GlobalProtect

With the company size of ours, GlobalProtect is a comprehensive VPN solution. It offers some of the best in-industry features that go beyond basic VPN functionality. - Always-on VPN: reduces security gaps by removing the manual overhead of connecting to the VPN client/server. Even after network interruptions, it stays online, which is crucial for maintaining continuous protection. - Split tunneling with dynamic rules: This helps in optimizing network traffic by sending only corporate data through the VPN while allowing other traffic to go directly to the internet. Application-based rules improve bandwidth efficiency and user experience. - Integrations with tools: GlobalProtect enables detailed monitoring of activity, connection status and threat detection by logging and integrating with SIEM tools via its various features. This really helps in compliance audits and threat detection by correlating VPN data with broader network events. - Supports multiple advanced authentication methods: Needless to say, but a product this capable obviously supports advanced auth methods like SAML, certificate-based authentication, MFA, etc.

It's easy to connect, there's very little an end-user has to do, and it comes ready out of the box.

Integration with P.A. Firewalls for security policy enforcement on desktop, laptop and mobile device endpoints.

If I have to point out, a few areas can be mentioned where the product could improve. - Complex initial setup and configuration: Can be time-consuming, especially for organizations new to network setups. Configuring certificate authorities and tuning split tunneling often requires multiple iterations and can be a pain point initially. - Certificate management complexity requires careful planning and ongoing maintenance. - Performance can degrade under heavy load or with large numbers of concurrent users. (A rare case but it happens sometimes.) - User interface for advanced policy management is not very intuitive. Admins have to rely on CLI for complex setups.

I dislike the slowness that comes with GlobalProtect, as well as the instability. Often, we'll find that the latency for connections through GlobalProtect is shoddy, and there are long standing bugs with using it with non-traditional WiFi networks (hotspots, etc.).

The cost of the product is the biggest disadvantage. Implementation was more difficult than we originally planned, with challenges in our global workforce in Central and South America who had low bandwidth internet connections. Connection drops are more frequent than our previous VPN solution which some users complain about.