Azure Firewall vs. Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure Firewall
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft's Azure Firewall is a managed cloud-based network security service that protects Azure Virtual Network resources.
$0.02
Per GB Processed
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
Cisco offers a threat-focused next-generation firewall (NGFW), the ASA 5500-X Series. The ASA 5500 Series platforms can run either the Cisco ASA Firewall or Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD). The series features appliances in a variety of form factors, including standalone options for small and midsize businesses, ruggedized appliances for extreme environments, midsize appliances for security at the Internet edge, and high-performance appliances for enterprise data centers.N/A
Pricing
Azure FirewallCisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Editions & Modules
Data Processing
$.016
Per GB Processed
Deployment
$1.25
Per Deployment Hour
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azure FirewallCisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details—Cisco ASA 5500-X pricing starts at ~$400 and scales up to $20,000 for higher capacity appliances.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Azure FirewallCisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Top Pros
Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Features
Azure FirewallCisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Azure Firewall
8.0
1 Ratings
6% below category average
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
9.1
30 Ratings
7% above category average
Identification Technologies8.01 Ratings9.228 Ratings
Visualization Tools7.01 Ratings9.124 Ratings
Content Inspection7.01 Ratings9.129 Ratings
Policy-based Controls9.01 Ratings9.828 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP8.01 Ratings9.829 Ratings
Firewall Management Console9.01 Ratings9.230 Ratings
Reporting and Logging7.01 Ratings8.829 Ratings
VPN8.01 Ratings9.830 Ratings
High Availability9.01 Ratings9.828 Ratings
Stateful Inspection8.01 Ratings8.14 Ratings
Proxy Server00 Ratings7.23 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Azure FirewallCisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Small Businesses
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Azure FirewallCisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.4
(30 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.7
(3 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
7.2
(2 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(26 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.6
(29 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure FirewallCisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
Azure Firewall is well suited for most mid sized and large sized companies that deal with thousands of users within multiple environments. Azure Firewall allows you to protect business assets by preventing malicious attacks from entering the network. Azure Firewall would be less suited for a small company that does not use a vpn or have users outside of the office as something smaller would be more appropriate.
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Cisco
This firewall is best suited for the network edge/perimeter deployment. The next gen features works very well and the remote access VPN is also very much suitable for the organizations which have a huge user base working remotely. The Remote Access VPN is very much customizable and the authentication integration option like LDAP and RADIUS provides and addon.
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Pros
Microsoft
  • Azure Fire wall is easy to use
  • Azure fire wall is easy to set up
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Cisco
  • The Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services model works perfectly for network edge protection scenarios.
  • It allows for the creation and connection of sites through site-to-site VPN configuration.
  • It enables remote connection and home office with remote SSL or IPSEC VPN.
  • It has layer 7 traffic protection and visibility.
  • It has anti-malware protection from start to finish.
  • The configuration is easy to perform.
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Cons
Microsoft
  • Azure Fire wall pricing may not always be competitive
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Cisco
  • URL Filtering feature could be easier to utilize for beginners
  • I'd like to see a visual of VPN networks setup and show the functioning or malfunctioning status to assist in making troubleshooting easier
  • Recommendations on ACLs for beginners based on their account creation date
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
Ever since we installed Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services we have never had to deal with an attack. We can see in the logs almost every day hackers attempting to break into our networks and failing. We also have the ability to blacklist every IP address that attempts to break into our firewalls
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Usability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
Cisco firepower provides automatation for an organisations security operations to detect and stop the most advanced threats fast. It also assists in preventing attacks in using intelligence and innovative solutions.
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Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
We have never had an outage caused by firewall failure. We have had a few outages caused by the internet failing or cloud applications going offline but never a firewall breaking down. When making changes we have a very strong change control, major software updates are always carried out out of working hours. At places where we have two firewalls in HA, we are able to do upgrades in working ours and the users will never know that an upgrade is taking place, that how great these firewalls are
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Performance
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
The Cisco ASA 5500X with Firepower performance needs consideration before deploying. Although the solution is Pay as you grow, adding additional features to the system has a negative impact on overall throughput. I would more like now only to deploy the Cisco FPR units as they have better performance and will last the test of time.
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Support Rating
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
I would recommend the purchase of the Smartnet 24x7 service in the case of a unit and the Smartnet 8x5NBD in the case of only one appliance installed on site. This service is important to always have the latest firmware updates, corrective updates and especially the hardware warranty and maintenance service in case of problems. The service is done by phone or on the official Cisco website and I can say that it is very good and efficient.
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Implementation Rating
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
We implemented a centralized management of all our Cisco ASA 5500-x with FirePOWER Services so that we can have a holistic view of all our sites in London and other European countries. This also helps when making changes, instead of login on to each firewall we can use Firepower Management Center (FMC) to central deploy changes across all devices
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Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
Azure Firewall is a very competitive product that exceeds or meets the competitions offerings and is able to effectively manage a company network and securely lock down the domain environment with seamless integration and easy to use tools while offering great support assistance. We selected Azure Firewall because the customer service that comes with the product is second to none and allows us to keep maximum uptime to protect our assets.
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Cisco
Previous],] I was using the [pfSense] in my organization but when i switched to [Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services] I realized there are lots of issue and missing security features in [pfSense]. The deployment and configuration is very easy as compare to [pfSense]. I highly recommend this product to everyone.
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Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • Azure Firewall decreased our overhead by over 7%
  • Azure fire wall has increased efficiency within the security department
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Cisco
  • Working of remote workforce made easy
  • Security was enhanced on the data traffic shared with the vendors due to the use of VPNs
  • Inbound attacks were mostly blocked on the edge and saved a lot of resources (which could had been used in case of attacks getting successful on the application servers)
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ScreenShots