URL Filtering - PANDB vs. Brightcloud

[rjkhatri]

We have been using Bright Cloud for URL filtering for many years.  What are your opinions regarding PANDB for URL filtering?

Look forward to hearing any pros and cons.

Thanks

[HULK]

Hello Rjkhatri,

I would prefer to go with PAN-DB for below mentioned reasons:

A. URL filtering is a key component of content-ID, and having full ownership of that technology allows Palo Alto Networks to fully integrate it with PAN-OS and control the quality of the product. It also allows one single point of contact for customers, should any issues arise. Additionally, the nature of web traffic patterns is unique to each individual customer, based on their user-base and business needs, which dictates a new approach to URL filtering that is more dynamic and adaptable to the user traffic. PAN-DB is initialized with a regional seed database and then automatically customizes itself based on actual web traffic observed. Other solutions utilize a single database that contains the most commonly used URLs worldwide, which may not be effective in certain cases.

B. Better performance - faster URL category returns and higher capacity caches due to a  more efficient database structure, thereby reducing the number of overall dynamic lookups over time

For Example On a PA-5060:

BrightCloud can cache max 100K/1M entries for DP/MP

PAN-DB can cache max 200K/4.2M entries for DP/MP

C. Automatic customization – PAN-DB automatically customizes itself based on the actual web traffic observed in each individual customer’s user-base.

D. Instant updates – devices remain in-sync with the cloud and can receive critical database  updates almost immediately, eliminating the need to wait for daily full database updates  and/or cache timeouts.

I hope this helps.

Thanks

[SimmSimm]

Ive been finding the service from Brightcloud to be increasingly poor, with odd mistakes & poor response to update requests so Ive been thinking about making the switch myself.

Ive been keeping a list of URLs which have been an issue for us over the last couple of weeks & it looks like pandb is producing better results for my test cases than brightcloud - so I think Im going to switch over as part of next months changes. Most of my users are European BTW.

Nick.

[BobW]

At last year's Ignite I asked about their URL DB and was told it did not do as well as brightcloud with regard to international sites.  As we are a boarding school with numerous international boarding students that is pretty important.

Any thoughts on international URL filtering with PANDB?

Bob

[dyang]

I'll let others chime in on their experiences, but as an FYI, you can always find the current list of PAN-DB supported languages here:

PAN-DB Supported Languages

We're continually working on support for additional languages, so if you are interested in support for a language that is not listed here, please let your account team know (or post here) so that we get the feedback.

Thanks,

Doris

[jnicholson]

After several years with Brightcloud, we moved to Pan-DB in Jan 2014.  We ran into a small amount of sites that was classified differently, and a handful of categories that were named different, but overall it was a non-event, and was only a small hiccup in the entire project of replacing the old aged devices.  If you have a decent grasp on managing PA firewalls, then you should be fine.

[BobW]

Just moved over to PAN-DB yesterday, pretty boring migration as it was way to easy.  BTW that is a good "boring".

Bob