PA-Series Alternatives

I have an overall good experience with the Fortigate NGFW. I like FortiOS because the CLI commands are universal to the entire ecosystem. Fortigates are so easy to use I configured one for my home network/lab. CBTNuggets and other online learning platforms have a lot of good videos on how to build a network of physical and virtual appliances. We've upgraded from 200Ds, to 201e's and now we're looking at the 200g. Converting or migrating to a new firewall typically means getting a forticonverter license. The performance of the SD-WAN has remained reliable across multiple retail locations, campuses, and datacenters. We use SSL deep inspection, advanced threat protection, and application control functions, and the hardware acceleration via Fortinet's Security Processing Units (SPUs) without many conflicting issues with streaming services like VOIP or Teams Meeting calls. Fortinet's TAC support has been useful when troubleshooting our NGFWs. In our experience, TAC provides knowledgeable, responsive assistance, especially when dealing with tough cases or firmware-specific stuff. The fortigate documentation and community resources are available through Fortinet. If you're not sure how to setup something they have 4-hour fast track courses. Overall, FortiGate continues to impress with usability, depth, performance, and ecosystem support. Whether you're deploying a single device or managing a few dozen across branch locations, the platform scales well and provides robust, feature-rich network security.

Checkpoint Quantum has performed very well due to its stability, high level of security, and ease of administration; although some advanced configurations can be complex initially.

My overall experience with Sophos Firewall in a hospital work environment has been extremely positive. In a setting where the security of sensitive patient data and the operational continuity of IT infrastructure are critical Sophoa has proven to be a reliable, effective , and easy-to-manage solution. The user interface is intuitive , which has made daily management easier even in complex evironment like healthcare. Features such as granular traffic control , advanced threat protection, and real-time monitoring have been essential in securing the network and connected device, including those used for diagnostics clinical systems. The integration with Sophos Central has been especially valuable , allowing us to centrally manage security across both firewalls and endpoints, improving our responsiveness to alerts and anomalies. The tecnical support has also been responsive and competent whenever we needed assistance. In summary Sophos Firewall has played a significant role in strengthening the cybersecurity posture of the hospital environment where i work , without compromising service accessibility , and has actively supported our compliance and data protection needs.

As we are using other Cisco solutions in our company, this one is integrated perfectly and works without any special issues. Our daily job, sometimes with heavy traffic works smooth and secured by Cisco. I feel that a good percentage of security goes to the Cisco Firewall.

HUAWEI`s Firewalls USG series are very useful for my work.They deliver intelligent,all-scenario network security protection for enterprises，Built on deep understanding of evolving threats，they provide comprehensive visibility,automated threat prevention,and high-performance encryption to safeguard critical digital assets.

- Issues that didn't go well For a project to install a UTM at a new site, we planned to create a clone of an already operational M270 and install it there. When creating the clone, we took a backup in FXI format instead of XML format and imported it into an identical unit in our inventory. However, we discovered that we couldn't manage or monitor the device from the WG management server. Ultimately, we learned that importing in FXI format to a different unit, even if it's the same model, is not supported, requiring us to restore from a backup made before the import. While this was mentioned in the documentation, it was very unclear, and we hope for improvement. We believe that adding a function to check whether the image was taken from a different unit during FXI format restoration would prevent such incidents, and we hope for its implementation. Furthermore, although it's unclear if it was related to this process, monitoring by the WG cloud and WG management server stopped working. We contacted the support center, but it took three weeks of back-and-forth communication to resolve the issue. We received advice on workarounds and recovery methods and were able to recover, but it took far too long. In particular, the process of obtaining logs and reproducing events for the support team to understand the situation was repeated multiple times, which was time-consuming. - What went well While there were many issues with the management functions, and although the management functions in general were almost unusable, we were able to launch the service according to the planned schedule.

Juniper equipment has been reliable, keeping our company's site-to-site networks always up and running with failover.

We are very satisfied the use of the firewall in Microsoft Azure. We use it more than eight years. In combination with the onpremise NG in our central DC and offices, we have a meshed infrastructure managed from one central point.