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Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software vs. Kemp LoadMaster

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ACisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software is the core OS for the ASA suite. It provides firewall functionality, as well as integration with context-specific Cisco security modules. It is scaled for enterprise-level traffic and connections.N/A

    Kemp LoadMaster

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/ALoadMaster from Kemp Technologies in New York is an application delivery controller.

    $1,720

    per year

    Pricing
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareKemp LoadMaster
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    VLM-500
    1,720
    per year
    VLM-500
    2,000
    perpetual license
    VLM-3000
    3,050
    per year
    VLM-3000
    4,000
    perpetual license
    VLM-MAX
    7,610
    per year
    VLM-MAX
    10,000
    perpetual license
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareKemp LoadMaster
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareKemp LoadMaster
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Kemp Technologies
    Chose Kemp LoadMaster
    KEMP Loadmaster was chosen by the VP for reduced price alone. I was thoroughly against it in the beginning (as I was a hugh F5 supporter) until i got used to it.
    For a much reduced price, it performs just as well as a F5; after you get used to the WebUI configuration tool.
    Incentivized
    Chose Kemp LoadMaster
    We did not evaluate other products, and decided against Microsoft's own resilience solutions. Based on other user reports and Gartner advice we chose Melp LM for our Exchange installation. With hindsight, we should have chosen a less expensive and simpler solution - I would …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    87%
    Would buy again
    40 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    61 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    42 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    60 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    91%
    Happy with the feature set
    42 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    61 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    36 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    52 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    41 Answers
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    58 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareKemp LoadMaster
    Firewall
    Comparison of Firewall features of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Kemp LoadMaster
    Feature
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
    8.9
    50 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Kemp LoadMaster
    -
    Ratings
    Identification Technologies7.932 Ratings00 Ratings
    Visualization Tools7.931 Ratings00 Ratings
    Content Inspection8.433 Ratings00 Ratings
    Policy-based Controls8.446 Ratings00 Ratings
    Active Directory and LDAP8.448 Ratings00 Ratings
    Firewall Management Console9.049 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting and Logging8.949 Ratings00 Ratings
    VPN10.049 Ratings00 Ratings
    High Availability9.649 Ratings00 Ratings
    Stateful Inspection10.046 Ratings00 Ratings
    Proxy Server9.032 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareKemp LoadMaster
    Small Businesses
    SonicWall NSA Series
    Score8.3 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
    Score9.6 out of 10
    F5 BIG-IP
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
    Score8.8 out of 10
    F5 BIG-IP
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareKemp LoadMaster
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (88 ratings)
    9.0
    (64 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.1
    (4 ratings)
    8.6
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (26 ratings)
    Availability
    7.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.7
    (8 ratings)
    8.2
    (28 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    6.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareKemp LoadMaster
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    Cisco ASA's are great for internal network connected access between a firewall and the central management server. And, for complex networks where high security requirements with overly strict compliance are necessary. For networks with limited connectivity to the core or for poor network connectivity these are not the best solution. There are other more stand-alone firewall's that do this better. These firewall's are a little more complex to set up to start with so significant knowledge of these devices is required to set them up and ensure they are best practice installed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Kemp Technologies
    Loadmaster is very powerful and flexible load balancer. Variety of options allows to create a complex network of rules and routes. During our website rollout Loadmaster allowed us to run multiple generations of the website simultaneously and seamlessly by doing the content switching on the fly. Powerful API allows easy integration into any development lifecycle.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • ASA is our VPN concentrator. The client and server are very stable and very easy to use
    • ASA also offers Intrusion Prevention, to an extent. This is also very useful for an improved security posture for a small company
    • ASA allowed us to scale very quickly. We could onboard clients, partners, and consultants and give them a great onboarding experience as well
    • Administrative costs with ASA are low. It's very easy to administer.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Kemp Technologies
    • Where the LoadBalancer excels is the multiple levels at which you can load balance servers. We currently use layer 7 LB, but others are available as well.
    • I particularly like the ability for the LB to know when servers are down, and if all are offline then you can create a redirect to a static HTML page or some other destination that is more informative.
    • The ease in which a service can be created and deployed using already pre-canned templates makes it a very convenient setup process.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • The ASDM software is at times a nightmare to install because of different java versions[.]
    • [The firewall] could do with a power button, just to be able to do a hard reboot when needed[.]
    • It would be nice to manage the firewall via the web on port 443[.]
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Kemp Technologies
    • Ability to 'clone' existing Virtual Services for rapid deployment of similar ones.
    • A better API for ease of automation.
    • Simplification of Certificate management.
    • Better explanations of Kemp implementations of industry standard protocols like VRRP (or CARP)
    • More control over device factory reset configuration and forcibly breaking HA pairs at boot time
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    To be honest there has been now great products out in the market compared to Cisco ASA. I beleieve Cisco has to do a lot of improvement in this area. The other defeiniete factors is the cost when it comes to renewals which is always a premium on Cisco products
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Kemp Technologies
    I'm very pleased with the support I've received as well as the quality of the product.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Kemp Technologies
    Kemp makes it very easy to setup, configure and manage the LoadMaster without needing a lot of help from their engineers. The interface is very easy to understand and intuitive to use. We like how it is not complicated - I can easily have one of my techs login and they can figure out how to setup/configure virtual services for load balancing without needing a manual or tech support.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    I generally have not noticed the outages, however since it's a machine it can malfunction, we need to implement the firewall infrastructure in such a way that it is highly available with device failure, region failure etc. Else any solution will be having the issues if they are not build with resiliency.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Kemp Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    The support is usually very good and gets back to you very quickly. However I had some instances of when two engineers will give me wildly different answers to what I thought was a simple question. Overall however I do rate the support highly and they are generally always very good.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Kemp Technologies
    Support has been easy to deal with; I have only need[ed] to contact them a few times during setup. Once its been in place and operational, we have not need[ed] to mess with the system [which] is a huge advantage. I like system[s] that do not break and require constant attention in a production environment.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    It was quite a good one, how ever requires an expertise to deploy hence the SMB segment would be finding it difficult to implement this product. The one good reason is that there are lot of ASA certified engineers in compared to the other certified engineers. Hence this resembles positively on the deployment as you have quite a lot of experienced engineer on your deployment
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Kemp Technologies
    The installation was straight forward. Once i installed it, their technical support team helped me with configuration
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    We were using [pfSense] before in our environment but we regularly facing difficulties over it due to software bugs & downtime. After implementing Cisco ASA, it resolved our availability issue & provides us a reliable solution with the best security features & easy to understand GUI.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Kemp Technologies
    We chose Kemp LoadMaster because it is 1/10 the price of the competition and MUCH easier to deploy and configure and WORKS. We have had ZERO issues with the product since installation. Their engineers and their sales team have both reached out post-install to check in and see if everything is working as expected.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Most network engineers have worked with ASA, so there is no need for re-training when adding or turning over staff
    • Current configs from older devices plug in easily, and are operational on larger devices if an upgrade is required
    • Many support options available
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Kemp Technologies
    • We used Kemp LoadMaster for many projects. For a lot of customers, load balancers were too expensive or too complicated before we introduced Kemp products.
    • It's not a overly complicated product, so we were able to train many engineers on it and have them get a certification.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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