A Guide to Enterprise-Level Network Security Solutions (Check Point Software)

Check Point Software is one of the leaders in the network security space. Check Point's offerings work in combination with their Security Software Blades. These software blades can be purchased and packaged in different combinations depending on the specific appliance; some even allow you to go completely à la carte.

The security software blades that are offered by Check Point include:

Firewall -- Provides most basic firewall functionality including access control, user and machine awareness (identification using directory services), authentication, and Network Address Translation (NAT).
VPN (IPSec) -- Provides both based and advanced IPSec tunneling support, including site-to-site and endpoint VPN solutions.
Advanced Networking & Clustering -- Provides support for a number of advanced technologies including routing protocol support (BGP, OSPF, RIP), ,ulticast support, QoS, load balancing, and gateway clustering.
Identity Awareness -- Provides enhanced identification abilities (over the FW blade) including the support of multiple identification methods (AD query, Browser based, Identity agents, RADIUS, and VPN Single-Sign On (SSO)).
Mobile Access -- Provides SSL VPN and IPSec support for smartphones, tablets, PCs and laptops. Includes a mobile VPN client, SSL VPN portal, and security policy support.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) -- Provides a fully functional IPS that includes protection from malware, DoS, and DDoS attacks, as well as from application and server vulnerabilities as well as any unwanted application traffic (includes SSL traffic inspection).
Application Control -- Provides application detection and usage control, SSL traffic inspection, policy management and enforcement, UserCheck (feature providing user notification of suspected breaches) and tight integration with the Identity Awareness blade.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) -- Provides UserCheck, sensitive information email protection, SSL traffic inspection, MultiSpect data classification, watermarking, central policy management, and event management among other things.
URL Filtering -- Provides dynamic URL filtering (including identity based filtering), tight integration with the Application Control blade, SSL traffic inspection, and UserCheck.
Antivirus -- Provides both virus and malware protection, integration with Check Point ThreatCloud for dynamic updates, and extensive virus/malware reporting.
Anti-Spam -- Provides Spam and email security (content and white/black list), email server protection, outbreak protection and email IPS protection.
Anti-Bot -- Provides discovery and blocking of bots (Based on IP, URLs, DNS, Patterns, and actions), integration with ThreatCloud, and extensive virus/malware reporting.
Software blades can be deployed in a number of ways including à la carte, and pre-defined blade appliances. Certain functionalities of the blades are subscription based and rely on an active subscription to work (the length of the subscription is dependent on the specific SKU purchased).

Check Point's lower-level offering, the 1100 Series, includes following specifications: