Stonesoft 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).
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Zscaler Internet Access
Score 8.8 out of 10
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Zscaler Internet Access™ (ZIA) is a secure web gateway (SWG), delivering cloud native cyberthreat protection and zero trust access to the internet and SaaS apps.
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Pricing
Stonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
Zscaler Internet Access
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Stonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
Zscaler Internet Access
Free Trial
No
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
Yes
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
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More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Stonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
Zscaler Internet Access
Features
Stonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
Zscaler Internet Access
Identity Management
Comparison of Identity Management features of Product A and Product B
Stonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
-
Ratings
Zscaler Internet Access
5.0
2 Ratings
56% below category average
Multi-Factor Authentication
00 Ratings
5.02 Ratings
Endpoint Security
Comparison of Endpoint Security features of Product A and Product B
Stonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
-
Ratings
Zscaler Internet Access
10.0
2 Ratings
6% above category average
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
00 Ratings
10.02 Ratings
Threat Intelligence
Comparison of Threat Intelligence features of Product A and Product B
Stonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
-
Ratings
Zscaler Internet Access
9.5
5 Ratings
7% above category average
Network Analytics
00 Ratings
9.75 Ratings
Threat Recognition
00 Ratings
9.45 Ratings
Vulnerability Classification
00 Ratings
9.45 Ratings
Automated Alerts and Reporting
00 Ratings
9.45 Ratings
Threat Analysis
00 Ratings
9.75 Ratings
Threat Intelligence Reporting
00 Ratings
9.75 Ratings
Automated Threat Identification
00 Ratings
9.15 Ratings
Zero Trust Security
Comparison of Zero Trust Security features of Product A and Product B
Stonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
-
Ratings
Zscaler Internet Access
9.7
5 Ratings
4% above category average
Continuous Verification
00 Ratings
9.75 Ratings
Secure Web Gateways
00 Ratings
9.75 Ratings
Network Flow Control
00 Ratings
9.75 Ratings
Network Traffic Analysis
00 Ratings
9.45 Ratings
Segmentation Leveraging
00 Ratings
10.04 Ratings
Admin Access Control
00 Ratings
9.45 Ratings
Network Data Encryption
00 Ratings
9.45 Ratings
Network Topology Mapping
00 Ratings
10.02 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Stonesoft Firewall (Discontinued)
Zscaler Internet Access
Small Businesses
pfSense
Score 9.9 out of 10
ThreatLocker
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.6 out of 10
Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Score 8.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
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
It's best suited for a distributed remote workforce, securing internet access for users from anywhere. Suitable for highly regulated industries, such as banking and Healthcare. Not a good fit for an organisation where most of its legacy is in an on-premises environment. Bandwidth-intensive industries like media/entertainment firms.
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).
Single Pane of Glass Management - Everything is very easy to access and monitor the entire environment from an internet security perspective.
Install Flexibility - We can and do install Zscaler Internet Access on both our client devices as well as our SD-WAN appliances and servers. This allows us to control internet security even on devices without an agent in our networks.
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.
While Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) delivers critical value in cloud security and RBI compliance, I rate renewal likelihood 7/10 due to evolving needs versus platform limitations. Below is my rationale:
The application is easy to install and configure on all Windows devices. To troubleshoot any internet issue, we can easily collect all the relevant logs from Zscaler and check the exact issue. The only problem is with the uninstall, as a dedicated crew needs to provide the password.
Zscaler's ZIA support is quick and knowledgable. They respond within 1-2 hours of you submitting your ticket. They are very thorough and are typically ready to jump on a live troubleshooting session. Our ZIA platform and how we use is it unique so at times tickets can be open for weeks but we alway get quality support compared to other unrelated product support in our enterprise
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.
Zscaler Intenet Access outperformed the competition due to its lightning-fast policy delivery and cross-compatibility. It is easy to track employee usage and block unnecessary websites, reducing company internet usage. Zscalar installed on every system increases cloud-based software bandwidth, decreasing user turnaround time and increasing efficiency.
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.
Has allowed us to remove other products that were suboptimal
Saved us money overall by stacking it with other Zscaler products
Created a more secure work environment for our users through intelligent internet policies that are not needlessly restrictive while still maintaining security best practices
