The use case varies. I use it as a gateway, and others use it for microsegmentation in the cloud. Additionally, some deploy it on-premises to protect specific environments. Most of the use cases are in cloud environments.
Cloud Next-Generation Firewall as a Service (30-Day Free Trial to PAYG)
Palo Alto NetworksExternal reviews
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Enhance security with robust DNS and threat prevention features
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are the DNS security and threat prevention capabilities. The DNS security significantly enhances security through visibility and detection, allowing control over crucial traffic like DNS, which is often exploited by ransomware. Additionally, threat prevention and URL security are crucial licenses I recommend to customers, raising the security level substantially.
What needs improvement?
There are continuous developments with many new features coming every year. Although I receive feature requests from customers, I don't have any particular areas for improvement in mind right now.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Palo Alto Networks VM-Series for more than ten years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
Setting up the VM-Series is usually very easy. The firewall can be deployed and set up within half an hour, though it depends on the complexity of the configuration.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In terms of stability, I would rate it eight out of ten. Perfection is unlikely as the dynamic nature of traffic and constant changes can result in occasional bugs despite regular updates. Perfection in stability remains challenging for any vendor.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the scalability of Palo Alto Networks VM-Series ten out of ten. It is easy to use with an excellent graphical user interface and extensive documentation, which contributes to its high scalability.
How are customer service and support?
I conduct most of the support myself and rate the overall support a nine out of ten. However, sometimes cases take longer to resolve, and there's always room for improvement, especially in terms of response time from higher support levels.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward and easy. The process involves registering and configuring the software, and with flex mode, it is easy to scale by purchasing additional credits for more CPU and RAM without needing new hardware.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is more on the expensive side, but it is justified due to its functionality, reliability, and throughput, even with all features enabled. In comparison to FortiGate, Check Point, and Cisco, the performance does not degrade significantly. Although I rate the cost six out of ten, the features justify the higher expense.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I rate Palo Alto Networks VM-Series an eight out of ten. While no product is perfect, I am satisfied with its performance and value.
Hands On Review
What do you like best about the product?
Seamless integration with Azure and AWS and the security features, threat prevention, URL filtering.
Centralised Management
Easy Automation and scalability
Centralised Management
Easy Automation and scalability
What do you dislike about the product?
Talking about latency there is a small performance overhead compared to native cloud security controls (e.g AWS security Groups or Azure NSGs).
Cost can be a shocker.
Cost can be a shocker.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Securing VNet-to-VNet traffic
Ensuring there is consistency in enterprise-grade security posture across hybrid cloud environments.
Also inserting advanced security between application tiers.
Ensuring there is consistency in enterprise-grade security posture across hybrid cloud environments.
Also inserting advanced security between application tiers.
Enhance cybersecurity for large enterprises using advanced threat management
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case involves working with TVS Group of companies in India, a large automobile manufacturer. We take care of their entire cybersecurity system. We implement Palo Alto Networks VM-Series firewalls along with third-party vendors and support them remotely for their day-to-day issues. We use these solutions to enhance cybersecurity and provide protection against various security threats.
What is most valuable?
The VM-Series firewalls are described as useful for security posture, offering next-generation features such as Unified Threat Management, app-centric capabilities, and threat intelligence. The firewalls use sandboxing and behavioral analysis to allow or quarantine new traffic. They help in identifying legitimate domains and instruct admins if approval is needed. This set of features is very helpful in daily tasks.
What needs improvement?
An improvement could be the integration of security intelligence with Palo Alto cloud via APIs. This would allow IOCs, domains, and hash values to be automatically entered, reducing manual entry. Integration with CSIRT across all use levels would make it easier for administrators to stay updated on the blocked entities without manual intervention.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Palo Alto Networks VM-Series firewalls for about four to five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Generally, the VM-Series firewalls are stable. I would rate the stability as eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable and can easily handle an increase in the number of users.
How are customer service and support?
I have worked with Palo Alto technical support for over two years. They are responsive and provide high-quality assistance. Previously, I have raised tickets, and they were efficiently handled by the technical team. My experience has been positive overall.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of the VM-Series firewalls is quite easy compared to traditional firewalls. It is manageable with fewer administrators required. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the setup as nine for its ease of implementation.
What about the implementation team?
I am directly involved in the implementation of these firewalls. It typically takes around two to three hours to deploy the firewalls in a single environment.
What other advice do I have?
The solution is user-friendly and easy to manage within an environment. As a VM, it requires no physical space and can be managed with one or two admins. It's also 99.9% secure, according to cloud security standards. Overall, I give Palo Alto Networks VM-Series a rating of nine out of ten.
Solid Firewall Solution but Complex
What do you like best about the product?
brings the vendor’s trusted security into the cloud with a fully managed service, deployments are quick due to aws intergration and don not have worry about patching upgrade etc
What do you dislike about the product?
pricing model can get expensive, especially if you’re scaling up across multiple VPCs or regions. and i think is kind of complex on a way you managed things
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Cloud NGFW provides a unified, enterprise-grade firewall with deep inspection, reducing complexity.
Also one of the biggest problem we solved was that Cloud NGFW decrypts and inspects traffic without killing performance.
Also one of the biggest problem we solved was that Cloud NGFW decrypts and inspects traffic without killing performance.
Leading with Empathy, Delivering with Impact
What do you like best about the product?
What I like best about Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW is how seamlessly it integrates enterprise-grade security into cloud-native environments, without compromising agility. It provides deep visibility, threat prevention, and application-aware controls while allowing teams to maintain the speed and flexibility of their cloud operations. The native integration with AWS and other platforms simplifies deployment, automates scaling, and reduces operational overhead. From a leadership perspective, it empowers organizations to confidently accelerate cloud transformation without sacrificing governance or compliance.
What do you dislike about the product?
While Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW is a robust and secure solution, it does come with a learning curve, especially for those new to the platform. That said, I found this to be a motivating challenge. I became genuinely curious as I started exploring it, and within just a couple of weeks, I could ramp up quickly using AI tools and good old Google. That hands-on learning journey deepened my appreciation for the platform’s capabilities and flexibility.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW addresses the critical need for consistent, enterprise-grade security across dynamic cloud environments. It solves challenges like lack of visibility, inconsistent policy enforcement, and complex threat prevention in cloud-native workloads. For me, the benefit is twofold: it ensures that security scales with the business—without slowing down innovation—and it gives peace of mind that applications and data are protected, even in fast-moving, hybrid cloud scenarios. It also simplifies operations through automation and tight cloud-native integrations, which is a major win from a program management and transformation standpoint.
Good
What do you like best about the product?
Ease of use and made it easy to integrate with the systems easily. It has lot of useful features which are helpful. I will recommend to others. It has a good customer support.
What do you dislike about the product?
The installation and setup is a bit complicated which can be further made easy. Even though customer support is best i felt there is a need for documentation for most general stuff.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It added extra layers of protection which gave an enterprise level protection. It helped in seamless integration and make it easy to use. It provided more security.
as network engineer
What do you like best about the product?
I love how easy Palo Alto’s Cloud NGFW is to set up and manage. It’s super reliable, offers strong security, and integrates perfectly with AWS. Total peace of mind
What do you dislike about the product?
It’s powerful, but the pricing can be high for smaller teams. Also, the learning curve is a bit steep if you're new to Palo Alto’s ecosystem. In general is the best.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It blocks threats before they reach our cloud apps, gives deep visibility, and saves us tons of time on security management. Way fewer incidents and stress now.
User-friendly CLI and efficient dashboard streamline operations with robust security features
What is our primary use case?
We usually recommend Palo Alto Networks VM-Series for BFSI companies.
What is most valuable?
I find Palo Alto Networks VM-Series easy to deploy, and none of my customers have had significant complaints. My customers have high certifications provided by Palo Alto Networks. The friendly dashboard and the ability to easily command and use the CLI make Palo Alto Networks VM-Series a better product. It offers robust solutions, making it valuable to my customers.
What needs improvement?
It may be beneficial if the firewall can monitor all internal elements like VMs pulling from HP servers. Consolidating these insights into a single dashboard would be advantageous.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been familiar with Palo Alto Networks for four or five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The performance of VM instances has some limitations in terms of threshold and throughput compared to appliances.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate scalability as eight out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Palo Alto Networks offers better technical support, maintaining SLA efficiently, and resolving issues promptly.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In some cases, I have migrated from Cisco to Palo Alto Networks VM-Series smoothly.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing for Palo Alto Networks is higher than other OEMs, but considering the robustness and features, it gains customer trust. Technical configuration is a focus area due to its high commercial profile.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I consider Check Point alongside Palo Alto Networks, as well as Cisco for wireless solutions.
What other advice do I have?
When evaluating, consider the customer’s environment and pain points since both Check Point and Palo Alto Networks have their advantages. Overall, I rate Palo Alto Networks VM-Series eight out of ten.
From an analysis perspective, pretty nice.
What do you like best about the product?
The logs are easily malleable and provide you with how little or how much info you need on an event.
As far as implementation goes, it's pretty straightforward.
As far as implementation goes, it's pretty straightforward.
What do you dislike about the product?
Even though the setup is mostly straightforward, it can get a little tricky when you're working with more complex cloud environments or trying to line things up with existing on-prem policies.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
One major issue was maintaining consistent security policies across both our on-prem and cloud environments. With Cloud NGFW, we’re able to apply the same level of visibility and control in AWS (or Azure) as we have on-prem, which makes our hybrid architecture way more manageable and secure.
Rock-solid cloud firewall with excellent visibility and control
What do you like best about the product?
The best part about using Palo Alto’s Cloud NGFW is the level of visibility and granular control it gives over network traffic — especially in cloud-native environments.
What do you dislike about the product?
Pricing can be a bit on the higher side, especially for smaller teams or early-stage projects.The initial ramp up is bit of learning curve. We need to get trained before we start using this.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Palo Alto’s Cloud NGFW is helping us secure cloud workloads across different environments without needing to rely on multiple tools or complex custom configurations. It significantly reduced the time we spend managing firewall rules and security policies, especially in dynamic cloud setups
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