes I have had to insist a lot, and that would be the only problem. Once they attend to me and become involved in the case, the responses they give are very professional and really help directly resolve the problems when there is a bug or troubleshooting to do. As I said, I would like to see a specific improvement in SmartConsole. I think if they improved it—how to say it—gave it a facelift so you could access all the options directly from a browser, that would be great, because sometimes, for one reason or another, you cannot download SmartConsole or, for some reason, the SmartConsole client does not start correctly, and you could do it directly from the browser. I think that would be a good option to improve. Another thing would be that in multidomain environments, I would like a global search function for objects and rules. That is, you could enter and search across all domains at once, because right now you have to go domain by domain, and in environments with many customers, you spend quite a bit of time; you have to exit one domain and enter another. So those would be the improvements I would like to see.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Astound is adequate, sufficient, and gives us room to grow."
"It's just a huge improvement compared to where we came from. I can get in, configure, identify, and reconfigure, and I don't have to troubleshoot anything. It's all very easy and flows really well."
"The solution is easy to use; I haven't had any troubleshooting issues, and we're getting exactly what we paid for, if not more."
"This solution provides threat prevention and detection of anomalies automatically and investigates the activity of each one of them."
"It was very easy to install the solution, and the architecture meant we didn't have to worry about exceeding the solution's capacity."
"The tool's most valuable features are the REST APIs that help to automate the deployment and maintenance process. It helps us to reduce time to 15-25 minutes compared to the manual process which used to take around two to three hours."
"Its blades and VSLS (Virtual System Load Sharing) work fine."
"CloudGuard Network security has increased our confidence in secure cloud deployments and migrations by 50%."
"The Compliance engine has helped put our auditors and senior executives at ease, as we can quickly and accurately measure ourselves against hundreds of compliance checks to include CIS benchmarks, PCI, and other best practices."
"We find Check Point valuable because they are 100% focused on security. It totally closes the potential vulnerability channel. We can check our mail and our attachments and we can scan everything easily. We get an immediate report about the situation of the attachments. We can discover if the target's security attack was started from phishing, etc. We also enjoy using the additional features that protect our internal customer from targeted attacks."
"Check Point solutions can provide a complete 360 security scheme to the entire cloud infrastructure."
 

Cons

"As a church, we don't employ a typical IT person, so it would help if they could set up a more user-friendly layman's type of profile and settings, where everything is simplified into layman's terms. For example, it could say, "Turn internet speed up for guest use," or "Turn it down," or "Turn it off," or "Reset it.""
"As a new customer opening our first worship center, I would have liked for Astound to provide examples of products other churches use."
"I would like to see more focus on east-west traffic inspection and AWS."
"The solution's future releases would benefit from incorporating more advanced machine learning capabilities for real-time threat detection and enhanced user interface options for ease of use."
"The tool should incorporate more use cases like improving security scores. It should also improve documentation."
"I'd like to see more advanced encryption for local features, which is not present right now."
"In terms of user interface and usability, the Smart Console UI is feature-rich; however, for new admins, navigation is not always intuitive, and log search feels clunky compared to SIM tools."
"The complexity to deploy should be decreased."
"Most clients nowadays tend to move to the cloud and their data security is key. If CloudGuard could be able to give the client that full visibility of how their data is protected on the cloud, then that would be a great selling point for Check Point."
"It can be difficult to install properly without prior training"
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Financially, it was a big jump. We went from just shy of a couple of hundred bucks a month to close to $1,200. It's an expense that, although it's significantly higher than what we were paying, is worth it."
"Handling costs is not my department. Licensing has been quite acceptable. It is a bit easier now, but when I began working with CloudGuard, it was a bit too technical."
"CloudGuard Network Security is not too cheap."
"The price could be better."
"The tool's pricing is been higher than other solutions, but it seems like it's turning downwards."
"Check Point CloudGuard Posture Management is expensive."
"Although I am not in sales and cannot comment extensively on pricing, it is known that Check Point’s licensing can be complex. However, it is a similar experience to other gateways and not particularly unique for cloud protection."
"The product is too expensive."
"From a pricing perspective, they are pretty expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Outsourcing Company
16%
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business132
Midsize Enterprise53
Large Enterprise144
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?
Since we use a unified standard for using policies and modules in Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security), we can clearly plan which modules we need to activate on a parti...
What needs improvement with Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?
The main limitations of Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) are not in Check Point itself but in the cloud platforms on which it is deployed. Because not all clouds ha...
What is your primary use case for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?
Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) is the main manager that provides network security in different forms in my organization. The primary task that Check Point solves ...
 

Also Known As

RCN Business Managed Security
CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point vSEC, CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point Virtual Systems, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security, Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Physicians Choice Laboratory Services, Helvetica Insurance
Find out what your peers are saying about Astound Managed SD-WAN vs. Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.