Avast SWG vs Cisco Umbrella

I have been using [Avast Secure Web Gateway (SWG)] for a very long
time in my organization, it is very easy to use with having the interface
created on a very advanced module. Designed with much-modernized UI and dashboard
is very pleasing to use and to have the best experience on it.

Cisco Umbrella is perfect in an environment where you allow internet browsing without any restrictions on the types of websites. It allows you to categorize certain websites and block them at the DNS level. If you already have a web proxy installed and are blocking certain categories of websites on that proxy, then Cisco Umbrella is probably not the right tool for you.

• I have been using this platform in my organization for securing the network for a very long time and I am satisfied with their services and features.
• It helps me in blocking web threats before coming on the network automatically which saves my network from potential attack.
• Completely functional UI with having all the features to have a fast and secure working environment.

• Cisco Umbrella protects our devices and users from malicious sites of all kinds.
• Cisco Umbrella allows us to add additional web site types we may want to block for specific users.
• Cisco Umbrella keeps the list of sites blocked current by utilizing data from their entire security platform.

• The major drawback of using Avast secure web gateway that it sometimes slows down the system in blocking web threats.
• Secondly, it is hard to set up the first time as it takes a lot of effort and time to completely integrate with the system to make it fully functional.
• Starting scanning the web application and organizing network in the background which talks a lot of memory and slows down the other processes.

• Umbrella Virtual Appliances have been buggy in resolving local domain hosts.
• Integration between other Cisco and Meraki products is complicated.
• Reporting is not always accurate; for example, if you configure a Meraki access point to use an Umbrella Virtual Appliance, you lose device reporting. All reporting shows up under the AP's IP.

We have had an excellent experience with Cisco products generally and Umbrella specifically. From implementation to continuity we have nothing to take issue or complain about with this product. Would highly recommend this product as we 100% intend to renew from our end.

The product was easy to install and get running. To maintain the product is also a simple matter of maintaining lists of wanted and unwanted domains or URLs. The basic and advanced security features all do what they are intended to do with no known erroneous outcomes

I have to give a 10 here. I think I've had maybe one or two times in 13 years I had issues. Only one time it was an issue inside OpenDNS/Umbrella. Sometimes you have to tune a content category or add an exception but I would ALWAYS rather have to do that then mop up a mess

Our network team mostly works with Cisco support but from what I understand, they were pretty helpful because we're an enterprise company. We use a few other Cisco products, so we do get a pretty good response from Cisco customer support. I'm not a fan of Cisco's SSO because we can't put it behind Okta but that's beyond the scope of this.

The implementation of the Cisco Umbrella client on organizational units was pretty straight forward. The implementation behind the scenes was a bit more trickier but manageable. This was due to needing open the correct channels to allow for the correct communication to the Cisco Umbrella servers. Once everything was up and running, setting up the policies and requiring them was simple.

We used a product before this called iPrism by EdgeWave and also briefly tried Barracuda Web Security in the cloud. We were having such a large influx of service desk calls about proxy-based layer 7 web filters that we wanted to step back and pick something more at the DNS level, to protect our employees but not hover over their social media use, etc. Cisco will also employ a layer 7 proxy if a site is suspicious, which does require us to push a certificate out should we want that feature. For most policies we have it enabled.

• I am facing a lot on my organization's websites that it shows a lot of ads on the screen which sometimes got a freeze on the page and takes the whole screen to play which is a lot of time-consuming and slows down the work.
• Avast Secure Web Gateway [(SWG)] is one of the best protection solutions available in the market to secure network traffic.

• On the positive side, the product does help block known bad sites, resulting in less time that technicians spend cleaning infections.
• On the negative side, the problem that causes Windows to incorrectly report no Internet access has taken a lot of time for many technicians.
• Reporting features for individual clients help us more efficiently provide browsing reports when needed.