Learning about Check Point's history and the current state of the technology
To get a sense of the product and the company behind it, it is good to have perspective. When were they founded? How long have they been in business? How consistent is their performance over time? What areas of cybersecurity is the company working in and how well are they rated? To find the answers to these questions, let's look at the past and the present of Check Point Software Technologies.
"In the beginning, there was FireWall-1"
In 1994, FireWall-1, released by Check Point Software Technologies, effectively launched the commercial firewall market and, according to Gartner, Check Point has been named a leader in the Network Firewalls category 21 times since.
The company received the following mention at the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards for 2016: "All of the US Fortune 100, and over 90% of the Fortune 500, rely on Check Point solutions to protect their networks and data." 1
Shortly after launching FireWall-1, Check Point released VPN-1 for remote access and secure connectivity with peers and, over the years, continued to introduce additional components, enhancements, and new products. Since then, the cybersecurity arena has become saturated with many entrants bringing new products to the market. Throughout all of this time, Check Point's expanding product line, and especially their evolving management interface, has been recognized as the gold standard against which all competitors are measured.
Check Point firewalls were originally created to run on multiple operating systems and hardware, hence the name of the company, Check Point Software Technologies.
This is an important distinction when compared with the offerings provided by other vendors that were creating their solutions based on specialized ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits). When cloud computing ushered in a new era in information technology, Check Point was able to immediately offer the same degree of protection to cloud-based environments as was previously available to traditional infrastructures. Since Check Point enterprise firewalls were running on x86/x64 platforms, they did not require porting or emulation to do that.
Check Point today
Check Point's products are now deployed in 88 countries and more than 100,000 businesses. It has offices in 75 countries, over 3,500 security experts, and a world-acclaimed research and intelligence organization2. Its firewall and threat prevention product line has offerings that cover an entire spectrum of clients; from small offices to enterprises, carrier networks, government agencies, and industrial control systems. They are available in the largest number of cloud services, including Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, Google Cloud services, Alibaba Cloud, and IBM Cloud.
Check Point Software Technologies was recognized as a Microsoft Security 20/20 Partner Award Winner for Most Prolific Integration Partner in 2020, and for Most Transformative Integration Partner in 20213.
By protecting networks, hosts, data, workloads on hypervisors, containers, and microservices from advanced threats while using unified management architecture, Check Point remains at the forefront of cybersecurity. It has grown organically and, through judicious acquisitions and integration of complementary products over the years, and is now the largest publicly traded cybersecurity company in Israel, a nation known worldwide for its remarkably strong information security and intelligence capabilities.
With an unparalleled commitment to product evolution and quality, its ever-growing list of partners, dedicated support for automation, and orchestration for organizations adopting DevSecOps practices, it is the best choice for anyone looking to embark on their journey of becoming a member of the cyber defense elite.
Now that we've learned a little about the company's history, let's take a look at Check Point's product line.