Re: small schools - nextgen firewalls

[Bob Williamson <bob_williamson () AW ORG>]

We are a K-12 school of 500 students (100 are dorm students), 600+ users and have been using a PA-500 for 3+ years.  
Was able to get rid of our Cymphonix and Watchguard.  We routinely hit 100Mbps without interruption.  Our users have 
all kinds of devices, multiple Vlans, etc.  We have a case on the Palo alto networks website under education that you 
might find helpful, just search Annie Wright and Palo Alto.

Feel free to contact me directly if you want to discuss further.

Note:  I have only heard bad things about the 2000 series Palo Altos.  Something to do with the specific hardware with 
that model.

Hope that helps,
Bob Williamson
Network Administrator
Annie Wright Schools | 827 N Tacoma Ave, Tacoma, WA 98403 | www.aw.org<http://www.aw.org/>
D: 253.272.2216 | F: 253.572.3616 | Bob_Williamson () aw org<mailto:Bob_Williamson () aw org>

From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Julie 
Newton
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 10:30 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: [SECURITY] small schools - nextgen firewalls

Are there any small schools using SonicWall (NSA 220, NSA250 or NSA 2600 models) or PaloAlto (PA-200, PA-500, PA-2020 
or PA-2050) ?

We currently have 20 MB pipe (we *are* small) but expect 1 GB within <2 years as Google Fiber is installed across 
Austin.  We have 2 discrete networks and want an appliance that works across both with unique filter sets.  I am most 
concerned with malware filtering ability, throughput and a good admin interface.

Currently on older Cymphonix (pre-Untangle), which required an appliance for each network and had a clunky UI and 
filtering did not catch ransomware.

Any suggestions or opinions?

Thanks in advance for your help!

-Julie Newton
Director of Information Technology
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