Check Point 4000 Appliances vs. SonicWall NSA Series

If you have middle-sized and large-sized organizations and you have a very good budget for network security then you can install this firewall. Sandboxing and ips features are very useful and you can use them for deep packet inspection and protect your organization from external attacks.

SonicWall NSA is best suited for small to mid-size companies or small to medium K-12 school districts. It's less appropriate for larger businesses and schools. This is due to their ease of use and well-rounded feature set but lacks in advanced configuration, performance, and reliability.

Incentivized

• If you have critical data then you can use this firewall for secure your organization
• You can also use for cloud security
• If you want the deep packet inspection then this is one of the best firewall for you.

• Relatively inexpensive compared to some of the higher-end products, like Palo Alto Networks.
• Easy to set up, as the SonicWall NSA interface is consistent across all models.

Incentivized

• Steep learning curve for admins
• No packet tracer application like the ASA to test flows prior to putting in new rules, etc.
• Policy packages are all or nothing. I cannot uninstall or turn off a piece of the overall policy, it's all or nothing.

Incentivized

• Ideal with smaller businesses. Would have to examine for more complex needs of larger businesses.
• Scalability might be an issue for super large organizations.

The usability takes a bit of training, like any firewall, but I've found that showing even Tier 1 helpdesk how to do basic things has been easy. We have entry-level IT technicians performing white-listing, IP entries, VPN access and LDAP functions, to name a few tasks. The menus in the GUI are pretty straight forward.

Incentivized

Most of the time, calling SonicWall NSA Support, you get an expert who can help resolve your issues. RMAs are pretty easy once they determine there is an issue with the hardware. Support is available 24x7, which makes emergency calls easy. The only downside is the support engineers may have thick accents; however, their expertise more than makes up for any language barriers.

Incentivized

WatchGuard was a little more like a Sonicwall, and we felt the Soho-type interface wasn't what we wanted out of a security product. The anti-malware and spyware products were not nearly as good or pronounced as the checkpoint products. Secondly, we have to have the checkpoint for access to our parent company's networks.

Incentivized

The SonicWall NSA is a lot more fluid and much less clunky than a Watchguard firewall. The Watchguard is ok for a small business-- you can buy them at retail outlets. But as you can see above, this model of Watchguard Firebox has been discontinued. The NSA classes are a more high-end and functional business-class firewall.

Incentivized

• We have not seen a zero-day exploit since implementing the anti-spyware, anti-malware, and URL filtering functionality
• We have not seen a successful intrusion into our systems since the implementation of our checkpoint 4000
• We have had this firewall for 5+ years, and it still has much life left in it.

Incentivized

• It is a firewall appliance at an affordable price compared to other firewall vendors.
• It is reliable and thus, allows our business to operate without any hiccups.

Incentivized