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Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series vs. Stonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AThe VM-Series is a virtualized form of Palo Alto next-generation firewall that can be deployed in a range of cloud environments. The VM-Series natively analyzes all traffic in a single pass to determine the application identity, the content within, and the user identity.N/A

    Stonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)

    Score7.8 out of 10
    N/AStonesoft firewalls were acquired and rebranded as McAfee Firewall Enterprise (MFE), then divested by McAfee and acquired by Forcepoint in 2016, and have reached end of life (EOL).N/A
    Pricing
    Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM SeriesStonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM SeriesStonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM SeriesStonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
    Considered Both Products
    Palo Alto Networks
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    86%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM SeriesStonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
    Firewall
    Comparison of Firewall features of Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series and Stonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
    Feature
    Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
    9.5
    6 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Stonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Identification Technologies9.76 Ratings00 Ratings
    Visualization Tools9.56 Ratings00 Ratings
    Content Inspection10.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Policy-based Controls9.56 Ratings00 Ratings
    Active Directory and LDAP9.56 Ratings00 Ratings
    Firewall Management Console9.46 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting and Logging9.36 Ratings00 Ratings
    VPN9.26 Ratings00 Ratings
    High Availability8.85 Ratings00 Ratings
    Stateful Inspection10.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Proxy Server9.44 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM SeriesStonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
    Small Businesses
    SonicWall NSA Series
    Score8.4 out of 10
    SonicWall NSA Series
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
    Score9 out of 10
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM SeriesStonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.5
    (8 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM SeriesStonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Palo Alto Networks
    PaloAlto VM-200 is a virtualized firewall with high processing power and network edge protection. The great advantage is being able to implement in a VMware environment without worrying about hardware, rack space, physical network connections and others. It can be easily managed via the web and remotely to create protection, access and reporting rules. The VM-200 firewall can be used by any company, small or large because it has several models available according to the real needs of each one.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Any scenario where a dedicated firewall administrator is on staff and a secure firewall solution that requires high availability is needed will be a good solution for the McAfee Firewall Enterprise product. The McAfee Firewall Enterprise however comes with some of its own parlance that is different from other vendors and does require some comfort on the administrators side when it comes to working in the command line. Added knowledge of protocols and how they interact is a must for any firewall admin but particularly for the McAfee Firewall Enterprise product due to its flexible nature. If the environment is to be mostly hands off where a very limited rule set is to be configured and not likely to change often, I would defer to a different product
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Palo Alto Networks
    • Decrypt internet traffic
    • daily reporting of top internet users
    • classify internet traffic in real-time to allow us to understand the organization needs.
    • Strong AI capabilities
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Based on the SecureComputing Sidewinder firewalls, the McAfee Firewall Enterprise does similar backend containerization of each service which provides for added security in the unlikely event of failures or breeches.
    • Tie in reporting services (if used by the admin) provide very granular details on rules accessed and the firewalls response to the requests.
    • Configurable options are plentiful. Unbound DNS can be configured on each "burb" (SecureComputing/McAfee parlance for interface), similar options for sendmail while rulesets can be configured at the application level down to simple IP-filter making options for enhancing security as well as troubleshooting equally as useful.
    • Full control over shell for scripting and/or scheduling (cron) purposes.
    • Solid HA and patching architecture.
    • Support was always helpful, knowledgeable and insightful (especially the staff that migrated from SecureComputing).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Palo Alto Networks
    • High Availability can be improved to allow active-active deployment
    • All command line documentation to provide and support automation
    • It will be nice to have link aggregation just like in the hardware firewall models.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • For an application-layer firewall the applications supported (at the time I managed them) were too few and would need to be expanded and the application ruleset needed to be expanded as well.
    • The remote access VPN client configuration was overly complex for the average user and would need to be supplemented with a configuration file that had already been generated. Other solutions from CheckPoint or Cisco ASA are not as complex for end user remote access.
    • Enhancing the GUI with a builtin "packet capture" feature would be useful for administrators not familiar with tcpdump.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Palo Alto Networks
    It is very easy to use, even for those with little experience in this particular firewall. Some of the advanced content filtering and content-based policies are difficult to pick up; however, almost all required decoders are built in. Built-in logging and rule testing make rule definition easy, and labels/tags allow filtering, grouping, and categorisation of rules. Updates are easy, and high availability is also reliable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Palo Alto Networks
    Palo Alto VM series are best selling and industry's top-selling security product which customers prefer while securing their public cloud environment
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Palo Alto Networks
    palo alto firewalls are application-oriented systems. They can beat other product which are based on layer 3/4 inspection. Vm series are also quickly available and could be useful in urgent deployment needs . other vendors like Fortinet and cisco could take much more time to provide the VM and in some cases installation and license validation are complicated
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Compared to other firewalls I've managed (Palo Alto, Cisco ASA & CheckPoint) I would say that McAfee Firewall Enterprise was probably at the time not the leader in its field however it is a product that proved its reliability and flexibility over the other vendors. The addition of many new features usually comes as a detriment to some other area (restricted CLI, decreased logging etc.). In my experience this product gave the flexibility and options that the organization needed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Palo Alto Networks
    • ROI has been achieved quickly through lack of security incidents.
    • Inline filtering happens at line rate, unline Sourcefire from Cisco.
    • Great incentives from PAN to switch made a difference in the choice to change.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • In its highly available configuration the impact on any business objective has been positive given the fact that any downtime of the firewall would negatively impact all business objectives.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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