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Nutanix Flow Network Security vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Nutanix Flow Network Security
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Microsegmentation Software (5th)
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
114
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (8th), Container Security (2nd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (2nd), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (2nd), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Nutanix Flow Network Security and Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Nutanix Flow Network Security is designed for Microsegmentation Software and holds a mindshare of 6.9%, up 6.3% compared to last year.
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks, on the other hand, focuses on Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP), holds 10.7% mindshare, down 16.6% since last year.
Microsegmentation Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Nutanix Flow Network Security6.9%
Illumio23.8%
Akamai Guardicore Segmentation20.4%
Other48.9%
Microsegmentation Software
Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks10.7%
Wiz13.1%
Microsoft Defender for Cloud7.8%
Other68.4%
Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
 

Featured Reviews

Mohammad Jundiah - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at QDS
Has enabled consistent enforcement of zero-trust policies at the virtual layer
The micro-segmentation feature helps to manage network security effectively because it helps the virtual machines that are already on the cluster and the applications inside the cluster itself. It protects them and helps them communicate with each other without needing a complex external or internal firewall in this use case. Working with the zero-trust security model means never trust but always verify. Every VM, application, and service in your environment must explicitly prove it's allowed to communicate with others. An application would be able to talk to a VM and vice versa. This zero-trust means explicitly proving that they are allowed to talk to each other, with no implicit trust just because they are on the same VLAN, subnet, cluster, or environment. Nutanix Flow brings the zero-trust model natively to the virtual layer inside the Nutanix software itself, the AHV. The AHV software enforces strict communication rules between workloads. Integration between Nutanix Flow and other products natively benefits the infrastructure itself as this is a networking segmentation software coming from Nutanix itself. This provides ultimate compatibility. There is no need for extra firewall VMs such as Palo Alto or third-party switches. Security becomes established at the hypervisor level, which creates a new conglomeration of security segmentation. The network performance analysis that Nutanix Flow Network Security provides is very beneficial and effective.
reviewer2776578 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cyber Security Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Image scanning has supported consistent security practices during cloud deployment
On a scale of ten, we would say people are happy with Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks for the part we use. People are okay with it. We probably would give an eight. We don't give ten because if we don't use the other parts of Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks, it's because it was difficult to implement from an operational point of view. We could have deployed the runtime monitoring with Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks, but within our organization at our company, it was very difficult to find who would be the owner for the alerts. People have other tools and in the end, we don't use the full capabilities of a product that we pay for. It's partially related to the difficulty to integrate Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks runtime in our company's support process. We don't use the real-time monitoring part of Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks. We don't know about the automated remediation feature of Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"When comparing the costs of Nutanix Flow versus managing multiple VLANs and many other firewalls, it is far less expensive."
"Nutanix Flow is straightforward to install. You only need to select a checkmark that you want to enable Nutanix Flow."
"They also introduced that they develop API first and the rest follows."
"Flow Network Security's most valuable features are user-friendliness, the console, and policy creation."
"Nutanix Flow Network Security is a simple solution that is usable, easy to understand, and easy to deploy."
"It is a very stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"Nutanix Flow has a lot of data protection features. It's also valuable for operations and management. It's a big solution that works well with different solutions and is suitable for most business cases."
"We appreciate the fact that this solution allows us to segregate two virtual machines that are in the same cluster."
"Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks offers very good deep security assessment, and it uses a very good internal engine, which is the core Palo Alto processing and engines."
"The features of Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks are overall satisfying, although I would like to verify some aspects."
"It is user-friendly. It has a good look and feel and reporting structure. It provides a single pane of glass. These are the things that I like."
"Prisma Cloud provides the visibility and control that we need, regardless of how complex or distributed our cloud environments become, which is very nice."
"The framework to configure controls is pretty good; it's pretty sophisticated. We can implement a fair amount of testing for a fair number of controls."
"The ability to monitor the artifact repository is one of the most valuable features because we have a disparate set of development processes, but everything tends to land in a common set of artifact repositories. The solution gives us a single point where we can apply security control for monitoring. That's really helpful."
"Prisma Cloud also provides the visibility and control you need, regardless of how complex or distributed your cloud environments become. It helps to simplify that complexity. Now we know what the best practices are, and if something is missing we know."
"We have standardized vendor process management, so we want to reduce multiple vendors. Prisma Cloud is part of Palo Alto. We use Palo Alto firewalls and other solutions. Prisma has many features that intelligently cover cloud security. One solution can cover runtime for EC2 systems, containers, and Fargate. We also have EKS/Kubernetes integration. So, whatever the cloud-native solution in Pfizer, we can use one solution to secure that."
 

Cons

"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"I would rate Flow Network Security's stability seven out of ten - it could be improved."
"For customers who are running Nutanix Flow and AHV, the largest area for improvement is in the disaster recovery environments."
"The documentation offered by the product is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
"The most difficult part is the configuration of the initial blueprints."
"We would like the reporting functionality of this solution to be improved."
"Last time I used it, it was not handy to see or to analyze traffic logs."
"While the graphical interface of Nutanix Flow Network Security could have been improved, and some of the reporting features needed extra work, the product's features were similar to VMware's NSX. The difference lay more in the presentation and user interface."
"Sometimes, on the Azure side, there are issues. Some errors aren't being found on Prisma Cloud."
"Prisma Cloud's application security capabilities should be enhanced."
"We are encountering issues with the new permissions required for AWS integration with Prisma."
"The challenge that Palo Alto and Prisma have is that, at times, the instructions in an event are a little bit dated and they're not usable. That doesn't apply to all the instructions, but there are times where, for example, the Microsoft or the Amazon side has made some changes and Palo Alto or Prisma was not aware of them. So as we try to remediate an alert in such a case, the instructions absolutely do not work. Then we open up a ticket and they'll reply, "Oh yeah, the API for so-and-so vendor changed and we'll have to work with them on that." That area could be done a little better."
"The visibility on the SIEM needs to be streamlined so we can get the data without any issues."
"Prisma Cloud lags behind in terms of security automation capabilities."
"We would like to have the detections be more contemporaneous. For example, we've seen detections of an overprivileged user or whatever it might be in any of the hundreds of Prisma policies, where there are 50 minutes of latency between the event and the alert."
"They are missing some compatibility details in their documentation."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Flow Network Security is available on a three-year license, with annual renewals of the maintenance fee."
"In comparison to other options available in the market, I would rate their pricing as very competitive, probably a two or three out of ten for cost."
"The product is available for free use."
"This model is very accessible to implement."
"There is an annual subscription to use this solution. There is a 60-day trial to use the solution, it gives you time to decide if you want to continue using the solution."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"There are different licensing models."
"Prisma Cloud's licensing system functions as expected with a solid licensing infrastructure."
"The pricing is competitive; for the most part, the security firms have similar prices."
"This solution is good for a company with at least 400 people that must be connected remotely. For smaller companies, it can be too expensive."
"The purchasing process was easy and quick. It is a very economical solution."
"Almost all the CSPM tools are pretty expensive."
"The product is very expensive, but the cost is a necessary evil; I don't know how we could have any kind of cloud presence without this type of monitoring. The pricing is calculated by module and resource usage. Ultimately, it saves us money in the amount of time we would spend uncovering what it uncovers, and we might not make the required discoveries without it anyway. Prisma offers incredible value, though I wish it were cheaper."
"The pricing and the licensing are both very fair... The biggest advice I would give in terms of costs would be to try to understand what the growth is going to look like. That's really been our biggest struggle, that we don't have an idea of what our future growth is going to be on the platform. We go from X number of licenses to Y number of licenses without a plan on how we're going to get from A to B, and a lot of that comes as a bit of a surprise. It can make budgeting a real challenge for it."
"The pricing structure is easy to understand. Depending on the use case the pricing of the solution can be different. There are not any additional costs to the standard living fees."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Healthcare Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise57
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nutanix Flow?
There are different models like Nutanix AOS Pro or Ultimate license. The prices are different, but it's not in the same price range as Cisco ACI, for example.
What needs improvement with Nutanix Flow?
Nutanix Flow Network Security needs to improve threat hunting, compliance, and policy optimization - these things that security officers would use. Making these aspects clearer would enable easier ...
What advice do you have for others considering Nutanix Flow?
I am still working with these products. The cloud provider I'm usually using for Nutanix NC2 clusters is Azure. I usually purchase Nutanix directly from Nutanix. The solution is suitable for all ty...
What is your primary use case for Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks?
Prisma Cloud helps support DevSecOps methodologies, making those responsibilities easier to manage.
What Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform do you recommend?
We like Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks, since it offers us incredible visibility into our entire cloud system. We are able to easily see where our container vulnerabilities lie and and where cl...
What do you think of Aqua Security vs Prisma Cloud?
Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valuable feature and their speed of integration is very good. The initial setup was ...
 

Also Known As

Nutanix Flow Microsegmentation
Prisma Public Cloud, RedLock Cloud 360, RedLock, Twistlock, Aporeto
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

JetBlue, International Speedway Corporation, Volkswagen SAIC, Brighton and Hove City Council, Foresters Financial, Janus International Group, Cloud Comrade, Serco
Amgen, Genpact, Western Asset, Zipongo, Proofpoint, NerdWallet, Axfood, 21st Century Fox, Veeva Systems, Reinsurance Group of America
Find out what your peers are saying about Illumio, Broadcom, Akamai and others in Microsegmentation Software. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.