Enterprise Network Firewalls: Main Players and Comparisons

by on July 27, 2017 9:18 pm
Categories: summer2017
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As network security grows in importance for companies of all sizes, network firewalls are in hot demand for small and medium businesses (SMBs) as well as enterprises. Gartner publishes an annual magic quadrant report for enterprise firewall providers, giving a quadrant ranking as well as analyzing each one’s respective strengths and weaknesses. What are the top players in this space, and how are they differentiating their services in this ever more competitive sector?

 

Main Players

Palo Alto Networks

In the recently published 2017 Gartner report, Palo Alto Networks ranks #1 in enterprise firewall (1).

Palo Alto Networks is based in Santa Clara, California, a large pure-play security vendor. Its product offerings include enterprise firewall physical and virtual appliances, endpoint software (Traps and GlobalProtect), threat Intelligence (AutoFocus), and SaaS security (Aperture). 

Palo Alto Networks charges a higher price than its direct competitor Fortinet, but it has managed to enjoy large sales and high customer satisfaction for application visibility capabilities. 

STRENGTHS (3)
  • Marketing Execution: Palo Alto Networks is the pure-play security vendor with the highest visibility on enterprise firewall shortlists. The vendor is visible on shortlists across all industries. Presales support is very efficient. 
  • Sales Execution: Palo Alto Networks maintains a very high growth rate. The company is known for a relatively aggressive sales style and customer acquisition methods, which defers from its competitors. 
  • Customer Experience: Great vendor support and customer retention

Checkpoint 

Check Point Software Technologies is a leading network firewall vendor. Co-headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel and San Carlos, California, Check Point is a large pure-play security vendor. The vendor is providing a variety of solutions, including next-generation security gateway appliances and endpoint, cloud and mobile security solutions. 

 

STRENGTHS
  • Partners: Check Point has built a strong ecosystem of technology partners including software, server, and networking and managed services. Check Point also has a strong and well-established channel globally, through its partner program.
  • Features: Check Point’s URL filtering capabilities are very attractive to enterprises requiring granular web filtering. It alerts users in real time about application access limitations and offers education on internet risk and corporate usage policies, making it ideal for high-compliance workplaces.
  • Central Management: Check Point is the market leader in centralized management offering, which makes it a desirable vendor for complex firewall policy environments, such as deployments by very large enterprises and organizations.

Fortinet

Fortinet is a large network and security vendor and is based in Sunnyvale, California. Its main product line is the FortiGate firewall, which represented roughly 75% of its total revenue in 2016. The vendor offers other products, such as a wireless LAN (FortiAP) and web application firewall (FortiWeb). Its more recent marketing message highlights the Security Fabric concept, focused on cross-device integration to improve overall visibility and provide additional control options.

STRENGTHS
  • Marketing Execution: Fortinet has improved its visibility in final two vendor shortlists for enterprise firewalls, being frequently the finalist against one of the other two leaders. Surveyed channel partners acclaim Fortinet’s assistance during RFP and implementation.
  • Sales Strategy: Fortinet excels in providing the best price/performance offers, relying on the combined use of an extensive appliance portfolio, good total cost of ownership for bundles and a flexible discount strategy. The vendor grows much faster than the market average.
  • Customer Experience: Fortinet’s clients gives excellent scores to its firewall performance and hardware quality.

References

  1. https://get.info.paloaltonetworks.com/webApp/gartner-mq-2017-en?CampaignId=70170000001YFjRAAW&referer=null&utm_medium=social-owned-promo&utm_source=Social+Media
  2. https://www.forcepoint.com/resources/industry-analyst-reports/gartner-2017-magic-quadrant-enterprise-network-firewalls
  3. https://www.gartner.com/doc/reprints?id=1-45UJESQ&ct=170711&st=sb
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