Five firewall platforms we can source, held to one requirement from our design study of a regional bank, not a client. Its five clauses are in the buyer's voice and name no product.

Each gateway carries its peak alone within half its vendor's published figure, in the data centers and the branches, with 10 GbE fiber at large branches. One management system on the bank's premises holds one policy and the logs for all 26 gateways, with a standby. The nine rule bases move with migration tooling the vendor supports. A second administrator approves every change before it reaches a gateway.

Every source is a public page you can open yourself.¹ Anything inferred is marked.

On the public record: a firewall upgrade on Optus's network skipped engineering review; 605 emergency callers tried and 150 connected. Optus is not our client. Change control matters: this requirement has a second administrator approve every change, urgent ones included.

1. Five platforms, one requirement

Five platforms were assessed, all from vendors whose lines we carry: Check Point Quantum, Palo Alto Networks PA-Series, Fortinet FortiGate, Cisco Secure Firewall and HPE Juniper Networking SRX. Each uses the smallest current model that meets the sizing clauses.²

F5 and Akamai were left out because neither sells a branch firewall line, and HPE Aruba Networking because its branch security sits in SD-WAN. Cloud and colocation were left out because the gateways sit on the bank's own sites.

2. Three meet the requirement. Two stay open.

Three platforms meet the requirement once named conditions are settled at the quote. Check Point, on SmartMove's support terms. Fortinet, with FortiAnalyzer on the order and SFP+ on the 120G. Cisco, on its sizing basis, its migration tool and the approval step on premises.

Palo Alto Networks is open on two clauses. Its migration tool has been unsupported since January 2025, and its commit page describes no approval step. HPE Juniper Networking is open on data-center sizing, management and log capacity, and migration tooling: not confirmed from the public documents we could open. Neither goes on to price.

3. Price does not rank the three

Price is weighed only among the three that met every line. They are not ranked, and no price figure is published. The buyer's quote for the same 26 gateways, management, logs and migration tooling decides between them.

4. We recommend all three that met every line

We recommend the three platforms that met every line: Check Point, Fortinet and Cisco. Your quote, with each named condition settled, decides between them. We supply and integrate all three: ask us for that quote.

Throughput is not what splits this field most. Palo Alto Networks shows no supported migration tool, and HPE Juniper Networking's is not confirmed from the public documents we could open. Palo Alto Networks' commit page shows no approval step.