Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services vs. Forcepoint NGFW

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
Forcepoint NGFW
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) promises seamless and central management, whether physical, virtual or in the cloud. Administrators can deploy, monitor and update thousands of firewalls, VPNs and IPSs in minutes, all from a single console. The vendor says that the product reduces network operating expenses by as much as 50%. Advanced clustering for firewalls and networks eliminates downtime, and administrators can rapidly map business processes into strong, accurate controls to…N/A
Pricing
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesForcepoint NGFW
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesForcepoint NGFW
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsCisco ASA 5500-X pricing starts at ~$400 and scales up to $20,000 for higher capacity appliances.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesForcepoint NGFW
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesForcepoint NGFW
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
9.1
30 Ratings
7% above category average
Forcepoint NGFW
8.1
1 Ratings
5% below category average
Identification Technologies9.228 Ratings5.01 Ratings
Visualization Tools9.124 Ratings5.01 Ratings
Content Inspection9.129 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Policy-based Controls9.828 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP9.829 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Firewall Management Console9.230 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Reporting and Logging8.829 Ratings8.01 Ratings
VPN9.830 Ratings9.01 Ratings
High Availability9.828 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Stateful Inspection8.14 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Proxy Server7.23 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesForcepoint NGFW
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
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesForcepoint NGFW
Likelihood to Recommend
9.4
(30 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.7
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.2
(2 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.4
(26 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.6
(29 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesForcepoint NGFW
Likelihood to Recommend
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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Forcepoint
If you are looking for a smaller network/security team, the ease and low complexity create an easy to manage environment. One engineer can easily manage 100 nodes/locations. If you are just starting to get security conscious and predict regular adjustments to policy, routing, and access, this is a very good system for making easy to understand and low impact changes on a regular basis without operations interruption.
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Pros
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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Forcepoint
  • Easy to manage and make changes on - ACL's are done with ease.
  • Easy USB initial configuration - The easy initial setup of a new location and firewall saves massive time. Settings are automatically pushed to new nodes upon contact with the controller.
  • Low Complexity - This system does not have a lot of complexity requiring extra hours, training, or personnel to manage.
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Cons
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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Forcepoint
  • Poor Reporting - It exists but even when calling in to support for assistance, they have no idea how to tackle customizing reports or searching for specific data.
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Likelihood to Renew
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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Forcepoint
No answers on this topic
Usability
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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Forcepoint
The Graphical User Interface is very easy to read, understand and work with. The usability of this product is very high.
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Reliability and Availability
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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Forcepoint
No answers on this topic
Performance
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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Forcepoint
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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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Forcepoint
Support has varied over the history of the company. Terro is a name that comes up often with the best of service from this company.
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Implementation Rating
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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Forcepoint
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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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Forcepoint
There are similar hardware and license costs between the two products. The Forcepoint NGFW product is by far easier to use and manage.
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Return on Investment
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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Forcepoint
  • Efficiency/Productivity increase. The company moved from Cisco firewall and routing hardware to Forcepoint NGFW. It now takes fewer people and fewer hours to manage the new product. This has allowed the company to put the man-hours to use on other projects and tasks.
  • Long term viability. This has been a concern in the past when the company started as Stonegate, merged to become Stonesoft then got purchased by McAfee, then McAfee got purchased by Intel. However, with Forcepoint the product seems to have found a stable home.
  • Low complexity. The Web GUI based system for management has reduced the cost of personnel and training required. There is no longer a need for the company to have higher trained and higher salary cost employees to manage the system. Mid-level admins at lower salaries are capable of managing the GUI based system with ease.
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