PACKETPERF

Primary Device

Palo Alto Networks PA-7500
Palo Alto Networks PA-7500
★ 3.2 Value Score

Technical Specifications

  • Firewall Throughput: 1,500 Gbps (App-ID enabled, Palo Alto spec sheet; resellers agree)
  • Threat Prevention Throughput: 1,440 Gbps (Palo Alto spec sheet; resellers agree)
  • IPsec VPN Throughput: 407 Gbps per Palo Alto spec sheet as reported in search summaries; a reseller lists 850 Gbps. Unverified, because the PDF could not be parsed
  • Max Sessions: 440,000,000 concurrent sessions
  • New Sessions/sec: 7,200,000
  • Interfaces: Modular: nine card slots holding MPC/NPC/DPC front-slot cards plus SFC switch fabric cards. Port counts depend on installed cards; not verified
  • Form Factor: 14RU chassis, 24.4 in H x 31.0 in D x 17.4 in W, up to 460 lb depending on configuration; 10 hot-swap AC or DC power supplies

Curation Review

  • ✔ Pros: Very high App-ID and threat prevention throughput in the 1.4 to 1.5 Tbps class, aimed at large data centers and carriers; Modular, field-replaceable card architecture (DPC, NPC, MPC, SFC) allows capacity to be scaled by adding cards; Redundant hot-swappable power supplies and fans suit high-availability deployments; Very high concurrent session capacity (440M) and 7.2M new sessions per second; Part of the ML-powered Palo Alto Networks NGFW platform with the full PAN-OS feature set
  • ✘ Cons: Very high acquisition cost: a single DPC-A card alone is listed around $272,000 to $302,000 at one reseller, and the full chassis is not publicly priced, so price_max is an estimate rather than a quote; Large footprint at 14RU and up to 460 lb, requiring data-center rack space, cooling, and floor loading planning; Heavy power and cooling requirements; Spec figures conflict across sources (IPsec VPN in particular), so verify against the official Palo Alto Networks datasheet before procurement; Official datasheet and docs pages were not reachable in this research, so some figures come from reseller and third-party copies; Port configuration is fully dependent on the cards ordered, which adds complexity to quoting and ordering; Overkill for most enterprise sites compared with smaller PA-Series models
  • Est. Price: $272,250 - $1,500,000

Compare Against

Ubiquiti Enterprise Fortress Gateway (EFG)
Ubiquiti Enterprise Fortress Gateway (EFG)
★ 4.9 Value Score

Technical Specifications

  • Firewall Throughput: 23.5 Gbps (routing, iPerf3, DHCP WAN)
  • Threat Prevention Throughput: 12.5 Gbps (IDS/IPS)
  • IPsec VPN Throughput: 580 Mbps (site-to-site, single tunnel)
  • Max Sessions: 1,000,000 concurrent
  • New Sessions/sec: 71,000 (listed under general capacity; not specific to VPN or IPsec)
  • Interfaces: 2x 2.5GbE RJ45, 2x 25G SFP28, 2x 10G SFP+ (some listings show 2x RJ45 + 4x SFP28; verify against the Ubiquiti datasheet)
  • Form Factor: 1U rack-mount, dual hot-swappable PSUs
  • SSL/TLS Inspection Concurrent Sessions: 10,000 (5,000 recommended under heavy traffic)
  • CPU / Memory: 18-core ARM v8.2 @ 2 GHz, 16 GB DDR4
  • UniFi Capacity: 500+ UniFi devices, 5,000+ clients

Curation Review

  • ✔ Pros: 25G SFP28 and 10G SFP+ uplinks at a gateway price point; 23.5 Gbps routing throughput; 1 million concurrent sessions; 18-core ARM CPU with 16 GB RAM; hot-swappable redundant PSUs; supports 500+ UniFi devices and 5,000+ clients; manages through UniFi Network controller with a single pane of glass
  • ✘ Cons: IPsec VPN throughput of 580 Mbps is low for a gateway at this price; IDS/IPS throughput of 12.5 Gbps halves routing performance when threat inspection is enabled; SSL/TLS inspection is limited to about 10,000 concurrent sessions; port configuration differs across listings and should be verified; frequently out of stock at major US retailers, with a $170 memory surcharge at some resellers; no built-in Wi-Fi, so it depends on separate UniFi APs and switches; reviewers cite a steeper learning curve than consumer-grade routers
  • Est. Price: $1,999 - $2,892

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