GlobalProtect

Secure access, easy connection, good overall protection, works well no matter where you are.

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

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.

connection is sometimes not quite stable. Requires an extra step to connect. Sometimes, it runs into an error while connecting, the user has no clue why it's not connecting or why it just keeps loading.

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.).

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.