Symantec VIP vs. WatchGuard AuthPoint

Symantec VIP is well suited for enterprise institutions, like our own, managing a wide range of devices and wanting to provide their users with an extra layer of security. Being able to have 2-factor authentication with a unique pin was key for us and this would be well suited for any organization that holds sensitive information like, in our case, student records. They have great support and getting issues resolved does not take much time, a quick call to support usually straightens issues out.

Incentivized

While I cannot speak of the functionalities that we do not use, the 2nd factor authentication has been great. It's actually secure, I can control it all remotely, users don't mind the extra step, and management feels more at ease knowing that we have full access control. The VPN for remote connections is fast and stable, it stays connected during network oddities and has plenty of bandwidth.

Incentivized

• VIP access manager is great at setting up multiple tokens for the same user.
• VIP access manager is great at managing multiple users simultaneously.
• VIP access manager can be accessed from the web, the browser-based interface makes it easy to connect.

Incentivized

• Works well with the free Authpoint client and the OpenVPN clinet.
• Token management is simple and hosted completely in the cloud to reduce overall complexity
• Setup was simple and and staighforward
• Suppports several authentication methods we have used both RADIUS and SAML effectively, but ADFS, IDP, RDWeb, and RESTful API, and other custom apps are supported.
• Geofencing for RDP has been very useful as it is independant of our firewall geofencing. This is quite useful for organizations like us who do not Geofence at at the firewall level so as to provide global access to resources on the DMZ.

Incentivized

• Reliability on the app. Most users dislike having the authentication app on their cell phone because if they don't have their cellular device on-hand then they're unable to authenticate.
• Perhaps a bio-metric enhancement in the near future would take this application to the next level.

Incentivized

• Integration with on-premise AD is not working, even after speaking with the support team, it could not get resolved. There is no better documentation on this topic as well
• Integration with Azure AD is not supported without the presence of on-prem AD
• Logs information is not precious, it provides a generic code in some cases, making it harder to troubleshoot.
• The Watchguard AuthPoint App in AppStore has some issues, after it's activated there is no approval request being sent to the phone, and there is no way to troubleshoot this, the only way to make it work is by uninstalling the app and reinstalling it again.

Incentivized

We are very happy with Authpoint and see no reason to make any change to it. If only there was a policy to set minimum password strength requirements and to force users change their password every xx days, then it would be a 10!!!

Incentivized

After initial setup, it practically runs itself. Onboarding new users is fast and easy as it should be. The AuthPoint mobile app is small and simple to use. The only reason I do not give it a 10 is that I frequently get complaints from end users that the AuthPoint app is "constantly downloading". In fact, it's not downloading anything and that what the users are seeing in the app is a timer for the 6-digit code that changes every minute.

Incentivized

Has rarely been unable to use; if that were the case, it was operator error

Incentivized

No apparent problem besides a couple of times that systems weren't working

Incentivized

Great vendor support, along with a great product solution

Incentivized

WatchGuard support is always quick and reliable. They have urgency levels that you are able to select when creating your support ticket, and they respond in accordance to the severity that you have set. I have never had an issue with getting someone on the phone in the same business day, even for very low priority issues.

Incentivized

It was an Onsite demo at the ditributor with the benefits of Watchguard Authpoint. Was very nice to see the abilities of the product. This Demo was a few years back, since then Authpoint changed allot. It is very nice for partners that you can get this demo without any aditional cost.

Incentivized

We use the online training for all our employees. There are both sales and technical trainings available and there even is a technical certification. You can use this for the Watchguard Partner Program which can give you aditional benefits. Every now and then you have a webinar that discusses multiple Watchguard products.

Incentivized

the first time it takes more effort. It is helpful to already understand how each authentication type works. Then it's much easier to understand the MFA solution that you implement. It is useful to check the release notes from time to time and update the key parts of the Watchguard Authpoint. Authpoint Gateway, Logon App, RDWeb... Also, it's useful to set up notifications when something goes wrong or sometimes check the statistics of how many requests are being approved/denied, etc.

Incentivized

Duo is good but Symantec VIP really takes the cake. Both Symantec VIP and Duo Security are used as a two factor application but Symantec VIP also allows you to use physical tokens. Some of our users prefer those over their phones and we can easily leverage Symantec VIP for that.

Incentivized

WatchGuard AuthPoint is easier to manage on a company-wide scale than Google Authenticator. We do use AuthPoint in conjunction with the Microsoft Authenticator but for different services. WatchGuard also has other features available, like dark web monitoring and device management, should we decide to move further services over to WatchGuard, with Google Authenticator does not have

Incentivized

We are a medium-sized company. We don't need rapid scaling.

Incentivized

• It was as easy to implement and manage as promised, so that definitely saved us time and frustration.
• It allowed us to improve on our existing PHI and PII security measures.
• Allowing secure access from remote locations, especially smart phones, was a huge plus.

Incentivized

• We currently have 300 users on Authpoint, and most of them use insecure passwords. Authpoint gives us peace of mind that we don't have to police individual employee passwords.
• In line with the comment above, with so many people in our organization using insecure passwords, I'm sure that Authpoint has already saved us from many potential security breaches.
• Security breaches can cost a lot of money. Preventing them saves the company money and helps to achieve our bottom line.

Incentivized