topic Re: Cisco or Checkpoint in General Topics

Cisco or Check Point

Mohit_Yadav — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 12:51:01 GMT

Which is better cisco or checkpoint & why? I am not able to get clear answer to this over the net. Can anybody explain in simple language. From features, pricing and any number of point of view?

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

PhoneBoy — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 15:36:13 GMT

Cisco focuses on a lot more than just security.

With Check Point, that's all we do.

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

_Val_ — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 15:38:32 GMT

In other words.

If if you need networking, to Cisco. If security is what you are looking for, go Check Point

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

Mohit_Yadav — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 16:11:43 GMT

But, cisco provides security also with ASA. What makes Checkpoint better than Cisco ASA?

Like Pro & Cons for both of them?

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

PhoneBoy — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 19:17:10 GMT

For a general answer: WHY CHECK POINT – THE FOUR POINTS

If you can provide a bit more details about your specific use case, we can give you more specific answers.

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

HeikoAnkenbrand — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 19:22:18 GMT

Hi https://community.checkpoint.com/people/376e8997-fad8-487d-a901-7c9d82a892ff

Pro Check Point:

- easy and faster VPN configuration

- faster policy creation

- more security blades

- open server

- Linux as OS -> scripting

- higher security level

- multi domain management

...

Regards

Heiko

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

Danny — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 20:10:57 GMT

Facts vs. Hype

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

Vladimir — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 20:58:52 GMT

A lot of ASA management functions rely on the use of Java runtime of particular versions, specifically those that are considered insecure.

Additionally, look at this Cisco resource:

Security Advisories and Alerts

and enter "ASA" to see the list of vulnerabilities that this line of products were a subject to.

Then, on the same site, select a "Non-Cisco Product" and look up "Check Point".

The results are pretty conclusive.

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

Timothy_Hall — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 21:19:17 GMT

And the SourceFire-acquired FirePOWER product integration with Cisco ASA has its own issues, see this very eye-opening reddit thread from actual users of the product:

https://www.reddit.com/r/networking/comments/9363af/cisco_firepower_rant/

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Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

Josh_B — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 14:42:08 GMT

And this one from last month. Many, many people are unhappy with FirePOWER

https://www.reddit.com/r/networking/comments/9vynr9/cisco_firepower_rant_ii/

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

Timothy_Hall — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 14:46:56 GMT

Hadn't seen this most recent one, thanks!

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Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

Josh_B — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 14:47:50 GMT

The number of Cisco advisories in the last few years with hardcoded credentials has been pretty alarming.

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

Ryan_St__Germai — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 17:02:27 GMT

We previously had a Cisco ASA protecting our Guest Network. Managing that thing was nightmare. It was always refreshing coming back to our corporate CheckPoint firewall interface. The ASA management interface is just so convoluted and more complicated than it needs to be. Not to mention its a Java application. Many basic functions such as NAT and object management are so much more streamlined in CheckPoint. It's hard to describe without you actually having to use one over the other.

Viewing logs is another nightmare on an ASA. It takes more work than it does on CheckPoint. This means you spend far less time debugging.

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

Jason_Dance — Tue, 08 Jan 2019 12:06:19 GMT

I did some price matching last year, and the Cisco FirePower Product was 2-3 times more expensive for our application.

Also, there have been a spate of vulnerabilities affecting all of Cisco's product in recent history. Palo Alto too has its share of issues in this arena. I can't remember the last time I had to put an emergency patch onto Check Point devices to harden it against something in the wild.

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

Vladimir — Tue, 08 Jan 2019 14:50:55 GMT

I believe last time we've had to apply the emergency patch, it was for the heartbleed vulnerability.

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

Petr_Hantak — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 09:40:30 GMT

Unfortunatelly every vendor has his own version

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

Aidan_Luby — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 18:45:23 GMT

My personal feeling is that Cisco's Firewall offerings are overpriced due to people that are willing to pony up the cash to have all of their services be Cisco based. But their Firewalls end up seeming very much like a lot of modules slapped together that don't integrate well. They keep acquiring companies and then instead of integrating their software into the main product you end up needing something like an IPS module that runs a full operating system just for that feature.

CheckPoint's product is more stable and modular to allow the OS to add and remove parts without necessarily needing hardware to do so.

Also fixing issues in CheckPoint is nicer when you are able to login to a full Linux OS to run regular Linux commands and check log files like you could on any Linux server instead of memorizing hundreds of proprietary Cisco commands for every function.

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

Duane_Edman — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 19:19:53 GMT

For a very very simple answer, you can't beat Checkpoint logging. One line one answer, you don't have to sift through syslog rolling off your screen or buy another product to see if your connection is working or not. Checkpoints logging solution is top of the line.

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

Leslie_Parece — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 19:34:11 GMT

For years I have been a firewall admin and worked on both Cisco ASA and Check Point one feature that has always stood out for me is the centralized management with Check Point. So, say I am managing fifty firewalls and I need to roll out 1 rule, the same rule to all of them. On Check Point management I can make the rule once then copy and paste it to all the other firewall policies. On a Cisco ASA firewall I need to login to each one and create the rule. That's a lot of time. I did work for a large company with ASAs and I would have these make rules that needed to be put 50 firewalls and every time I would think this would be so much easier and faster if they was a Check Point environment.

Re: Cisco or Checkpoint

Andrew_Gabriel — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 20:28:17 GMT

Better at what? This is an absolutely meaningless question and a waste of time to answer, unless you are specific on what exact parameters and use-case you are talking about.